No standoffs. No Screws. No Boot?

[RoZmX]

I sold my motherboard and cpu recently to replace it with a sandy bridge combo, - i accidentally sold the brass standoffs my case came with as well as the screws. I have my motherboard sitting on two layers of cardboard inside the case..

it doesn't boot. no beeps. no fans. nothing.




i'm trying to find an alternative way to boot my pc until i find brass standoffs and screws to mount my motherboard inside my case.


Q) Could the lack of standoffs be a grounding issue, causing the PSU to not even turn on?
Q) Can I lay my motherboard on cardboard?
Q) Maybe the wrapper that comes with the motherboard?


Thanx.

I have a new motherboard, cpu, and graphics card.

i5 2500k
GA-Z68XP-UD3
EVGA GTX 560 ti

 

[Raiddinn]

I am sorry to hear that you have sold your standoffs.

The lack of standoffs can and does prevent people from getting any/all responsiveness from their computers all the time.

Luckily for you, they should be pretty cheap.

Q1) Yes, the lack of standoffs could cause metal to touch metal in an unintended way, preventing the computer from booting.
Q2) Yes, there is nothing wrong with laying your motherboard on cardboard
Q3) Yes, you can lay the motherboard on the antistatic bag if you want to

Technically speaking, you don't need a case for any reason in order to start up EXCEPT as it pertains to using the power button to turn the computer on. You can do this with a flat screw driver as well if you don't have access to a power button because your motherboard isn't in the case, for instance.

I would suggest you take the motherboard completely out of the case, plug in only the two power cables to the motherboard and plug both processor and ram into the motherboard and try to turn it on while it is sitting on a wooden table.

See if there is any responsiveness from this.

Also, what is the maker, model, and average usage statistics of the PSU?

 

[RoZmX]

I managed to get the computer to boot off the wooden board. however. i do not get any signal on my monitor. i'd tried HDMI, and DVI connections.. as well as different monitors. after a few minutes of being on it would turn off and turn back on again.

i turned it off and tried again. now it seems to only be booting up for 2 seconds before it turns off and reboots. again still no signal on my monitor.


any clue?

 

[Raiddinn]

Did you push down the ram firmly?

Constant restarting can happen if the RAM isn't pushed all the way in.

If you had to pull the tabs up yourself, its definitely not in far enough. The tabs on the sides should lock themselves in definitely and sometimes it goes in a little farther once they lock themselves in too.

Also, the PSU matters, please give me the PSU information I asked for previously.

 

[RoZmX]

im replying from a phone and i didn't realize it didn't go through. its a corsair 750watt... i think its due to ram, my friend brought his pc over and tried installing my ram in his computer.. sometimes it turns on and most times it boot loops.

 

[RoZmX]

we're tryna to get it up and running but as of now.. its giving him a lot of issues tryna boot. and some ram isn't being detected as well.

 

[Raiddinn]

If you tried your RAM in your friend's computer and it continually restarted the RAM was either not pushed in all the way or bad, one of the two.

You can try to confirm this by having him make a MemTest86 cd, putting it in the CD Drive and letting it run for a long time. I don't know how long he wants to have his computer at your house, but it can take a pretty long time to test large amounts of RAM especially since the longer the test the more trustable the result is.

Verify that the RAM is pushed down hard.

What is the maker and model of your RAM and your friend's RAM?

If you put his RAM in your computer, what happens?

 

[RoZmX]

gskill 1600hz 4GB ... we retested the ram several times. and almost confirmed two ram sticks are giving us booting issues. the other two do work.

im going to input those two ram sticks on my pc and see how it boots

 

[RoZmX]

none of the ram when plugged in my motherboard work. they all issue a boot loop. when only two issued a boot loop on his computer consistantly.

 

[RoZmX]

none of the ram when plugged in my motherboard work. they all issue a boot loop. when only two issued a boot loop on his computer consistantly.

 

[Raiddinn]

You tried his RAM in your motherboard too?

 

[RoZmX]

havent tried his ram, however. if my ram worked on his computer, why wouldnt work on mine?

i can't try out his ram as it will take time away from the rendering we are doing. and we have a tight deadline.

 

[Raiddinn]

If none of your RAM works in your computer, his might.

 

[RoZmX]

where can i purchase brass standoffs? how do i know which are appropriate or my case.

i have the nzxt apollo case.



to sum things up, i have tried:

1) booting my computer with the cpu and motherboard alone. = boot looping
2) cpu motherboard and ram = boot looping (two ram sticks were not completely pushed in)
3) tried booting inside my case on top of cardboard with everything connected. (nothing, no lights,. fans nothing)
4) tried booting with everything connected on the wooden board (boot looped for several minutes)(twice it booted for more than 2 seconds. it lasted a few minutes before it turned off and turned back on - i got nothing on my screen)
5) now i'm getting nothing but boot loops on my wooden board.

