Desktop PC Is going nuts. Help me.

[Jerdann]

Okay, so I have a custom built computer, initially was for just internet / whatever, but its slowly turned gaming.
This may be a TL;DR, but if you end up reading it, Ive tried to explain as clearly as I could.

Im currently running a
Gigabyte Z77M D3H MVP Motherboard (Yes its crap, one of the things I never upgraded)
Intel i5 3570k with a Corsair h60 cooling system on it.
16 Gigs of typical Vengeance ram
MSI Gtx 660 Ti PE/OC Graphics card
Corsair CX750w PSU.
Got a Crucial M4 64Gig SSD for Windows
and a 1tb Western Digital Caviar Black slave drive.

OKay, so now the problems.
It ran fine for the past 5 months.

As of two days ago, I shut the computer down to go to bed, ended up not being able to sleep and turned it back on, stuck at the bios screen and wouldnt go anywhere, nor would it let me press any buttons to enter menus.

So I did the typical troubleshooting and spent an hour checking connections, nothing fixed it.
So I unplugged everything and re-plugged it in, one by one trying to find out what the culprit was.
But, it ended up only booting up when my SSD and HD were plugged in.
Plugged in my Disc tray or my GPU and it would hang on the bios screen.

So I reset the CMOS battery and plugged in my disc tray after a few minutes, it booted up, but wouldnt boot with my graphics card.

I got kinda mad, went to bed, woke up in the morning (while my GPU was still plugged in) and it booted up fine with the GPU plugged in.

So I assumed okay, my power supply is probably dying since it seemed to be having problems powering everything.
(I initially had an OCZ 550watt PSU in, but I upgraded to the corsair one after making the PSU Diagnosis, which clearly, I didnt really need)

So I go and drop a decent chunk of change on the new PSU, get home and install it, boots up no problem.
So I reformatted my harddrive just incase (64gig SSD) and it ran great, all night.

Then today I get home from work, stuck at the bios screen.
I take out my GPU and it boots up fine.

Is my motherboard the one thats dying? Maybe my PCI e slot is dead, or dying.
Or is my GPU pooched?

I dont want to a) wait 2 weeks for the RMA on the card if its the motherboard, and I dont want to go out tomorrow and buy a new motherboard if its my GPU.

How can I go about finding out which one of these it is?


Thanks a tonne,

Jerd

 

[Jerdann]

Quick update - I plugged my GPU into my roommates pc, it booted up no problem.

Leads me to believe either something is dead on my Mobo, or my sata set up is all wonky possibly in the bios or the actual wiring itself and its stopping me from booting.

Need some help ;(

EDIT: I found out I can edit posts.

ANYWAYS
Small breakthrough.

I unplugged my disc drive and my 2nd harddrive, threw my GPU back in and gave it a go.
It was stuck on the bios screen again, but while I was checking toms on my phone, after like 2.5 minutes, it booted up.

So what the hell.
Wont boot up with everything plugged in, boots up fine with no GPU at all.
Boots up fine with GPU plugged in, but nothing else.

How do I even diagnose this problem....

Is it something as simple as my CMOS battery dying?
I took it out once or twice, didnt seem to help, even put it to my tongue briefly to test if it still had a charge and it did.

Heeelp ;(

 

[camohanna]

Could be the motherboard. Hard to tell. I suggest getting an ASrock Extreme4 if you want to get a new motherboard.

 

[Jerdann]

Thats the one I was looking into getting about a month ago on Newegg, but I went with a graphics card instead.

However, a local shop has it in right now for 125, so Ill pick it up tomorrow and see how it goes!

Thanks