New computer won't boot

C

c0nfusion

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 8, 2004
Messages
208
I just built the rig in my sig. It was working fine for two days when I put it together. I moved it to my apartment today. I didn't do anything besides disconnect it, and I carefully placed it in my car. There were no big bumps or anything on the way. I hooked it up again when I arrived at my apartment, and now it won't POST. I hit the power button and the fans all come on, but nothing appears on the screen. The video card has four LED lights on it and the first, third, and fourth flash about every 3 seconds. Every time they blink, the fan on the video card stops spinning for a second and restarts itself.

I've tried to look online but I can't seem to find any information on video card LED error codes. I tried resetting the CMOS, reseating the GPU and RAM, unplugging and replugging in the PCI-E power cables to no avail. Anyone have any suggestions?
 
You should reconnect everything to make sure nothing came loose first.
 
Hm... try another vidcard if you can. Also try another psu. Did you try setting it all up outside of the case (barebone bench test)?
 
I actually have nothing but a laptop available on the side, so unfortunately swapping parts out is not possible. I don't see how the hardware could have failed as it was fine before I disconnected it about 8 hours ago.
 
I just disassembled and rebuilt the whole computer. It's doing the same thing. Power cycling and LEDs on the video card flash on/vid card fan stops every 5ish seconds. No POST and no thing on the screen.
 
Not that this is the same issue, but I had that happen once when moving and it ended up being the power supply for some strange reason. See if you can borrow one to test.
 
Has anyone seen this problem before? Power cycling with vid card fan restarting every 5 seconds (and no post).
 
I really don't have anyone with the same type of system nearby, so any parts I use to troubleshoot will have to be purchased. Where would I even begin?
 
begin with psu, then vidcard. if you purchase, find a place that doesn't charge restocking fee for returns. ;) or just take it to a shop and have them diagnose it for a small charge, hopefully $20 or less (or free).
 
enginurd said:
begin with psu, then vidcard. if you purchase, find a place that doesn't charge restocking fee for returns. ;) or just take it to a shop and have them diagnose it for a small charge, hopefully $20 or less (or free).
Click to expand...

Hm what kind of shop? Do Mom and Pop computer shops exist anymore? I know the Geek Squad (shudder) won't even breathe on my computer for less than 50 bucks.
 
The only thing I can think of that may have happened is that some thermal grease dripped onto the CPU pins/mobo as there may have been too much. Do you think this could cause a short and cause the symptoms described above? I'm going to try and clean everything off and reseat the proc one more time and cross my fingers...if that fails, I know something is dead.
 
I just did the bareboard test. Hooked up the motherboard outside the case with just one stick of RAM, the CPU, and the HSF. No POST beeps. I swapped out the stick of RAM with the other and tried multiple RAM slots to no avail. So, to me this looks like either a dead motherboard or a dead CPU.

An interesting side note is that once I turn the mobo on using the power switch on the mobo, I can't turn it off with that switch. The only way to turn it off is by hitting the switch on the PSU. I'm not sure if that's relevant or not, but it's another observation.

So what do you guys think? Dead CPU or mobo?
 
Last edited:
Follow up: I just received my new MSI 790FX-GD70 mobo in the mail and - it turns out - we were right. It was the motherboard. Everything is up and running now, RMA'ing the Gigabyte board.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top