My homebuilt computer won't boot

[Totharious]

Hello,

I have a custom built computer that was working fine, I turned it off to install a new hard drive, then I went to power it on.

When I hit the power button, the Power Supply, CPU, and GPU fan turn on and start spinning, although it sounds kind of weak. It spins for about 20 seconds, and I get no video signal, then the system turns off. Then about 10 seconds later it starts itself up again and repeats.

So I thought, I should take that hard drive back out. So I did, it still doesn't work. I'm very confused and frustrated. I hope someone can help me fix this.

 

[jjhuang42]

is it possible you may have dislodged some cables, power, case, or data? it's easy to do that, especially when swapping a relatively large component like the hdd.

 

[Totharious]

I didn't see any dislodged cables, but I'll check again. Any other advice?

 

[jjhuang42]

not enough information to provide any more specific advice as yet. diagnosing the problem will be incremental, starting with the most basic. knocking loose cables is pretty common and easiest to find and fix. do you get any post beeps that would indicate an error msg? those usually occur if any of the key components are missing, loose, or malfunctioning (CPU, RAM, HDD, etc). Or does it just sort of power up, shut down, and repeat?

 

[Totharious]

no beeps, but I figured it out... I had bumped the Graphics card enough to knock it slightly loose. I tightened it back up and its all fixed... Thanks for your help!

 

[jjhuang42]

yeah, it was going to be the PSU or the GPU. don't you just love the easy and cheap fixes? now to get that new hdd to work!