My old PC doesn't boot anymore, screen remains black

C

CutterX

Weaksauce
Joined
Feb 3, 2009
Messages
108
Hello,
My old PC stopped booting one day without explanation. Its fans keep spinning, the hard drive and DVD drive are powered but not the keyboard and mouse (their LEDs are off), and the screen remains black (no signal). The motherboard's phase LEDs, which according the manual indicate the CPU load, are all on. The manual doesn't tell if those LEDs are here to indicate an error. If I boot the computer without a GPU, it seems to boot normally because the front activity LED keeps blinking and the phase LEDs turn off after a few seconds.

The hardware:
  • P55A-UD3R
  • i7 860
  • Radeon HD5870 or GTX 1660
  • Corsair HX660
What I've tried:
  • rotating RAM sticks
  • resetting the CMOS
  • replacing the CMOS battery
  • changing the GPU
  • booting with as few peripherals as possible (no disks)
I've given it to a repair shop and they could boot it with GTX 1660 on a live distro (I had removed the SSD). However when I've tried to boot it after picking it up, it still had the same problem, so it was probably just mere luck. What else could I try ?
 
The shop swapped in a different ssd? <--- if so, thats where I'd start.
What about the psu? Did they test with yours or theirs?
Was the testing done on a bench or in your case?
Did they indicate which slot they tested the gpu in?
Did they try different driver versions?

I can't think of anything else right now.
 
hititnquitit said:
The shop swapped in a different ssd? <--- if so, thats where I'd start.
Click to expand...
No, they booted a live Debian on a USB stick or a live CD.

hititnquitit said:
What about the psu? Did they test with yours or theirs?
Click to expand...
With mine.
hititnquitit said:
Was the testing done on a bench or in your case?
Click to expand...
I don't know.
hititnquitit said:
Did they indicate which slot they tested the gpu in?
Click to expand...
The 16x one. I tried both the 4x one and the 16x one.
hititnquitit said:
Did they try different driver versions?
Click to expand...
No they didn't have to.
 
I will try that, although it didn't boot with SATA devices removed.
It seems to boot if I remove the GPU, although I confirmed the GPU isn't faulty.
 
CutterX said:
I will try that, although it didn't boot with SATA devices removed.
It seems to boot if I remove the GPU, although I confirmed the GPU isn't faulty.
Click to expand...
Hmmmm I had a similar issue with a bad GPU. Maybe remove the GPU, clear CMOS and then reinstall the other GPU?
 
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