My new home built computer won't turn on

[cjw217]

I recently built a gaming PC and it seemed like everything was going well on it. It was working just fine for two days, it was playing games and running everything just fine, but when I went to turn it on tonight, it wasn't working. So I opened it up and made sure everything was plugged in right, still nothing. When I try to turn it on it looks like the fans are about to turn on but then nothing happens. I can't figure out the problem and I need help. Do you think maybe there is a bad part or something like that?

here are my specs

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H77-DS3H ATX LGA1155 Motherboard

Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 670 4GB Video Card

Case: Corsair 400R ATX Mid Tower Case

Power Supply: OCZ ZT 650W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply

Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)

 

[Rockdpm]

all hardware is properly plugged in to to the power supply? Everything seated properly? BIOS up to date to support the Ivy bridge CPU?

 

[Fulgurant]

I recently built a gaming PC and it seemed like everything was going well on it. It was working just fine for two days, it was playing games and running everything just fine, but when I went to turn it on tonight, it wasn't working. So I opened it up and made sure everything was plugged in right, still nothing. When I try to turn it on it looks like the fans are about to turn on but then nothing happens. I can't figure out the problem and I need help. Do you think maybe there is a bad part or something like that?

here are my specs

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H77-DS3H ATX LGA1155 Motherboard

Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 670 4GB Video Card

Case: Corsair 400R ATX Mid Tower Case

Power Supply: OCZ ZT 650W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply

Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)

Nice build.

You might have a short somewhere -- like a loose screw that got jostled into the wrong place over the two days you were using the computer. That's the first thing I'd check if you're absolutely sure everything's plugged in correctly.

After that, you might try pulling out the CMOS battery for a few minutes and then replacing it.

After that ... it's time to start thinking about RMAing the motherboard and/or the power supply.

Those are the only things I can think of; sorry to hear about your problem. That's no fun.

(EDIT: Oh, and just to make sure that all the really obvious bases are covered -- try plugging the computer into another wall outlet, on the off chance there's something wrong with the one you're currently using.)

 

[Ironsounds]

Hello... the first 30 days is the ACID test for any electronics failures... The fans start to turn very fast at start-up is normal, Like a self test... simple things at this point would be to re-seat your memory, your graphic card, power connectors, and Fan connectors.
Do you have a case speaker hooked up? any beeps?
are you familiar with getting into your BIO's?

 

[cjw217]

Nice build.

You might have a short somewhere -- like a loose screw that got jostled into the wrong place over the two days you were using the computer. That's the first thing I'd check if you're absolutely sure everything's plugged in correctly.

After that, you might try pulling out the CMOS battery for a few minutes and then replacing it.

After that ... it's time to start thinking about RMAing the motherboard and/or the power supply.

Those are the only things I can think of; sorry to hear about your problem. That's no fun.

(EDIT: Oh, and just to make sure that all the really obvious bases are covered -- try plugging the computer into another wall outlet, on the off chance there's something wrong with the one you're currently using.)

Okay so I removed the CMOS battery for a few minutes and then I put it back in. I tested it out, and it worked!! but now I've run in to another problem it's saying that everything has been reset and that I have to re install windows. I think I may have pressed the reset button the last time I used it. do you think that was the problem? And also is there any way to get windows back to where it was? I know I was only using it for two days but in those two days I downloaded all my games and that took forever!

 

[Fulgurant]

Okay so I removed the CMOS battery for a few minutes and then I put it back in. I tested it out, and it worked!! but now I've run in to another problem it's saying that everything has been reset and that I have to re install windows. I think I may have pressed the reset button the last time I used it. do you think that was the problem? And also is there any way to get windows back to where it was? I know I was only using it for two days but in those two days I downloaded all my games and that took forever!

I'm glad you're back in business, first of all.

This new problem is a little odd though. Two possible causes come to mind:

1.) The settings in your BIOS were reset when the CMOS battery was taken out, and your boot-drive order was disrupted. Check to make sure that your system drive is set as the boot drive in the BIOS.

2.) I don't have any personal experience with this, but Gigabyte, as far as I know, uses a dual-BIOS system to protect people from bad BIOS updates (if you corrupt your BIOS, there's a backup). There's a small chance your CMOS-reset trick fooled the motherboard into using the second BIOS (either because your first one really was corrupted somehow, or just by mistake). Again, double-check the BIOS settings. If you haven't mucked with updating either BIOS, then both versions should be fundamentally equivalent.

Make sure your BIOS is set to use the same SATA protocol that it was before (IDE or AHCI).

What exactly is the nature of the error message? Does the computer ask you to insert a Windows install disk and that's it? Or is there more to it? Are you getting the corrupt-install error? If so, is there no option to repair?

In any case, if you don't have a backup and you don't have a secondary disk on which you can do a fresh install of Windows (and assuming none of the above fix your problem), then I'm afraid you'll have lost the game installations. If you could copy the game-install directories* before reinstalling Windows, then you would be fine -- but a clean install of Windows will wipe the disk, so there's no going back once you opt for the clean install.

(* - If you copy the install directories onto a new system disk -- in the default location, steamapps or whatever -- then whatever online service you use will usually patch the games for you. The main thing is to avoid re-downloading the bulk of the files.)

 

[cjw217]

I'm glad you're back in business, first of all.

This new problem is a little odd though. Two possible causes come to mind:

1.) The settings in your BIOS were reset when the CMOS battery was taken out, and your boot-drive order was disrupted. Check to make sure that your system drive is set as the boot drive in the BIOS.

2.) I don't have any personal experience with this, but Gigabyte, as far as I know, uses a dual-BIOS system to protect people from bad BIOS updates (if you corrupt your BIOS, there's a backup). There's a small chance your CMOS-reset trick fooled the motherboard into using the second BIOS (either because your first one really was corrupted somehow, or just by mistake). Again, double-check the BIOS settings. If you haven't mucked with updating either BIOS, then both versions should be fundamentally equivalent.

Make sure your BIOS is set to use the same SATA protocol that it was before (IDE or AHCI).

What exactly is the nature of the error message? Does the computer ask you to insert a Windows install disk and that's it? Or is there more to it? Are you getting the corrupt-install error? If so, is there no option to repair?

In any case, if you don't have a backup and you don't have a secondary disk on which you can do a fresh install of Windows (and assuming none of the above fix your problem), then I'm afraid you'll have lost the game installations. If you could copy the game-install directories* before reinstalling Windows, then you would be fine -- but a clean install of Windows will wipe the disk, so there's no going back once you opt for the clean install.

(* - If you copy the install directories onto a new system disk -- in the default location, steamapps or whatever -- then whatever online service you use will usually patch the games for you. The main thing is to avoid re-downloading the bulk of the files.)

I fixed the problem. It turns out that it wasn't booting up from my hard drive, so it didn't show that I already had windows installed. Thanks for all your help!!

 

[cjw217]

Best answer selected by cjw217.