PC died - Trying to figure out which part is broken - Advice needed please

SkScotchegg · 25 Jun 2011 at 15:08

paradisiac said:
its a shame you have nothing to test with, but atleast you are slowly eliminating things. i would say 99% your ram and gfx card are good.
do you know the make/model of your psu?

It just says "Corsair TX 650W" on side. Thats all I can tell ya.

paradisiac · 25 Jun 2011 at 15:11

the should be more than enough for your setup then.
other than getting hold of some test parts its going to be hard to narrow it down any further.

SkScotchegg · 25 Jun 2011 at 15:18

paradisiac said:
the should be more than enough for your setup then.
other than getting hold of some test parts its going to be hard to narrow it down any further.

Yeah well its still doing the same thing after removing cmos battery so guess this probably is as far as I can go without more spares.

Am thinking of maybe buying a PSU but if that doesnt work then I might just buy a whole new PC.

Am gona think about it, ill post back when I decide.

paradisiac · 25 Jun 2011 at 15:19

the only thing, if you have time, is to remove it from the case. there is a possability a screw or something has got behind the mobo causing a short. its a long shot but it has happened in the past.

SkScotchegg · 25 Jun 2011 at 15:34

paradisiac said:
the only thing, if you have time, is to remove it from the case. there is a possability a screw or something has got behind the mobo causing a short. its a long shot but it has happened in the past.

I just checked, defo nothing behind mobo, am thinking of going to get a PSU now, do you reckon if I take the HDD back I bought today they'll give me money back if I explain it wasnt the HDD it was the PSU?

paradisiac · 25 Jun 2011 at 15:35

SkScotchegg said:
I just checked, defo nothing behind mobo, am thinking of going to get a PSU now, do you reckon if I take the HDD back I bought today they'll give me money back if I explain it wasnt the HDD it was the PSU?

most places, once the seal is broken wont take it back unless faulty. but if they are a nice company they might offer you credit against a psu.

SkScotchegg · 25 Jun 2011 at 15:46

Ya know with the current situation, when we tried without gfx and without ram and it didnt beep, do you think its possible it might not be beeping because theres no power.

Like how can I tell if its on at all? the mobo light is green so that means its getting power doesnt it? that little lightbulb...

Because if the mobo does have power and its not beeping, does that mean its the mobo?

paradisiac · 25 Jun 2011 at 15:49

it could be any number of things. you say the fans spin, so the motherboard is asking for power. but something is then stopping it from posting. this could be lack of power, something shorting or something has failed. without spairs its hard to trace. people said i was stupid buying the G620 cpu until i could afford the 2500k, but i like to have spairs here for such instances.

SkScotchegg · 25 Jun 2011 at 16:56

paradisiac said:
it could be any number of things. you say the fans spin, so the motherboard is asking for power. but something is then stopping it from posting. this could be lack of power, something shorting or something has failed. without spairs its hard to trace. people said i was stupid buying the G620 cpu until i could afford the 2500k, but i like to have spairs here for such instances.

Alright mate, am back, been shop, bought new mobo and PSU lol, just thought whatever, ill buy both, so gona try PSU first, if doesnt work ill try mobo, they took HDD back and gave me money for that so only spent £60, £30 for PSU and £30 for mobo,

I'll post back in a min when done PSU.

paradisiac · 25 Jun 2011 at 17:00

SkScotchegg said:
Alright mate, am back, been shop, bought new mobo and PSU lol, just thought whatever, ill buy both, so gona try PSU first, if doesnt work ill try mobo, they took HDD back and gave me money for that so only spent £60, £30 for PSU and £30 for mobo,

I'll post back in a min when done PSU.

nice one. a lot of shops are pretty good if you dont want money and wanna just exchange for something else.
£30 for a psu with a PCI-e connector?

PrChaos · 25 Jun 2011 at 17:10

I think many people have already beaten me to it but this sounds like a PSU issue at first glance.

Randomface74 · 25 Jun 2011 at 17:12

Sounds like a dodgy monitor cable?

SkScotchegg · 25 Jun 2011 at 17:30

paradisiac said:
nice one. a lot of shops are pretty good if you dont want money and wanna just exchange for something else.
£30 for a psu with a PCI-e connector?

Yeah its this one:

650W CiT Titan Edition PSU

x 1 24 Pin + P4
x 1 PCI-e 6+2 Pin
x 4 SATA
x 4 Molex
x 1 Floppy
1 Year Warranty
£26.92

Guess what, I've installed the new PSU, turned it on, same thing!!! AHHHHH!!! LOL

Cant believe it, now I got to strip the entire PC and try out this new mobo!

Sweet jesus!! :mad:

Tealc · 25 Jun 2011 at 18:13

At least that CIT PSU has helped you determine that there's nothing wrong with your Corsair. CIT isn't something I'd use daily but as a spare/backup it's fine, I'd imagine.

So I'm thinking the new mobo will fix it as CPUs don't tend to fail that much, especially when at stock speeds.

SkScotchegg · 25 Jun 2011 at 20:32

Tealc said:
At least that CIT PSU has helped you determine that there's nothing wrong with your Corsair. CIT isn't something I'd use daily but as a spare/backup it's fine, I'd imagine.

So I'm thinking the new mobo will fix it as CPUs don't tend to fail that much, especially when at stock speeds.

