GA-MA790XT-UD4P won't post, vga fan "revving"

G'day everyone,

So I've purchased a new build, and I've run into a problem.

My PC won't even post.

Everything appears to be receiving power etc, all seems to be working fine, except for the VGA card fan, which sounds like a motorbike revving up and down constantly.

The same results for a HD2600 requiring no external power-source, and for a HD5770 requiring a 6pin PCI-E power cable.

I have the following:

Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P
AMD PII X3 720 BE
2x2gb Mushkin DDR3 1600
HIS ATI 5770
640gb WD Black
1tb Samsung EcoGreen F2
Antec True Power 750watt
Antec 300 Illusion

Any help or trouble shooting options you can offer are most appreciated. The last gigabyte purchase I made had to be RMA'd for a broken 2nd PCI-E x16 slot, I would hate for this Gigabyte board to suffer the same fate, as I think I will have lost faith in the Gigabyte boards (which I love for their dualBios setup).

Thanks in advance. Ben

Is the PSU pluged into this Socket?

Ben, how long are you giving it to POST?

You should give it an HOUR if the fans are keeping it cool.

After that, you can proceed with your troubleshooting. But if you are shutting it down after just a few minutes, the chances are excellent that it WOULD have reached POST, if you'd given it a lot more time.

I have 2 threads here (search via my name) about a delayed POST with a different Gigabyte board. I've been working at the problem for 11 months, so (unfortunately) I've become an expert on the delayed POST itself—just not how to fix it!

Anyway, if your fans are on, just let it take its time. Using a stopwatch is a good idea.

Oh—the fluctuating sound from the video card fan is normal under these circumstances. You don't need to worry about that detail, anyway.

Good luck.

Well, you definitely should not have to wait more than a few seconds, of course. However, when things are not working right, it might be helpful to know whether the system "will not boot" versus "takes a very long time to reach POST".

I used to give up and abort after 3-4 minutes, thinking it wasn't booting at all. In fact, it would have eventually reached POST and booted every time. I discovered that by accident while using 2 computers one day, when I just let the problem computer stay on, with its fans whirring. I completely forgot about it. After about half an hour: BEEP!

Mine is a GA-MA78GMS2H ver 1.1 with the latest BIOS. (The problem has persisted through at least 3 BIOS versions.) I RMAd the mobo—no difference.

By the way, what happens if you press the front case Power Button, wait 30 seconds, and then press the front case Restart Button?

Well, don't be too hard on yourself OR your system. It ain't no paperweight! I looked at your words and remembered that I said the very same about my own system, with its quite-similar problem.

You did try letting it just sit there with the fans on for as long as an HOUR, right, as I suggested earlier? As long as your fans are keeping it cool, this should be okay. What you would learn would be if it (a) won't boot at all, versus (b) simply takes a very long time to boot.

My guess is that yours would boot, after 15 to 40 minutes. Of course I could be wrong.

I believe also that your PSU is on the suspect list. It will have power enough, but it just might have a defect which could be very hard for you to find. So you can put your PSU on your list of candidates to RMA. That might in fact be the next thing you do.

For myself, I seem to be narrowing down possibilities as though—after an entire year—I'll reach a solution within another month or so. In the meantime, I have VERY often felt as angry and frustrated as you must be. But I've also gained one good friend, a younger fellow in England (I'm in Vancouver, Canada); and I've learned more than most people know about the POST and booting. (As I've said, I've learned a lot; I just haven't solved the problem. I think Edison said something like that, and I'm trying to follow his good example.)

You will solve this problem.
You will know a lot more about computers after you've resolved it.
You will be able to help other people.

Take it easy; use your brain in turbo mood; be extremely patient; and never give up. You have almost finished building a very nice computer.