Computer Won't Post Out of the Blue

[Odoyle]

Ok, going to try to keep it short.

Built my computer about nine months ago. Using:

Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R
2 gigs Patriot 8500 (2.3v if that helps)
Core2Duo 6420
OCZ 600GXSSLI 600W
eVGA 8800 GTS 320 MB OC


Now it's worked mostly fine since then, until last week when I shut it down only to turn it on again and have it go into this cycle of turning on for about 8 seconds or so, turning off, and repeating. No post, no beeps.

I found some people who had similar issues with the board, so I tried replacing it (twice) with two different GA-EP35-DS3R's that both behaved exactly the same (the one difference being the newer boards have a set of lights for the VRM and those were all coming on and staying on whenever there was power). I had a local store test my original board, and they said it was bad, but I'm not sure I really trust the guy who did it, since if it was my board, then I got two more boards with the same problem in a row.

The only situations I've gotten it to do anything different is by unplugging the cpus 4 pin power connector, in which case it starts up and stays on, but still doesn't post or beep.

On a whim I tried to test the power supply with this old computer that I'm using (nothing I can use with the new one since it's AMD and DDR1 RAM), and it didn't seem to start. Granted I only connected the 20 pin to the motherboard (no CPU connect for this one) and the two for the 6800 ultra, but that should have gotten it going. So it might be the power supply. However, I tried hooking up this old power supply to the system in question and didn't get any better results than with it's own. It doesn't have a PCI-E power connector and it only has a 20 pin connector instead of the 24 the board wants, so I'm not sure if that might have been the issue or not (it's also lower wattage; 550 v 600.

So, any ideas?

Going to try a new power supply but somehow I think it won't work (given my luck). Also saw someone mention that a boards voltage rating for RAM can sometimes be reset down to like 1.85v and cause it to not post with RAM like mine.

And a sort of related, I should probably know this kinda question, but the beeps a mobo makes; do those come from some speaker hidden (or not on the motherboard) or do they only show up if you have a PC speaker hooked into the board. Cause the loud noise I get starting up without the power connected to the video card sure isn't coming from a PC speaker and my old comp seems to beep without one.

Anyway, I'd be more grateful than you'd know if you can offer any help.

And yeah, that wasn't really short =/

 

[lcaley]

Sounds like a power supply to me. Is it possible that you got a surge during the time you had the computer powered off? I assume the PSU would take the majority of the damage if something like that happened, not sure though.
A few more ideas, even if they are just a shot in the dark.
1) Have you tried with only one stick of ram?
2) What happens if you pull your graphics card out? It should still fail post, but it might at least do something different.
3) Do you have a buddy who has a similar system you could swap parts into and out of? I'd suggest you putting parts (not psu) into his system in stead of you putting his parts into your system so you don't break his parts too :lol:
4) All cables are plugged in securely?

Other than that, I don't really have any ideas. I hope this helps.

Good luck with it.

 

[roadrunner197069]

Yup sounds like a PSU cause it should a powered the old PC fine if it worked.

Not suprised the old PSU didnt work if it didnt have a 4pin CPU plug.

 

[endyen]

A lot of mobos now will use the onboard speaker jacks for trouble/post reports. I dont know your board, so no guarantee.
The pc speaker is usually plugged in by the power switch. If you have one around, use it, just in case.
Overclockers have had quite a few rough spots with thier equipment, so the psu is a good place to start. Your new board needs more power than it can get from the 20 pin connector, so that test did little.
When you first try to boot with the new psu, try it with minimal power usage. Dont plug in your hdd, optical drives, and only use one stick of ram, and one gfx card.
BTW, you said something about a lot of noise? If it was a long beep, that usually means no gfx. To be sure, find out what bios maker your board uses, and google thier beep codes.
Good luck.

 

[Odoyle]

A lot of mobos now will use the onboard speaker jacks for trouble/post reports. I dont know your board, so no guarantee.
The pc speaker is usually plugged in by the power switch. If you have one around, use it, just in case.
Overclockers have had quite a few rough spots with thier equipment, so the psu is a good place to start. Your new board needs more power than it can get from the 20 pin connector, so that test did little.
When you first try to boot with the new psu, try it with minimal power usage. Dont plug in your hdd, optical drives, and only use one stick of ram, and one gfx card.
BTW, you said something about a lot of noise? If it was a long beep, that usually means no gfx. To be sure, find out what bios maker your board uses, and google thier beep codes.
Good luck.

Yeah I looked up the beeps. The only one I got was the continuous for the video card not having it's power plugged in. I tried most of the suggestions(one stick of RAM, only using power for board/chip) with no luck. I didn't know/think that PSUs could be failing while still appearing to turn everything on so I'm thinking that's a good lead at least, since swapping motherboards isn't giving me much luck. My only other idea would be the CPU, which I might try after the PSU. Just wary of that because might be a pain to clean all the thermal paste off of it if I need to take it back.

 

[mi1ez]

If the PSU has a problem on the CPU12v then it will be able to turn everything else on, but not boot cos the processor can't do anything!

 

[Odoyle]

So I grabbed a new PSU today. The newer comp still won't boot (seems to shut off after a shorter period of time now), but it was able to start up the old computer just fine. So I'm guessing my PSU was bad, and it took out some other components. Now I just need to figure out what =/

Also, I remember seeing in a post that sometimes the voltage on the RAM slots can be reset to a lower value, making it not recognize my Patriot sticks that are running at 2.3v. Anyone heard of that/think that might be the case? Just thinking it would give me some memory beeps if they were in but not running. But dunno.

 

[roadrunner197069]

If the board defaulted your ram to 1.8 it may not boot. Get some cheap 1.8v ram to boot with.

This is a very common problem.