PC won't boot

Sui

Sui

Sui

Soldato
Joined
24 Sep 2005
Posts
4,532
Location
Brighton
Hi guys, I'm here once again for the knowledge of the OCuk crew, I normally look here for advice without posting and has been proved helpful.

The Spec:
Gigabyte GA_P35C_DS3R (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 & DDR3 Motherboard
Crucial Ballistix 4GB (4x1GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C4 800MHz Dual Channel Kit (2 lots of 2gb packs)
Antec P182 Super Midi Tower Case - No PSU (Gun Metal Black)
Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.66GHz (1333FSB) with Noctua NH-U12F heatsink
XFX ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 Dual DVI (PCI-Express)
Hiper HPU-4M580 580W ATX2.2 PSU (As far as I know it's still this one!)

During October/November my Computer would never boot everytime, used to take 2/3 power on/offs to get it running. It progressivly got worse so I opted to just not turn it off as it was less hassle. However when I had had to restart it, it did the 2/3 scenario up until Christmas.

However, yesterday I went back to my computer (at my uni flat) and it wouldn't start up, I resat it all, no change. I then unplugged the hard drives and tried to boot it and it went to bios. Replugged everything in and it worked no questions asked. I transported it home today and now it just does what it always used to when not turning on, even after trying all the bits i've done before to get it to work. This was apart from one time where I did the Hdd thing once more however it would not boot up again after.

Two of the fans (Antec TriCool) appear to be broken or very stiff, whilst still plugged in and don't spin. The other fans (Back,Heatsink,Gfx Card) all work fine and appear to be getting power to all the components. The computer produces a very faint beep when it boots up properly which I know happened when it worked the once. Now I hear no beeps, can't see boot screens etc.

Late last night after I wrote this post it appears this may be a Hard drive issue? I have unplugged my IDE Hard drive and I can now get the boot screen and into Bios if required. However if I let it go past this I get the Windows Boot Manager screen which states;

"Windows has failed to start. A recent hardware of software change might be the cause. To fix the problem:

blabla

Status: 0xc000000e
Info: The boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible."

Will me not being able to even see the boot screens be caused by a faulty hard drive and/or a faulty IDE socket? However, as of this morning this no longer happens and get the blackscreen scenario.

I have a feeling it'll be my mobo that has died or is definately on it's way out, would this be correct? If so would you be able to link to a suitable replacment as I don't intend on upgrading the whole computer at this current stage. Also, is it worth contacting Antec about these broken fans?

I have a cheap 500w PSU laying around, will that work just for testing to see if it's the PSU at fault or will it not power up correctly and not help?

If any of this isn't clear let me know.
 
I does sound like there isn't enough power getting to your components.. This could be the PSU or the VRMs on the motherboard. You'll need to eliminate the PSU by following my guide in the link that wannabedamned posted.

If the PSU looks ok, then disconnected everything HDDS, DVDS, fans expansion cards etc.. then add each item back one by one and test in between. If it fails on one particular component, then take it all back out, and add that item back in first. If it fails again, then that item could be your problem, otherwise it's looking more like the motherboard.
 
Thanks for the replies guys, I've replaced all the cables with spares this afternoon and it actually booted up, it's off again for now as 2 of the Antec tri-speed fans appear to have stopped working, not due to the recabling. Is it likely Antec will replace the fans or will I need to find a supplier? They feel very stiff.
 
I have a spare PSU downstairs, I'll plug that in first and see if I have any luck with that. If not i'll prob just buy a new mobo.
 
It does sound too me that the Psu is most likely the issue I had a problem that was pretty much the same the computer would really struggle too start but would run fine for days once it did so. Turned out too be the PSU sadly I found this out after buying a new mobo and cpu.
 
I had the same problem as you OP, sometimes would boot but 9/10 it would not. I ended up sending my PSU back to Corsair as I thought it was the problem and right enough they said it had faulty capacitors and they sent me a replacement.
 
Can't actually use the spare PSU as the 4pin ATX cable won't reach, no where local I can get an extension :(

As I have some money coming in shortly I think I may just upgrade my CPU which will require a replacment mobo. Then I'll get a new PSU that I can keep until it breaks. Any suggestions, probably have 2-300 to spend, I assume there are DDR2/3 compatible mobos out there!

EDIT: It appears from prices I may not be able to upgrade all 3 of these which will provide a huge performance boost over my E6750? Or will there? So I may just change it to a 775 socket mobo (needs at least 2 PCI slots),psu and a new hdd.
 
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