My PC will not boot :( Please help me.

[XtremeG]

Hi everyone

A couple of weeks ago i got a new case (antec 900)
and i transfered all my hardware into it but when i
pressed the on button the fans all started up but it
did not beep and it would start doing a restart cycle.

I thought that it was mabey shorting on the case or
i put in too many brass standoffs in it, so i took the
motherboard out of the case and put it on a cardboard
box and it still would not boot.

After trying everything i came to the conclusion that i
had put my titan amanda cooler on to tight and crushed
my cpu or cracked a circuit in the motherboard.

I decided that i would buy my new cpu first and see if
it was that, so i got a new q6600 to replace my e6400
and put it in the mobo and it still did the same thing.
Then i thought that it had to be the motherboard so i
bought a new GA-X38-DQ6 to replace my GA-965p-DQ6
and even with my new cpu and new motherboard it is
doing the exact same thing

It is not my ram either as it is brand new and i have tryed
2 power supplies and still does the same thing. It's like
it's not getting enough power because the cpu fan and the
fan in the psu spin really slowly.

Ive got a feeling that it is something really simple that i am
missing as i am a bit of a noob.

Full specs:

Mobo: GA-X38-DQ6
CPU: Q6600
RAM: OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-8500C5 1066MHz SLI
GFX: evga 8800gtx KO ACS
PSU: OCZ gamerxtreme 700w

Any help would be great as i am using a dinosaur of a pc just
now and i wunna play crysis

 

[JADCorp]

Check all the connections, particularly to the power button three time before you buy any new hardware. Do the fans start after the front-panel power button is pressed or when power is applied to the line cord?

 

[XtremeG]

I have checked all the conections and all the front panel wires are in correctly.
The fans start after i press the on button, the strange thing is that the case
fans seem to spin at a normal speed but the cpu fan (stock) and the psu fan
spin very very slowly and gradually pick up speed then the pc shuts down.

I have disconected everything and only have cpu ram and gfx plugged in and
I have tryed it with only 1 stick of ram in different slots and have tryed it without the gfx card and it still refuses to boot.

Im starting to think it is the psu that is faulty but i have tested my old psu and
it does the exact same thing.

This is really frustrating, I have no clue what is wrong

 

[frozenlead]

well, it's gotta be something you haven't truly tested then, RAM or GPU.
can you swap in a temporary for each and see if it boots?

 

[XtremeG]

Well the ram is only a few weeks old and it was working before i moved everything into my new case.

I have tried both sticks seperately in different slots and I have tried booting
without the gfx card but it still will not boot.

Will it still boot without a gfx card but won't display anything on the monitor?

I might have to sell all my stuff and start from scratch. Or mabey im just to dumb to build my own pc and will have to buy an overly priced ready built system

 

[jjblanche]

No, it will not boot without a graphics card. There has got to be something you're missing. Perhaps some of the wiring you're using is faulty? Perhaps you tripped a breaker? Maybe the Antec case is somehow defective, and is causing the trouble...have you tried all the components in a different case?

 

[jjblanche]

On second thought, maybe its the graphics card itself. A system needs one to boot, unless you have integrated graphics (which you don't).

 

[XtremeG]

I have put the motherboard back in my old case an it still wont boot.

Im pretty sure its not the graphics card as it's always worked perfectly and
this only started happening when i put my hardware into my new case and I
have no way to test my card as the only other pc i have is agp.

I give up, I've tried everything and it just refuses to boot and that is 2 different
motherboards, 2 different cpu's and 2 different PSU's. I am pretty sure my ram
is ok as it's only a couple of weeks old. That leaves the graphics card which
i personally think is fine but you never know. Or mabey i have forgot to connect something important to the motherboard but i have checked a hundred times and can't seem to find anything wrong.

 

[bobbknight]

Step back, take a deep breath, with all the original components make a basic booting computer.
With the PSU unplugged, reset the bios to the defualt settings, and or remove the bios battery and set the bios to zero. Then make sure all power and other things are properly connected and start your system. Ensure all things are in the proper slots for operation, double check your motherboard owners manual.