 

[Raiddinn]

http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-Brass-Motherboard-Standoffs-Computer/dp/B00213KL5I/ref=dp_cp_ob_e_title_1

I got my wife some new budget RAM recently and it was restarting itself when I turned the power on. I managed to get it in right or something once and it was working ok. I needed to check something so I took one out and put it back in and it was restarting itself again. I let it go with 1 stick for a while and downloaded MemTest86 and tested the RAM. Never any errors after like 20 hours on both sticks.

It really just came down to how far into the slot it was it seems.

It worked with either stick in slot 1 but with both in any order it just wasn't going.

I guess I just wasn't pushing it in hard enough or something because everything seems to be going pretty well now with her computer.

Anyway, for me at this moment your friend's RAM is the known good RAM. He has never had problems with his, right? If you put his in yours when you get done with this project and it works, then maybe it really is bad RAM.

 

[RoZmX]

If my ram slots are broken, or fried.. would me installing my friends ram risk messing up his ram? the ram i am using now i used in my previous motherboard and they all works well. it detected all 16GB just a week ago. I sold my motherboard, bought a new one. and now it doesn't work..

if say my friends ram works. why did mine stop working,and half work in his.
and if it doesn't work - what else could it be? should i RMA?

i can't test out my friend ram until we are done rendering what we need to render :/


im freaking out bro. haha.


but i will test his ram. im losing my mind O_O

 

[Raiddinn]

How long was your RAM working in your old computer?

If it was reasonably long you never had any problems with it then it sounds like a motherboard problem that you will probably have to end up RMAing to fix it.

I seriously doubt putting his ram in your computer would fry his sticks, but there is a slim chance. If a slim chance is too much chance then just RMA your motherboard and skip that step.

 

[davcon]

Wow! have you or your friend tried testing the ram.
Like a MEMTEST86+.
http://www.memtest.org/
One stick at a time at mobo defaults.
If the ram is faulty you'll find out within 30min.

 

[RoZmX]

they have been working for 6 months and another 3 sticks for 3 weeks, they are really new.

we have tested the RAM, and it works. just nothing seems to boot my computer. it boot only twice but nothing on my monitor for a few minutes...


one thing i forgot to mention.. was when i first put in the CPU on the Motherboard was that it made a scratching noise while closing. this is my 4th build and i never had problems locking in the CPU. so all the pins are bent at a slight degree.. and some in the corner are out of position. i believe this is the issue.. as i said this is my fourth build and i find it really strange to have so much trouble locking in place.. i dont understand how they would bend if there is no room for the cpu to move around. its a perfect fit however.. i encountered scratching noises twice. i dont want to try it any more times..


so if the motherboard is the issue..
will this have effected my CPU? there are no pins its flat for the most part on my CPU, so nothing seems to be damaged/scratched.



how do i go about RMA?

i took off the heatsink and the cpu to check and i noticed all of the pins are

 

[Raiddinn]

If you got a sound that made you cringe when you tried to lock the CPU in the slot that is probably not a good thing. Your processor could have been seriously damaged by it.

 

[RoZmX]

I'm shipping the motherboard today. and I'm testing my CPU at my brothers house tonight. how could I efficiently test the CPU?

I'm also testing my gtx 560 ti and my RAM


thank you guys for all your help btw

 

[Raiddinn]

There are a variety of methods that help in addition to just using it.

http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,7146-order,1-page,1/description.html

http://www.pcmark.com/benchmarks/pcmark7/

http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft/

CPU Stability Test, PC Mark, and Prime 95 are some.

The middle one will do your video card too, as will Furmark.

Be careful of your temperatures when you are stress testing your components. Torture testing can damage internal components if you don't have a good cooling setup.

NVIDIA specifically installs a program that detects Furmark and OCCT and prevents those two programs from drawing the maximum power for extended periods of time because of all the people that take home their brand new GTX 580s and 590s and start off by running Furmark and destroy the video card on day 1, resulting in a warranty claim.

The code should apply to all current generation video cards so the 560TI will probably be throttled back too if you try to use Furmark or OCCT.

The RAM will be tested by everything else you do in general, but you can get and use MemText86 on a bootable CD and test the RAM with that as well.

 

[RoZmX]

Best answer selected by RoZmX.

 

[RoZmX]

The CPU seems to be working fine. unfortunately i didn't have time to test the graphics card. But thank you guys for the useful resources.

when you lock in the CPU, are you supposed to hear or feel anything other than a bit of resistance?