Not entirely sure whats going on here

thingemajib · 19 Apr 2011 at 15:04

so i was playing FSX last night, and the program froze just before landing like it sometimes does. However the whole computer appeared to freeze. I reach for the case door, and the computer recovers/FSX crashes. i slam the door back in frustration and the whole pc spazzes and shuts down and refuses to boot back up.

After several attempts this morning i strip it all out of the case and connect the bare minimum to the motherboard on the desk (20+4 pin, 8pin, 1 stick of ram, monitor to IGP and ps2 keyboard). After several unsuccesful attempts i realise i had the bios reset jumper on the wrong way round, lo and behold, it boots!

So, i reassemble the bare minimum back in the case, it still boots. I connect all the fiddley wires back (switches, fans, headers etc). It still boots. I refit the other stick of RAm hard drives and graphics card, and its dead again. i reset the bios, still dead. I unplug the hard drives, RAM and graphics card, Still dead. I strip back to the bare minimum. Still dead. Cant really be arsed to take it all out of the case again. Any suggestions?

phenom 555
foxconn a7da-s 3.0
2x2gb ocz platinum
sapphire 5770
seagate 7200.12 500gb

Plec · 19 Apr 2011 at 15:15

Test the PSU - or borrow a known working one.

There's a chance the extra draw of power was the reason it wouldn't boot with the gfx, memory etc connected.

Of course it could equally be the MB, gfx, memory... - but the PSU is where i would start if you have one to hand or a voltmeter.

spleenharvester · 19 Apr 2011 at 15:17

Try reseating the CPU after it does it or using it sideways. I had that problem.

thingemajib · 19 Apr 2011 at 15:27

Got it to boot again, seems that the markings on the board in regards to the bios reset switch are the wrong way round. however plugging the graphics card in killed it again (yes i did swpa the monitor lead)

i should add that when i say dead, i mean i get no response on the monitor. I still get hard drives whirring up and clicking away, and the fans all spin up and then settle down. However, im starting to think its the graphics card. But why would a knock to the case kill a graphics card?

Plec · 19 Apr 2011 at 15:40

If it is the gfx card (or other) it will probably be coincidence - it may have been due to die and your little knock just speeded things up (unless by knock you mean a hefty bang and the card was loose?).

It may be the slot and not the card - was it properly secured when it was knocked?

EDIT: are you running with one stick and no hdd's etc?

spleenharvester · 19 Apr 2011 at 15:44

That's a point actually, though when my X4 630 had seating problems, taking out all PCI and/sometimes or PCI-E cards made it boot. That's why it took like 3 weeks to track down the cause of the problem.

I doubt it's the card though it is possible.

Try clean the slot if you haven't already. Before now my comp got knocked over (that was aaages ago though, not on this build) quite violently and the graphics/RAM came unseated, all worked when back in though so you never know.

Philtor · 19 Apr 2011 at 15:49

thingemajib said:
so i was playing FSX last night, and the program froze just before landing like it sometimes does. However the whole computer appeared to freeze. I reach for the case door, and the computer recovers/FSX crashes.

Are you running Windows 7 64 Bit by any chance?

spleenharvester · 19 Apr 2011 at 17:55

philtorrens said:
Are you running Windows 7 64 Bit by any chance?

That won't matter, if his comp isn't even POSTing anymore it'll be hardwareside.

Predicament · 19 Apr 2011 at 18:00

Control your temper maybe.

spleenharvester · 19 Apr 2011 at 18:07

Predicament said:
Control your temper maybe.

That would help

But it was only his case door, unless he absolutely whammed it it couldn't do this could it?

thingemajib · 19 Apr 2011 at 18:26

ah, another stupid mistake - the monitor had switched to the analogue without me noticing (it does that when i leave the VGA cable plugged in)

It appears to be working again (touchwood). Its always been a bit of a funny board, ie if i unplug it from the wall it wont boot untill i reset the bios. I shall treat it with some respect from now on...

on a side note, yes it is 7 64bit

Philtor · 19 Apr 2011 at 18:57

spleenharvester said:
That won't matter, if his comp isn't even POSTing anymore it'll be hardwareside.

Of course but I was asking the question with regards to FSX crashing prior to the machine now failing to post (which is a different issue). There's a known problem with FSX on Win 7 64 Bit which there's a fix for but it's not widely documented. Once he get's his machine going again it may be useful to address the crashing issue with FSX which can be a real pain.

Philtor · 19 Apr 2011 at 19:04

thingemajib said:
yes it is 7 64bit

If your finding FSX is crashing (and you have SP1 and SP2 installed for it) then you might want to have a read at the post from gkair2 on this thread.

spleenharvester · 19 Apr 2011 at 19:53

philtorrens said:
Of course but I was asking the question with regards to FSX crashing prior to the machine now failing to post (which is a different issue). There's a known problem with FSX on Win 7 64 Bit which there's a fix for but it's not widely documented. Once he get's his machine going again it may be useful to address the crashing issue with FSX which can be a real pain.

Ah, fair enough.