My new PC won't boot

D

Dopeski

n00b
Joined
Apr 19, 2009
Messages
5
Hey, I've been a long time lurker and I've managed to fix all my PC problems by lurking on these boards. Now I've finally ran into a problem I can't seem to find a fix for.

My Situation:

I put my new-ish computer to Sleep for the first time last night and it didn't shut down completely, the fans and the power supply were still running. Now it won't boot (Screen is completely black. Monitor won't turn on). I had been on the PC all day installing new drivers and new Windows updates. I did many restarts.

What it does:

I click the Power button and after 2-4 seconds the power to the fans, power supply, and (I assume) the CPU comes on. After 4 seconds it all turns off. Another 4 seconds go by and it turns back on and doesn't turn off again.

While I was writing this thread I tried the BIOS reset and now I have a new but similar problem:

I reset the BIOS by taking out the CMOS battery and now the PC turns on just fine (No delay and no restart) but nothing shows up on the screen still.

What I've tried so far:

-A different PSU
-A different monitor
-A different video card
-My new RAM, my old RAM, and other RAM
-Using different RAM slots, 1 stick, 2 sticks, 4 sticks
-Taking it out of the case and turning it on
-Resetting the BIOS by taking out the battery

My build:

-Intel E6600 2.40 Core 2 Duo CPU 1066 bus (2 years old)
-Nvidia GTX 260 (Brand new)
-G.Skill 1066 5-5-5 2x2g (Brand new)
-ASUS P5QL PRO motherboard (Brand new)
-OCZ GameXStream 600W PSU (2 years old)

An interesting note:

I had trouble installing Vista on this board. I kept getting BSOD when I would use my 1066 RAM, but it would install XP just fine. I switched to 800 RAM and with it I installed Vista just fine. Later after it was installed I swapped the 1066 RAM back in and it worked all day right up until I put it to Sleep.


So I have no idea what to do. I'm worried that if I exchange the motherboard for a new one that I'll run into the same problem. I think it might be the CPU, but it worked just fine on my old board a few days ago.

Any ideas?
 
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its possible the board killed it self but very unlikely.. another option would be to pull the cmos battery.. unplug the PSU from the motherboard (24 pin).. leave it that way for a few minutes.. then plug it back in and put the cmos battery back in.. its the most sure way to know that the bios actually reset.. but it really just sounds like its stuck in sleep mode..
 
I had no idea a PC could get stuck in sleep mode. I'll try removing the CMOS battery with the PSU unplugged from the motherboard and I'll see if that works.
 
sometimes it can happen if the motherboards not setup correctly to support sleep mode.. the motherboard has to be set to s3 or s4 power mode for sleep mode to work correctly.. if its not then all hell can break loose..
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
sometimes it can happen if the motherboards not setup correctly to support sleep mode.. the motherboard has to be set to s3 or s4 power mode for sleep mode to work correctly.. if its not then all hell can break loose..
Click to expand...

Hmm, strange. How can I check if my motherboard is set to s3 or s4 power mode?
 
Sounds to me like a ram problem. It might be that your not feeding enough volts to the 1066 ram. Have you tried swapping back to the 800 ram?

If you can get into your bios with your 800 speed ram, check your ram voltage settings. Set it up manually to the specks for your 1066 ram and try it again.

Edit: Oops, I see you already tried swapping back to the old ram. Only other thing I can think of is take the cmos battery out and leave it out over night with the pc un-plugged, then try it again the next day. Sometimes it takes awhile to fully reset the cmos.

If that does not work, then the only thing left is the motherboard has a problem and a rma would be in order.
 
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I took the motherboard back to the PC store I bought it from and after testing it with a new CPU they told me that it works just fine. His guess is that it's a Vista 64 bit Sleep issue. He told me about certain Vista PC's being very finicky when there is 4+ gigs of ram installed. He also told me to stop using Sleep mode if I don't want it to happen again. How frustrating.
 
It might be a hardware problem, but it sounds like something to do with the software. If so, the best thing to do is reformat.
 
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