System won't POST...

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Soldato
Joined
31 Dec 2006
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OK, this is puzzling me somewhat. I'm trying to sort out my dad's PC, having built him one from my spare bits. It's nothing ancient (mbd, cpu and ram just over a year old), and as of a couple of weeks ago was all working fine for me, but now won't start up properly. It sounds like it might be though, hard drive doing stuff (but I guess you can't really tell), but the monitor shows no signal.

I've tried reseating the RAM, with no luck, unplugging everything basically, and putting it back again. The only thing I haven't been able to do is remove the CPU and Fan as I don't have any thermal paste with me. But it was all working fine on my system a couple of weeks ago.

The only other thing I can think is the hard drive, which I reused from his system, and still has his old OS on it. Could that be causing any issues? GFX card is brand new actually, just a cheap Radeon 5450, but can't see that this would be causing any problems. Actually tried his old one, and same problem, in both PCI-E slots. I'm stumped on this! :confused:
 
when you say wont post, do you mean wont post bios or wont boot windows? if it wont post bios try a cmos reset, if its windows then you will have to do a clean install
 
Ginger-Menace said:
when you say wont post, do you mean wont post bios or wont boot windows? if it wont post bios try a cmos reset, if its windows then you will have to do a clean install
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It starts, but nothing on monitor basically. No audio (that i can hear) and doesn't beep, but then I don't think it ever did as I recall. How do I CMOS reset?
 
cmos reset, power down, un plug and take out batery, wait for few mins and then put battery back in, you motherboard might need you to move a jumper to reset it aswell
 
Are you getting power to the system (can you hear fans running etc)?

First thing to check are your connections to monitor etc. Sounds basic but I've seen umpteen machine failure that simple have not got the connection to the monitor correctly.

If all cabling is correct start system up with hard drives disconnected and only one stick of RAM. If you get visuals and proper POST start adding RAM sticks one by one. If whilst doing this you stop getting visuals chances are you have a faulty stick of RAM. If all Is OK with all RAM and system still posts it might be a faulty HD.

If you are getting power it might still be a faulty PSU as well.

Oh and check the USB ports are OK, it will not be the first time I have seen a faulty USB port causing a short (usually the front ones are broken).
 
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Swordfish said:
Are you getting power to the system (can you hear fans running etc)?

First thing to check are your connections to monitor etc. Sounds basic but I've seen umpteen machine failure that simple have not got the connection to the monitor correctly.

If all cabling is correct start system up with hard drives disconnected and only one stick of RAM. If you get visuals and proper POST start adding RAM sticks one by one. If whilst doing this you stop getting visuals chances are you have a faulty stick of RAM. If all Is OK with all RAM and system still posts it might be a faulty HD.

If you are getting power it might still be a faulty PSU as well.

Oh and check the USB ports are OK, it will not be the first time I have seen a faulty USB port causing a short (usually the front ones are broken).
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Yes, fans running. All connections are good, triple checked. I've tried start up with no hard drives, one stick of RAM, and both, but nothing. No visuals. Not sure if it's relevant, but the Phase LED lights next to the RAM are all lit up when it starts, numbered 1-4, green to red. They go out after about 5-10 seconds. It's a Gigabyte P55 mbd.
 
CMOS reset didn't seem to do anything. It seemed to boot up twice (not sure if that's normal), but still no visuals. If it IS the PSU, it's puzzling, as it was all working fine a couple of weeks ago.

If i didn't know any better, it does SOUND like it's booting up. Power switch responds when I press it, i.e it turns itself off after about 20 seconds, as though it's in windows. Just don't understand why no visuals?!
 
I've tried another graphics card as well, his old one, and that doesn't do the trick either. I'm now swapping out power supplies... and I know the other one works as I just tested it on his previous system. If THIS doesn't work I will throw it all in the river!
 
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It STILL doesn't work!! So, NOT the PSU, NOT the GFX card, tried one/two sticks RAM, with/without HD, formatted HD on another system so can't see that's it, all cables triple checked and secure, reset CMOS (twice)... am i missing something??!! This is SOOOO annoying!
 
Ginger-Menace said:
i know this is simple but you did use motherboard stand offs didnt you?
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Yes, and the annoying thing is that the mbd, cpu/fan, and ram are in the same case as I was using it in (without problem). I didn't remove any of that. All I did was put in new HD, DVD drive and GFX card and plug a different monitor in!!

Of course I've now taken out everything and put it back, short of the CPU/FAN which I can't as I have no thermal paste. Not sure what doing this would do though given everything else i've tried!
 
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I don't have another monitor, not here anyway. The monitor does work though as I tried it on his old system a short while ago to double check, and it worked no problem, so I can't see how this is the problem.
 
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