My PC will no longer post or boot when powered on. This has been an intermittent problem for months, and I've been "solving" it by just sleeping the machine rather than powering it down. Last night I decided to power it down on a whim, and this morning it has failed to boot entirely. The machine was running perfectly stably when in Windows, and I've been running plenty of system intensive games.
The problem started around a year ago, when I noticed it was taking longer than usual to post. I didn't think anything of it at the time, but this delay steadily grew longer. When the machine is attempting to post, the fans inside the case run as normal (including the water coolers on the CPU and GPU), the lighting on the side of the GPU works, and the magnetic drive whirrs as if being accessed. The monitor stays completely blank, and the LED lighting in the mouse and keyboard remains unlit. Previously when the machine eventually did post, the lighting on the peripherals would turn on, and one of the two watercoolers would "sigh" (I imagine a brief spinning up and then spinning down).
Spec:
CPU: Intel Core i5-4670 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Corsair H60 54.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
Motherboard: MSI Z97-GAMING 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
*Memory: Kingston Beast 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory
Storage: Crucial MX100 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Storage: Western Digital WD Green 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive
*Storage: SanDisk 480GB Plus SATA III
*Video Card: Sapphire AMD Fury X
Case: NZXT H440 (White/Black) ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: Corsair CX 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply
*Upgraded in march this year
Troubleshooting steps: (tested machine after each step)
- Unplugged every device aside from the keyboard, mouse and display port cable
- Ran through this forum's checklist (http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/261145-31-perform-steps-posting-post-boot-video-problems)
- Checked every connector I could see to ensure it was seated properly
- Removed RAM, tested with each stick individually
- Removed GPU entirely
- Performed the motherboard's CMOS RAM reset function
- Removed CMOS battery, swapped with known good battery (though removed one tested fine anyway)
- Allowed machine to sit unused for half an hour with PSU switched off.
- Allowed machine to sit unused for half an hour with PSU switched on.
- Allowed machine to sit powered on (ie: attempting to post) for half an hour.
- Tore two tufts of hair from right and left sides of my head (probably unhelpful, but necessary).
About the only things I've not been able to test are the PSU, as I don't have a spare. The machine does not have an internal speaker, though I have one arriving tomorrow. I don't own a multimeter.
I suspect the issue is with the motherboard, as the system has been performing perfectly well during power intensive games. I currently don't have the money to replace both the PSU and motherboard, so I need to narrow the problem down to one or the other.
Does anyone have any suggestions for what else I can try?
The problem started around a year ago, when I noticed it was taking longer than usual to post. I didn't think anything of it at the time, but this delay steadily grew longer. When the machine is attempting to post, the fans inside the case run as normal (including the water coolers on the CPU and GPU), the lighting on the side of the GPU works, and the magnetic drive whirrs as if being accessed. The monitor stays completely blank, and the LED lighting in the mouse and keyboard remains unlit. Previously when the machine eventually did post, the lighting on the peripherals would turn on, and one of the two watercoolers would "sigh" (I imagine a brief spinning up and then spinning down).
Spec:
CPU: Intel Core i5-4670 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Corsair H60 54.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
Motherboard: MSI Z97-GAMING 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
*Memory: Kingston Beast 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory
Storage: Crucial MX100 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Storage: Western Digital WD Green 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive
*Storage: SanDisk 480GB Plus SATA III
*Video Card: Sapphire AMD Fury X
Case: NZXT H440 (White/Black) ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: Corsair CX 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply
*Upgraded in march this year
Troubleshooting steps: (tested machine after each step)
- Unplugged every device aside from the keyboard, mouse and display port cable
- Ran through this forum's checklist (http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/261145-31-perform-steps-posting-post-boot-video-problems)
- Checked every connector I could see to ensure it was seated properly
- Removed RAM, tested with each stick individually
- Removed GPU entirely
- Performed the motherboard's CMOS RAM reset function
- Removed CMOS battery, swapped with known good battery (though removed one tested fine anyway)
- Allowed machine to sit unused for half an hour with PSU switched off.
- Allowed machine to sit unused for half an hour with PSU switched on.
- Allowed machine to sit powered on (ie: attempting to post) for half an hour.
- Tore two tufts of hair from right and left sides of my head (probably unhelpful, but necessary).
About the only things I've not been able to test are the PSU, as I don't have a spare. The machine does not have an internal speaker, though I have one arriving tomorrow. I don't own a multimeter.
I suspect the issue is with the motherboard, as the system has been performing perfectly well during power intensive games. I currently don't have the money to replace both the PSU and motherboard, so I need to narrow the problem down to one or the other.
Does anyone have any suggestions for what else I can try?
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