I would try only the following items outside the case:

MB, Vid Card, 1 stick ram, CPU and HSF, 1 HD and your PSU connected to all things that need power.

Let us know what happens.

 

[XtremeG]

Ok, I went and took the mobo out of the case and sat it on a cardboard box.
I plugged in the gfx card (with the 2 pci-e connectors), 1 sata hard drive, and 1 stick off ram. I connected the power lead to the HD and I think that i have connected all the power leads to the motherboard?

* 24-pin connector
* 4-pin connector beside the cpu
* Molex connector for extra graphics card power (do i only need this for sli)

Have i forgot anything?

Well when i switched it on the fans started spinning and it actually did a normal beep but nothing was being displayed on the screen and then the PSU fan stop spinning and the computer shut itself down.

I thought that mabey the bios wasn't working with the quad core cpu so i cleared the cmos and put in my core2duo and switched it on and the fans started spinning and it done a normal beep again but this time the PSU fan kept going and the cpu fan stoped and then started flicking around a tiny bit at a time like it was trying to spin. I quickly shut down the pc to avoid damaging the cpu.

I am totally puzzled. Mabey I should take all off my hardware to a computer shop and see if they can test it for me.

 

[mattman5170]

Could be a PSU problem. What brand/modle is the PSU?

 

[XtremeG]

The PSU is an OCZ gemeXtreme 700w but i have an old psu which came with my old case and that does exactly the same thing.

I doubt that the two PSU's are faulty but stranger things have happened.

 

[mattman5170]

Have you tried reseating the CPU, Video Card and Memory yet? Not to be insutling, but did you check to make sure you oriented the CPU correctly in the socket?

 

[roadrunner197069]

Almost have to be a Ram problem after you tried all of that stuff. Its very possible you had some static discharge on you when you handled the ram and you toasted it. Even more likely is your Ram requires 2.2 volts and your board is defaulting it to 1.8volts so you cant pass the POST. Try a Bios update or some PC6400 800MHZ Ram that is speced at 1.8 volts. Adata has some for like $25.00 for 1G.

 

[XtremeG]

I have reseated the CPU many times and tried two different CPU's. I have also reseated the Gfx card and memory in every slot.

The thing is that my pc was working in my old case then i put everything into my new case and it failed to boot. So it can't be the voltage as i did not change any settings in the bios. It could be possible that I had a static discharge and fried something.

I am pretty sure i would still be able to boot into the bios with fried ram as quite recently i had to RMA some of the exact same RAM because it was faulty but i was able to get past post and run a memtest boot disk.

I am borrowing a friends PC tomorrow so that i can test my graphics card and memory, I will post back what the results are

 

[mattman5170]

What about the power cord or surge suppressor. That may sound stupid, but I had one of those short out on me once. I went crazy trying to figure out what the problem was with a PC and just randomly plugged the computer in to another powercord and surge suppressor and it worked. Do you have alot of stuff running off the same electrical outlet in the wall?

Just a few other things to consider.

 

[XtremeG]

Woohoo! I finally figured out what was causing all the problems.
One of my sticks of RAM is faulty, this has defenately put me off buying anymore OCZ RAM. I think the next time i upgrade i will be buying DDR3 and will probably get Corsair RAM.

The realy strange thing about my faulty stick off RAM is that it will not boot in my system but it works in my freinds PC and it passed a full memtest.
But even stranger than that when i go into properties it says that it is a 512mb stick of ram but it was in a 2gb dual channel pack and it has a 2gb dual channel sticker on it. Is it possible that half of the stick of ram is dead and the other half is working? I don't know, it's very confusing.

Anyway my PC is running vista on 1gb so their is absolutely no chance that i will play crysis anytime soon


Thanks for all your help, and stopping me from going insane.

Wish me luck for a speedy RMA