Computer Powers on and just sits there.

[caevans1988@]

Sorry if I'm not quite in the correct spot, but I am having a problem with my computer and have not been able to solve it. I recently bought a Dell XPS 720 from a friend, and it ran rather well had the occasional reboot, then one day I was playing a game and tripped a breaker in the house, after resetting the breaker I went to power up the computer and it just sat there. So I tried changing the memory, the PSU, nothing changed, read a bunch of forums, decided must be the motherboard, bought a new motherboard, installed it put the CPU back in and fired it up, and nothing again, so then of course I assumed it was the CPU, I changed it out with another CPU I had for the computer and it booted up just fine. So I took it back out, packed up the new motherboard and hooked everything back up to the original and turned the computer on and again nothing. So I figured ok must have burned up the original motherboard and cpu when i tripped the breaker. So I put the new motherboard in and the new cpu in and it booted up just fine. I packed it up and brought it back home as I was doing the work at another persons house. When I got home I hooked everything up and turned it on and it popped up the bios loading screen I walked away and came back to see it froze on the bios screen so I restarted the computer thinking it was nothing, and now its back to just sitting there not loading a bios or anything, it won't even make the monitor turn on. So if anyone has any idea as to what could be wrong feel free to share your knowledge, the specs are 1000 Watt Dell PSU, 2.66ghz Intel Core 2 Extreme, 6 GB DDR2, Nvidia 560 Ti, It has the Ceramic/Liquid cooling from Dell designed for the 720 as well. If there is any other specs you need that I can give you please ask. And its Running Windows 7. Forgot to add that I checked to see if the processor was heating up by touching it and quickly turning on the computer and removing the power cord before it could overheat and the processor is heating up so I know its getting power.

Edit: I have tried other GPU's and nothing changed so it isnt that. Also I'm not sure if this could be related but it seems that the computer will turn on whenever the power cord is plugged in, as in when I plug the cord into the PSU it turns on.

 

[Peettreedish]

Have u tried a different outlet in the house. Could be bad wiring or bad power strip. First clue is that the breaker blew. If there are to many things plugged into that outlet, you may have damaged the breaker and now you are not getting enough voltage.

 

[caevans1988@]

I have tried other outlets in the same room but not the house, but I am able to run other computers in the same room, a 650 watt and and a 550 watt. I'll give it a try and Reply.

Edit: Tried other outlets through the house, no change.

 

[Peettreedish]

Hmmm, I just noticed that you said that you tested the CPU by touching it. Are you implying that you had the heat sink off the powered it up , touched it to see if it was hot and then yanked the cord from the wall to shut off the system.

Yiiiiiiiiikkkkkkkkeeeeeeeesssss!!!!!!!!!

Probably the worst way to test a CPU . AMD is not that we'll known for thermal protection. Unlike intel that has speedstep to shut the CPU down slowly as it overheats.

Thusly you may have fried that CPU too.

 

[caevans1988@]

It's an intel chip and it didn't get nearly hot enough to overheat, before I powered it down. Like I said left it on long enough to make sure that the chip started to get warm to make sure it was even getting power. I would have ran a temp probe but I don't have one in this tower like I do my others. I wouldn't leave one on long enough to overheat. Especially as most cpu's don't truly begin to overheat til around 70-100c and that would have scalded my finger lol

 

[Peettreedish]

Sorry I had been reading another post, and AMD had just gotten stuck in my head.

Did the bios get reset?

Other than that, if you have replaced every thing there is and it still not working.
Then the only thing left is the case itself or a bad ground from the gpu. I had a computer that wouldn't turn on with certain video cards., but ran fine with others that were the same slot type.

 

[caevans1988@]

I'm not sure if the bios reset or anything, can't even get that far now. And bad ground? How would I determine that?

 

[Peettreedish]

Bios gets reset from the motherboard, physically. Generally near the CMOS battery. Or just pull the battery and leave it out for 30 sec. Then replace the battery. Try booting again.

 

[caevans1988@]

That didn't work either, I was able to get a hold of my uncle who's a big computer guru and he says from everything I've describe to him it sounds like the second time I probably friend the CPU with a ESD while I was switching around the parts and it caused a latent error that just didnt show up right away, so Im going to exchange the motherboard again and have to get a new processor I suppose which is going to suck. Thanks for your assistance tho I appreciate it.

 

[Peettreedish]

That will happen sometimes. Generally I think the rule of thumb is to touch the paper supply first when opening the case. If not using a esd wrist strap. That way you and the pc are equalized.