Computer suddenly stopped booting

Ajaxx · Dec 25, 2014

i'd be most obliged if someone can help.

Worked through the suggestions that applied. The other night the computer was working fine and I shut it down normally after a game of splinter cell.

Trying to start up today but all I got was :

Power button light in front, cpu fan, dvd drive light, and phase led lights all go on momentarily ( a few seconds), then it shuts off for about 3-5 seconds, and repeats the cycle over and over until I switch the power off at the power supply.

There are 4 phase led lights which are all green, except for #4, which is red.
Nothing shows on the screen
I reseated the memory and checked the CPU, which is snug, as were all the connections
I swapped out the power supply - getting the same results, with and without peripherals connected.
M/B was installed with standoffs.
Unfortunately I do not have a speaker.

Any suggestions?

It's a fast enough system for me, would like to keep it. About 4 yrs old though, and has worked great since I put it together a few years ago, and it hasn't gotten much use as I only use it for occasional gaming......

SPECS:

MB GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD3 P55
SONATA III CASE W 500W EARTHWATTS PS
HD 500G|SAMSUNG HD502HJ
SSD 180G| OCZ OCZSSD3-2VTX180G
CPU INTEL|CORE I5 760 2.80G
ATI RADEON 5850
GSKILL 2x4 GB RAM (ripjaw f3-12800cl9d-8gbrl)

thanks!

YourLocal · Dec 25, 2014

I think your OCZ SSD is dead. Put in a enclosure or in another computer to see if it recognizes it.

ingtar33 · Dec 25, 2014

not many things can cause your boot issues.

first up, lets cover our bases
-try a clr_cmos
-try breadboarding the system
-unplug all the SATA or IDE drives, try booting without them, see if you can get into the bios

if it's still giving you issues there isn't much left it can be
dead cpu
dead ram
dead motherboard
dead gpu

since you tried it without the gpu we can cross that off the list.
next most easy check is the ram. pull out all the sticks of ram, put one (doesn't matter which) into the motherboard. try it in each ram slot. if it fails to boot with that one try the next. try it once in each ram slot. repeat until you're out of ram

at this point there really is no easy way to find out which part died... though if you feel up to it and with the motherboard out of the case (breadboarded) i suggest you carefully examine the motherboard for signs of damage. Burn marks, blown caps, stains. If it's dirty or stained take the time to clean it thoroughly with cuetips and 90%-100% rubbing alcohol. if you find a blown cap or clear sign of electrical damage like scorch marks the motherboard is likely a gonner. if you don't find any sign of anything wrong with the board, then i'd lean a little more toward the cpu dying on you.

YourLocal :

possible if it died in a way that causes some sort of electrical short. he's not getting to the bios post screen so it's not lost or corrupted data in the hard drive or ssd. This is why i suggest he disconnect all the SATA and IDE drives, because one that dies in such a way as to cause an electrical short can cause this issue.

Ajaxx · Dec 25, 2014

Thanks for your effort.

So far, I've inspected the board - it looks almost new. Very minor dust in
limited spots, no evidence of bad caps or burning anywhere. It is also
tightened down (I did find a few loose screws, though not drastically so)

Yes, I did try without the drives to get it to post. No luck there.

Regarding the CMOS, my board doesn't seem to have the normal
jumper arrangement that I have been accustomed to with previous boards
so I am no sure on how to go about it. I will consult the manual to see
if it's clear in a diagram. There are no jumpers where the writing for it is on the board.

In the meantime, I thought I would check the battery, and it was low, so I replaced it,
but the replacement is borderline. I have a few more I will check. So far that one did nothing.

Anyhow, I'm getting demoralized. Thanks again for your help.

ingtar33 :

ingtar33 · Dec 26, 2014

i looked up your motherboard manual

the clr_cmos switch is on the bottom right hand side of your board above the F_USB1 plug which is the first usb plug to the left of the front panel connection area.

It looks like a 2 pin plug which mean you'll probably have to jump it with a flathead screwdriver if you don't have a spare jumper laying around.

Ajaxx · Dec 26, 2014

Yeah thanks - I was expecting to see a jumper there somewhere but
there wasn't and it threw me off. Anyhow, changing the battery has the
same effect so the cmos should be reset no.

The one thing that is bothering me is that phase led number 4, which is red.
I don't recall what it had been when I first put the system together. According to the
manual it has something to do with CPU load, though on startup that doesn't seem
likely. Anyhow I am wonding if that could be an indicator that one of the 4 cores is
bad and that is why it is failing. After all these years you'd think the damn things could
give you a printout of what's wrong! lol...

ingtar33 :

ingtar33 · Dec 26, 2014

I looked up those lights. they are the "PHASE LED" lights. they basically light up depending on how much power is running through the motherboard's power phase system.

Typically 2 to 3 are supposed to be lit up green through the windows boot process. It's not a diagnostic so you can't draw conclusions from it.

the bug checking suggestions for someone who had a unique PHASE LED lighting on that motherboard and a system that wouldn't load were the following

phase leds show the northbridge activity/voltage and ram voltage/activity,did you unplugg your gpu and re-install?? do this and same thing for your memory and hdd's,try clearing the cmos by removing mb battery for 30mins,remember this will wipe any oc/bios settings you had,check all power cables 24pin 8/4pin makesure everything is securely plugged in

I am quoting it because it's all advice i would and already gave... which means i'm not sure how much help knowing this will do for you.

Ajaxx · Dec 26, 2014

ingtar33 :

Yeah, have done everything except remove the battery for 30 minutes - doing that now. So that last led being red is not unusual? It just seems out of place. The manual says it is related to cpu load.

Thanks again..

Ajaxx · Dec 26, 2014

I'll try again after the battery has been out longer. Thanks for the info on the LED's

OK, I left out the battery to reset the cmos, reinstalled, and no change.

all cables firmly in place as is ram and cpu and mobo.

??????

ingtar33 · Dec 26, 2014

Ajaxx :

since you examined the motherboard and saw no damage, we might have to call this off at this point. Sounds like your cpu met it's maker. It lasted a long time.

I wish i had something else to tell you, but your symptoms match a dead cpu or dead motherboard or dead ram or dead gpu perfectly. you've eliminated ram and gpu from the equation, which leave mobo and cpu... unfortunately since you can't find anything wrong with the mobo, chances are it's the cpu.

Ajaxx · Mar 2, 2015

Sorry for the delay of this update, but after a little bit of investigation, it turns out that I had a reset switch that seems to have been bad. I I suspect that some dust was shorting it out. After working the switch a bit it all works as good as new..

Thanks Ingtar33. You nailed it!

ingtar33 · Mar 12, 2015

Ajaxx :

power problems look the same as dead motherboards/cpus/ram/gpu, this is why i suggested breadboarding as step 2. if you breadboard the system you take "bad switches" and "loose screw causing shorts" and pretty much every other possible physical electrical cause for this issue to be removed from consideration

I'm glad you got it licked!

those types of issues can drive you crazy to track down.

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