HELP!!!

OK... had my computer for a while and recently it started to have problems powering up so for the most part I left it on (no problems with soft boot, only problems when turning it off and on again, no matter how long the wait time - immediately or after several days)...

The most interesting thing about this problem is that I know my system will not turn on if I hear the CPU fan go high... if the CPU fan is silent, then everything will turn on OK.

Before, I thought it was my PSU since it liked to "burp" before turning on, but now it doesn't burp anymore and I still have problems turning my computer on.

Could be video card, but again, no problems with the video card when everything is on.

Probably not RAM as I have booted it up with a single DRAM module (and swapped to the other just in case) with no changes...

I'm thinking it might be the CPU since there's a signal coming from somewhere to turn the fan onto high speed..

Or most likely the motherboard. I can't access my BIOS as nothing shows up on the screen at all when I try to power up. I'm hoping there's a problem with the BIOS that a quick FLASH might fix... but I need to get to the BIOS first... grrrr...

HDs and DVD-ROM going through the boot sequences properly... there's a green light on the motherboard to show it's getting power... just if I hear the CPU fan kick into highspeed (roughly at the beginning of the HD boot up ticking noise) then I know my computer won't turn on.

I'm hoping to isolate the problem and then ask for an RMA on that part... bought my parts online and built my system at home, so until I figure which part is bad, I can't replace it...

Thanks for any help and/or suggestions you guys can give.

Here's my setup:
Q6600
2x 1 GB 1066 Crucial Ballistix RAM
EVGA 8800 GTS 320 MB video
ASUS P5K-E Wifi motherboard
CoolerMaster 750W PSU

Forgot to mention several things I've done to try to figure out this problem...

Already tried to jumper the switch to clear BIOS settings... nothing...

I've used 2 different CPU coolers on this... currently using the Thermalright Ultra-120... both of them had the fan kick on highspeed when it didn't want to boot up.

Took out everything and re-installed... just in case...

Re-installed the motherboard and checked for any possible areas that might short out the board... found none...

It's late now and I can't remember if I did anything else...

HELP please!

You can rma one part at a time until you find the culprit. It's not the best way to troubleshoot, but it's possible. Most would start with the mobo, then ram, etc.

When you power up the pc, are the lights coming up as usual or no light no fan spinning & no noise? If you have nothing coming on, you think it's not the psu? Coolermaster isn't the best make. Try another one. Or lug your pc to your friend's & try his psu. Disconnect everything. Swap parts with his. Or even try one of your parts at a time in his pc. You should find the culprit in no time.

Yeah... when it powers up everything gets power and goes through the proper boot sequence. I just get ZERO video and I hear the CPU fan kick into high speed roughly right at the time before the HDs do their boot sequence clicking noise. The only thing that seems consistent is that if the CPU fan kicks into high speed, the computer won't turn on. If the CPU fan is quiet, then the computer will turn on...

I was hoping someone had an experience like this so they could say, "OH, it's your __________ (put part name here)..."

I should head over to my friend's place to do the swaps like you said till I find the culprit but he's UBER busy and I don't want to bother him unless it's absolutely necessary... about RMAing till I find the part, not really feasible as I'll hafta pay S&H for each part... and possibly restocking charges if they find out that part is still OK...

if it was my situation,,i would make/get a bootable ME floppy with scandisk and first of all scan my hdd c from the floppy,,then i would ,,after unplugging the hdd and "all the usual suspects" analyze the system thoroughly ,,altho,,it does kinda sound like you have some bios problems,loose/low battery??
you can always make a boot floppy to do a flash,do not need windows..

The link between CPU cooler fan speed and boot / no boot is significant. Don't forget that, by default, the system usually starts up the fan at full speed, then slows it down as the BIOS software gets going and checks temperatures, etc.

Most mobo's have a fan control system that does two kinds of safety checks to prevent fast catastrophic overheating of the CPU. One checks the FPU cooling fan's speed, and that's a signal from the fan itself on one of the wires in its power leads. If the speed signal line does not make a good connection at the mobo connector, or if the speed signal generated at the fan never gets into that line (poor connction inside fan?), the mobo will think the fan just is not turning, or is turning 'way too slow. In that case it will shut down the system right away.

The other check is the measured value of CPU temperature, usually generated in the CPU itself and fed out on one of its pins. If your BIOS shows you a temperature, that's where it comes from. Now, again, if that temperature signal is too high, the mobo will shut down the system. On some mobo's in the BIOS you actually have the option to set CPU temperature limits, sometimes even two. On mine, I can set the temp at which the mobo will go into a slow-CPU mode to derease its load and heat generation, and a higher temp at which the whole thing shuts down completely. If the mobo somehow gets a bad temp signal it will not allow start-up. And in that case you'll never know what temp it thought it got, because it shuts down before you can do anything.

Thanks Paperdoc... that's what I was thinking too... now I just wonder if I have a defective MB... if I could possibly restart it, I'm wondering if there's a bug in the BIOS that a flash might fix... or the remote chance that my CPU went bad...

Since the system won't boot up (when I hear the CPU fan kick into highspeed) there's no way to check any temps... This has happened with 2 different CPU coolers (with different fans of course) so the chance that this problem has something to do with the wire lead to the fan is low...

Gonna head out and do a MB swap when my brother-in-law has time... hopefully that's all it is... I want to do a CPU swap too, but that's a huge pain and since I'll be borrowing pieces from my brother-in-law, I don't really wanna pull off his heatsink and then reseat it again when I'm done...

Sounds like an ASUS problem. Mine started failing to post after I flashed to newer BIOS to try to resolve graphics errors. Now it only posts after power's completely removed (switch on PSU or unplugged) and won't resume after power saving comes on, it has to be unplugged.

Disabling power saving in BIOS stops XP from loading, so I suspect I have other issues, but the failing to POST is apparently somewhat common, and has been for months with the P35 ASUS boards.

FINALLY found out the problem... stupid RAM modules from CRUCIAL BALLISTIX apparently don't work well with P35 motherboards... I bought the BL12864AA1065 kit (which is a 2x1GB DDR2-1066 RAM kit) along with my ASUS P35 mb from NCIX thinking I was gonna get good package... now on NCIX they have a note that says this RAM won't work on P35 motherboards... note wasn't there when I was ordering... bastards...

So now I have some dead RAM... that if I RMA I still can't use on my MB... ordered some nice OCZ PLATINUM 2x2GB modules now... only went with 800 though... this bad run in with CB has left a bad taste in my mouth so I don't wanna go with RAM that's too high strung...

That's funny cuz I used the same ram in my P5K-E. It overclocked pretty well. Both the ram & cpu. It's not the ram. It's the mobo that defaults to low standard 1.8v for memory. Most good ram are rated at 2.1v or higher.

Trying each stick of ram in each of the slots will lead to post. Then up vdimm in bios. Bingo. OCZ must be installed this way in one of my friend's X38 board. Or else, the power cycle goes on.

Talked to Crucial Tech support... they verified there is a problem with some of their high speed RAM and X38 and P35 motherboards. A BIOS flash will help, but will not guarantee that the RAM will work. This RAM worked nicely in my system for about 2-3 months before acting up. I was getting really good performance #'s from them. My brother-in-law bought the exact same RAM for his X38 motherboard and they worked fine for him for about 2 months too before dying... And I already checked. Both modules are dead...