Trouble starting my PC

The Boxer · 1 Aug 2008 at 11:57

Hi Guys, after many years of happy running my PC seems to be at deaths door, My system is- P4 2.8 (@3.4), Abit IC7 board, 2 gig Crucial Bal Tracer, OCZ game xtreme 600watt psu, Raptor and Seagate Barra HDDs, Radeon X1950 pro, + a couple of cd/dvds, Win XP sp2 etc.
Last installed product was the GFX card about 4 months ago, system now back at stock speeds, windows is upto date.

Problem- Press the power button all case fans lights come on then nothing, I than have to turn off and try again, while the comp is in this condition the reset will not work I have to power down and try again, after god knows how many restarts the red Hdd lamp will light and the system will start and run all day as if nothing is wrong.

I know within 3 seconds of hitting the start button wether the PC will go or not purely by watching the Hdd indicator lamp, the board as standby power because the board leds are showing and the leds on the ram are also alight, it seems as if the Mobo is not giving the start signal to the componants (perhaps).

I have removed all parts and rebuilt/reseated etc and the fault remains exactly the same, I have not bothered with a reformat because the problem seems to be well pre post.

Any idea's please, I'm due an upgrade so that may have to be the ultimate answer, if I don't reply don't be offended it could be that my pc as gone completely as things seem to getting worse.

Thx the Boxer..

GhostlyPea · 1 Aug 2008 at 12:15

I would suggest trying a secondary PSU if you have one available firstly.

- Pea0n

The Boxer · 1 Aug 2008 at 14:54

Hi P, alas no spare psu hanging around, I must admit to having a hunch it's either the mobo or psu, I just can't see why or how any of the other compo's could be causing this problem.

Regards B

misterPK · 1 Aug 2008 at 15:18

Well if you've got no spares to swap out bits I'd suggest doing a few software based tests such as memtest or whatever hard drive checking utilities you feel like using. Worth a shot and the worst that could happen is you elimanate a possible cause.

PK!

totoro · 1 Aug 2008 at 16:33

I had the same problem. Replaced the PSU and it didnt solve it.
I'm fairly sure it was the motherboard. It was 3 years old and had many things put in and moved about in it. So maybe it got damaged or something.

It would usually boot up in the morning and then randomly crash, maybe after 5mins or 5hours. Then would do what you mentioned. All the fans would spin bit it would not post, and I could only turn it off by holding the power button in for a while.

Replaced the cpu mb and ram in the end, was 3 years old so needed an upgrade. Still annoying though as I moved all the bits into an old case I had, and it still does the same. I'd wanted to buy a socket 939 mb to replace it, but they seem so expensive now.

The Boxer · 1 Aug 2008 at 17:55

totoro said:
I had the same problem. Replaced the PSU and it didnt solve it.
I'm fairly sure it was the motherboard. It was 3 years old and had many things put in and moved about in it. So maybe it got damaged or something.

It would usually boot up in the morning and then randomly crash, maybe after 5mins or 5hours. Then would do what you mentioned. All the fans would spin bit it would not post, and I could only turn it off by holding the power button in for a while.

Replaced the cpu mb and ram in the end, was 3 years old so needed an upgrade. Still annoying though as I moved all the bits into an old case I had, and it still does the same. I'd wanted to buy a socket 939 mb to replace it, but they seem so expensive now.

Sounds very like your problem T (very), my mobo and cpu are both well over 4 years old so I guess it's time for Mobo,cpu, gpu and ram, I just don't have the time to check each part bit by bit.

Regards Box