PC Not Posting

R

RedLetterDay

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Sep 11, 2007
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Have a bit of an odd problem here, wondering if anyone has some ideas.

About 3 weeks ago I left for vacation, powered down my PC and unplugged the surge protector from the wall knowing that I would be gone for some time. Three days ago I came back, plugged everything in, turned on my PC and noticed it won't post. Motherboard light comes on, drives power on and spin, all fans are operable (PS, CPU, Case), however no beeps or startup at all. I noticed that the hard drive light on the case also stays permanently lit and does not blink.

I tried re-seating the video card and RAM modules but neither of those helped -- I also noticed a unusually large amount of dust in the case so I purchased some compressed air and gave everything a good cleaning, still no luck. I have not tried re-seating the CPU because I don't have any extra thermal paste right now, however I'm not sure how the CPU would have possibly budged from sitting in the same place unused for 3 weeks. Also I noticed that the CPU heatsink seemed to be heating up quite normally after the PC was left running for some time.

Unfortunately I don't have any extra power supplies, RAM, or CPUs to test so I'm trying to see what I can do without step by step replacing parts. Right now I've disconnected everything aside from the main hard drive, video card, and RAM. Anyone have any ideas?

To note, its an Asus P5W Deluxe mobo with an Intel E6600 Core 2 Duo. I have had problems with this mobo before (had to replace 2 defective ones NewEgg sent me last year) but this one has been running steady for about 9 months now.
 
Is the system OC'd? If so, definately clear the CMOS as crashthenet44 mentioned.

When you take all the RAM out, do you hear any error beeps? Make sure a system speaker is plugged in. Try a single stick of RAM.

When you take the Vidcard out, do you hear any error beeps?

What PSU do you have?
 
The system was running at stock speeds so I don't believe it was an overclocking error. I will try clearing the CMOS when I get home today. I took the RAM out yesterday to check for error beeps and did not hear any, with any combination of 1 or 2 sticks and any of the four RAM slots. Same with the video card in or out and in either of the PCI-E slots.

The power supply is an Antec Truepower 550 Watt, it should be more than enough for what I'm running but I don't have an extra one lying around to test at the moment.

Would it be worth picking up some thermal compound and re-seating the CPU / Heatsink? Or is that a highly unlikely cause for this.
 
PC and unplugged the surge protector
Click to expand...

I too vote for clearing the cmos, and to be double safe while at work dl the manual and pick up a new cmos backup battery. The one in the machine should not have given up the ghost that fast but who knows and they are only a couple of bucks.

completley unplugging it made it use the cmos battery to keep the bios alive. It sounds like it couldnt do its job and the bios is corrupt.

I really, like you, doubt it could be cpu etc., just sitting there nothing but a cmos problem makes any sense.

If you normally turn off the surge protector after you shut down the machine, you could have made that battey die early. Machines now are designed to be plugged into the wall 24x7. However i would have done the same thing leaving for an extended time. I am just saying that killing the AC going to the machine will reduce the life of the cmos battery, normally they last longer than the machine.
 
Alright, bought a new battery, installed it, still no luck. I also took out the CPU and re-seated that and the heatsink with new thermal paste and that did not help anything either. Any more ideas?
 
even if the cmos battery died the pc should still POST it would just possibly display a CMOS Chksum failture and not save any of your changes you would make in the BIOS.

I would do the following,

Disconnect all optical and hard drive from the motherboard.

Remove all expansion cards except the video card.

Remove all memory except for 1 stick (if you only have 1 stick move it to another slot)

Disconnect any USB devices other than keyboard and mouse if they are usb.

Basically the only thing that should be attatched internally and externally to your PC should be Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse, 1 Stick of RAM, Video card.

then try powering up the system. I would also check your motherboard for bad capacitors while you are in ther, look for any caps that are swollen or the tops are not flat and appear to be domed looking.

I had a problem similar to this due to a faulty power supply it was a ultra x-connect luckily in my case it had the see through window so i could see all the big capacitors all swollen and some of them had leaked and corroded, the power supply would work intermitantly however i had just moved into my new place so the PC had not been powered up for over a week, time came to boot up at first it would so i checked all the connections it finally came on, every couple days i'd have an issue so i jusdt glanced at the PSU and noticed the caps.
 
I did try clearing the CMOS with no success. I may try and find a spare power supply somewhere to test because I have a feeling that could be it (maybe I'm just hoping because that's the least expensive to replace).
 
You can jump start the PSU to test if it will power on and stay on. Just google for "jump start psu" and you'll get some hits.
 
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