Well I've been at it about 3 hours, I stripped the PC bare, installed the new mobo, had to clean the thermal paste off cpu and heat sink, and then install all the hardware again, turned it on with new PSU and new mobo, everything lit up first attempt, all lights and fans are on but still isnt booting up and am still in exactly the same situation as before.

So tried new HDD, new mobo, new PSU...that only leaves CPU and GFX, Since GFX is only around 9 months old am thinking maybe its the CPU.

I've got some history with this CPU, I cant remember exact time frame so bare with me, but I think it went something like this, bought it around 3 years ago, around 18 months ago it started overheating with stock fan/heatsink so went and bought a new heatsink/fan as temps were around 90° and PC was crashing and eventually it wouldn't turn on, after buying new heatsink/fan and applying artic thermal paste, temps went back down to 50° and then it was fine for around 1 year and then around 6 months ago it started overheating again so took heatsink off and re-applied thermal paste and then it was fine once again for past 6 months.

So I guess its overheated twice before, and maybe that damaged it, and so maybe it lasted 18 months and then finally died, what do you think?

CPU or GFX?

Graphics card is really young, its only around 9 months old, if that, and never had any problems with it and games were running perfect to the very end with 60fps and no lagg and temps were around 45° for gfx.

Cheers.

paradisiac · 25 Jun 2011 at 20:34

you eliminated gfx with the old mobos onboard did you not?
have you tried old psu with new mobo?

SkScotchegg · 25 Jun 2011 at 20:43

paradisiac said:
you eliminated gfx with the old mobos onboard did you not?
have you tried old psu with new mobo?

Oh thanks for replying so fast paradisiac, yeah man, forgot about that, lol, am pretty tired, been trying to sort this out for 2 days and been ill for past 4 days, been up since 5:30.

Yeah just realised, this new mobo also has onboard video, I tried onboard video with both old mobo and new mobo so yeah, we've ruled out everything havent we.

We've ruled out HDD, mobo, PSU, RAM, sound card, gfx everything.

So I guess with the past history of the CPU with it overheating twice before and with the fact that we've ruled out everything else, the only thing left to do is to take the PSU and mobo and then exchange them both for a CPU.

I cant believe what bad luck I've had with all this, sweet jesus.

EDIT: Oh and no I havent tried old PSU with new mobo, cant see that making a difference tho, can you?

paradisiac · 25 Jun 2011 at 20:46

paradisiac said:
you eliminated gfx with the old mobos onboard did you not?
have you tried old psu with new mobo?

there is a possability the new psu isnt up to it, but if you have tried it with the OBV on the new mobo then its probs not that, so looking like its either :
something on your case is wrong and causing a short or the cpu is duff.
as you cant do anything until tomorrow/monday i would build it as a skeleton rig and see if you can get it going with different combinations of parts.
i would imagine the cpu should cause a beep error though, but this isnt always the case.

weird_dave · 25 Jun 2011 at 20:56

What's the new mobo, and does it have on board gfx?
I'd also try with 1 stick of ram (twice) as I've seen some not beep without memory in.

I'm a little concerned as to what's causing the significant increase in temperature over time, usually all you need to do is some dust removal and perhaps replace the fan. Replacing the heatsink isn't normally required, but it sounds like the 'new' one is having the same issue?

When you moved the CPU to the new mobo, did you happen to take a look at the underside, any discolouration at all?

SkScotchegg · 25 Jun 2011 at 20:57

paradisiac said:
there is a possability the new psu isnt up to it, but if you have tried it with the OBV on the new mobo then its probs not that, so looking like its either :
something on your case is wrong and causing a short or the cpu is duff.
as you cant do anything until tomorrow/monday i would build it as a skeleton rig and see if you can get it going with different combinations of parts.
i would imagine the cpu should cause a beep error though, but this isnt always the case.

Yeah I went to a shop for all the parts, in bradford, I live in leeds, and its shut tomorrow, so now I got to wait till monday pfff!

I checked the case for lose screws etc and took the panels off both sides and even tiled the case at different angels to see if I could hear any screws moving but my case doesnt use screws appart from the mobo ones and I always make sure they're fixed right.

I just dont understand why the PC turns on, why it seems like theres power, why it stays on, but just doesnt display, and it still doesnt make any beeps even with new mobo, no beeps at start up and no beeps for errors afterwards.

I can hear everything, all the fans are moving on the graphics card, cpu, case, hard drives, everything and all lights are on.

Everything is just exactly the same now after all the hard work I've put in today going to bradford twice to get the parts from *** and then spending over 3 hours building the rig again at home.

I thought I'd seen it all over years with PC's when it comes to problems and things dying. I've had graphics cards die before, I've had hard drives die before. and Once a PSU blew when I had two PC's plugged into one power socket and it overloaded, that was like 10 years ago tho.

But this time its like despite all my past knowledge and understanding of these matters I've still been puzzled to work out which component it is all the way through.

First I thought it was the hard drive, then the PSU, then the mobo, and now am thinking its the CPU.

I guess am just gona have to try manage somehow over next two days, well I'm pretty tired now so gona go bed in an hour so today doesnt matter, so guess that just leaves tomorrow, I got gym and stuff but tomorrow night I'll by dying without my PC.

Hopefully as well they take the mobo and PSU back and let me exchange for a CPU, they didnt have any problem with me doing it for hard drive, they didnt even ask for explanation as to why I was returning it so.