4 or 5 days back my PC stopped booting properly so I've been trying to diagnose what's wrong.
So far I've done/determined the following (in order):
And here I am now, with newly applied heat sink to my CPU and a brand new PSU, and a GPU a few weeks old. I've also tried the CMOS reset, removing the battery and the jumper cap from the pins (as advised in my mobo manual).
I don't see how it could be a RAM issue since the mobo would POST beep if it was, and the MemOK red lights turn on when I power on.
My PSU is also fully connected to the components respectively; 2x4(8)-pin connector to the top left of the mobo that powers the CPU, 24-pin to the right side of the mobo, the 6/8-pin connector directly to the GPU, HDD connector. Everything is OK in this regard.
What baffles me is how the PC is still able to boot to safe mode if the mobo is faulty or failing. I've been reading that no POST means either a PSU or mobo fault. Now that I'm virtually 100% sure it isn't a PSU issue, I need to ask here if even with a faulty mobo, the PC can still start up in safe mode, somehow...
PARTS INVOLVED:
So far I've done/determined the following (in order):
■ BEFORE the booting failures my CPU was reading at 87C at startup but after startup it fluctuates between 65-95C. I didn't know what temperatures were unsustainable until after the PC failed to boot. It constantly read 87C at my BIOS monitor screen.
■ It reached a point where PC would not boot to BIOS screen at all, and this was when I finally took out the case and cleaned out (a lot of) dust from the fans. The mobo itself had a good deal of dust too.
■ Only when I removed my GPU (GTX 960) did the PC manage to boot to BIOS screen. My GPU is a few weeks old and it can't be the fault. To be sure, I swapped with an older, working GPU (Radeon 6850) and PC won't boot to BIOS too.
■ With either GPU fixed to the mobo, the boot happens as follows: 1. power on, 2. case fan, CPU fan and GPU fan(s) spin, 3. all fans stopped for about 1 second, 4. all fans start spinning again, 5. after about 5-10 seconds, GPU fan(s) stop spinning, case and CPU fans still spin, 6. NO DISPLAY THE WHOLE TIME
■ I bought a heat sink compound and took out my CPU cooler and found the old heat sink compound mostly gone so I added more. It worked and BIOS monitor showed CPU temp had now dropped to 52-56C, from 87C.
■ Swapped my PSU from a 650W Cooler Master to a 520W Seasonic S12II, so the issue with booting can't be the PSU, right?
■ Boot "sequence" with GPU is still the exact same as point number 4. Without GPU, I can access BIOS screen.
■ WIthout GPU, not only can I access BIOS screen, I CAN boot up Windows 7 in Safe Mode. I check my HDD and my data seems ok. I CANNOT boot up to Windows 7 Normal Mode.
And here I am now, with newly applied heat sink to my CPU and a brand new PSU, and a GPU a few weeks old. I've also tried the CMOS reset, removing the battery and the jumper cap from the pins (as advised in my mobo manual).
I don't see how it could be a RAM issue since the mobo would POST beep if it was, and the MemOK red lights turn on when I power on.
My PSU is also fully connected to the components respectively; 2x4(8)-pin connector to the top left of the mobo that powers the CPU, 24-pin to the right side of the mobo, the 6/8-pin connector directly to the GPU, HDD connector. Everything is OK in this regard.
What baffles me is how the PC is still able to boot to safe mode if the mobo is faulty or failing. I've been reading that no POST means either a PSU or mobo fault. Now that I'm virtually 100% sure it isn't a PSU issue, I need to ask here if even with a faulty mobo, the PC can still start up in safe mode, somehow...
PARTS INVOLVED:
■ Motherboard: ASUS P8H67-V
■ CPU: i5-2500 @ 3.3GHz
■ PSUs: 520W Seasonic S12II (<1 day old), 650W Cooler Master (few years old)
■ GPUs: GTX 960 (few weeks old), Radeon HD6850 (few years old)
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