Homebuilt 3yrs old

[jonno208]

Hi guys
I built my first pc 3 yrs ago and still have it. About two weeks ago i pressed the power button it started then shut off. I tryed it a few times but nothing happend. I assumed the psu was dead. So i bought a new one. It arrived to day I put it in ready to feed my addiction. But for some reason neither of my hdds will start up now so it sits at the mobos screen. Nothing responds i try and go into boot menu nothing happens. Is there any reason this would be happening? and are my files gone.

The to anyone who replys.

 

[jonno208]

Haha nvm guys i moved the ram to the other slots and now its booting sry bout that. Gl guys

 

[capt_taco]

My guess is most likely a motherboard problem. It can't be the hard drives if it's not getting past the BIOS (or even letting you into the BIOS), so your data probably isn't gone. And probably not the PSU if the new one didn't help.

It would help if you posted the full specs of the system, particularly the motherboard and RAM. I have a hunch that it has to do with the motherboard not properly dealing with the settings of the RAM - if the timings or voltage are off, that can cause the start-then-stop problem you described.

Particularly on a system that old, sometimes that problem can happen if the motherboard's battery goes dead - if you have RAM that requires more voltage than usual, or requires you to set the timings manually .. the battery dies and then the BIOS goes blank and tries to boot from factory defaults every time, which fails. Or, in a system that's been around for a while, especially with RAM that's overvolted, the RAM itself can start to go bad, develop cracks in the soldering and so forth, or just develop a bad sector that's in an unlucky place that gets hit right away every time the system tries to boot. Can also happen if one of the RAM slots on the motherboard goes bad.

Bottom line, I'd try testing the system with only one stick of standard-voltage RAM that you know is good (1.5V for DDR3, 1.8V for DDR2) and see if that helps. When you have the start-then-stop problem, if it's not a problem with the PSU or some kind of short, most often I've seen it be a RAM issue.

 

[jonno208]

The old PSU was definitely a problem. It was completely dead. My pc did not respond when i tryed to power it on. But when i put my new psu in it did respond but was stuck a the BIOS.

GPU: Saphire ATI Radeon 4870 Vapor 1GB
CPU: Phenom 2 x4 965 black edition
Mobo: http://ee.gigabyte.com/products/page/mb/ga-ma790x-ud3p_10/
RAM: Corsair 800Mhz XMS2 2x2Gbs 1.8V

My guess is most likely a motherboard problem. It can't be the hard drives if it's not getting past the BIOS (or even letting you into the BIOS), so your data probably isn't gone. And probably not the PSU if the new one didn't help.

It would help if you posted the full specs of the system, particularly the motherboard and RAM. I have a hunch that it has to do with the motherboard not properly dealing with the settings of the RAM - if the timings or voltage are off, that can cause the start-then-stop problem you described.

Particularly on a system that old, sometimes that problem can happen if the motherboard's battery goes dead - if you have RAM that requires more voltage than usual, or requires you to set the timings manually .. the battery dies and then the BIOS goes blank and tries to boot from factory defaults every time, which fails. Or, in a system that's been around for a while, especially with RAM that's overvolted, the RAM itself can start to go bad, develop cracks in the soldering and so forth, or just develop a bad sector that's in an unlucky place that gets hit right away every time the system tries to boot. Can also happen if one of the RAM slots on the motherboard goes bad.

Bottom line, I'd try testing the system with only one stick of standard-voltage RAM that you know is good (1.5V for DDR3, 1.8V for DDR2) and see if that helps. When you have the start-then-stop problem, if it's not a problem with the PSU or some kind of short, most often I've seen it be a RAM issue.