My PC won't boot now. Any suggestions on how to troubleshoot CPU or MB?

Noughtboy · 13 Aug 2014 at 19:29

Hi all,

Desperate here. Recently moved house and upon trying to switch on my trading box things went downhill.

Intel i5 Sandybridge 2500k, 8GB of Corsair Vengeance RAM, 500w PSU all on an MSI Z68A-G43A.

I switch on and the fans spin up for about 3-5 seconds, the HDD spins and then the box switches off for about 5 seconds and then tries to process again. No POST, no beeps. Nada.

My PSU tester shows a fault in the 3.3v line. I used my Be Quiet 530w PSU same result. I tried to plug the 500w supply into 24pin rail, DVD, HDD and a cheapie 430w PSU into the CPU 4pin plug but same thing. Both of these PSU test fine.

I can only assume that it is either the MB and/or CPU that has blown in transit. Someone suggested checking the seating of the CPU cooler (retail stock OEM) as this may have got loose and cause the CPU to overheat and switch off.

The cooler feels secure when I try to move it so not sure where to go to from here.

Thanks in advance.

NB.

wazza300 · 13 Aug 2014 at 19:31

just take out the motherboard battery,leave it out 30 minutes and put back in,also re seat each ram stick then powerup the pc

Noughtboy · 13 Aug 2014 at 19:40

Sorry, forgot to say I swopped out the RAM for 2 sticks of GSkill 4GB with no change. Then put back in the old RAM and reseated. Also removed the GPU (Radeon 5850)and am only using the Intel IGP for now.

Will try the battery out thing but if there are any other pearls in the meantime...

Noughtboy · 13 Aug 2014 at 21:28

Battery thing did not work.

wazza300 · 13 Aug 2014 at 22:28

you can try reseating the cpu and cooler,mayeb knocking it in transit has upset something

Noughtboy · 14 Aug 2014 at 12:24

Hi all,

Thanks for the feedback. I took out the RAM again, loosened the screws on the MB, jiggled the CPU and cooler around, tightened the screws on the MB, put in one stick of Ram and it booted. Yah. Then tried the second stick of RAM and it booted, then started adding back all GPU, the soundcard etc and it is now working fine.

Will have to now add the second and third screens to the GPU and set it up again but thank goodness it has now been brought back to life.

Thanks for the ideas.

Regards

NB