Pc won't post :( need help

[PARANOiA]

Posting from my phone so sorry for the general layout. I went to reboot my pc - new software, no issues at all - and now it won't get to the post screen. I've had up time of weeks plus without issue.. I disconnecled everything, tried taking out each stick of memory, even reseated the processor to no avail. Also tried another video card and that didn't help. Any tips? What parts do i buy if i don't know what the issue is?

 

[PARANOiA]

Oh a couple of other things.. All parts are six months old or so. And my case doesn't have an internal speaker so i can't troubleshoot.

 

[Arwin]

What's the post screen?

 

[PARANOiA]

It doesn't get there at all. Monitor doesn't even wake up - and i have two so it,s not the monitor dying between boots .

 

[Arwin]

What kind of cable do you use? Last time I saw that kind of thing happen it was actually a broken VGA cable.

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Posting from my phone so sorry for the general layout. I went to reboot my pc - new software, no issues at all - and now it won't get to the post screen. I've had up time of weeks plus without issue.. I disconnecled everything, tried taking out each stick of memory, even reseated the processor to no avail. Also tried another video card and that didn't help. Any tips? What parts do i buy if i don't know what the issue is?

If you can get a speaker, that will help a hell of a lot. Some motherboards have little displays on the board itself, or will allow you to plug extra speakers into the inboard sound for POST errors.

Does the board power up at all ie do you get power lights on the motherboard, spinning drives, etc? If not, look at the PSU or power on switch. Even try swapping the power cable to the PSU to check you haven't blown a fuse. Make sure all the power cables to the motherboard are installed.

If the board powers, the drives spin, but nothing happens, then now is when it would be useful to have the speaker, as the beeps would tell you if it was a RAM or a videocard issue. Try swapping/reseating the video card, and removing/swapping ram sticks. It might be a faulty CPU, but this would be last on my list unless you know your heatsink isn't attached properly or you have been severely overclocking.

You should also try resetting your BIOS to default using the jumper pin/shorting method described by your board manual, as it may be a corrupt BIOS (again especially if you have been overclocking). If you have a backup BIOS, try booting off that instead.

Assuming you have checked everything else out, it may just be a faulty motherboard, and will need to be returned/replaced. Double check that you have installed the board correctly and there are no stand-offs or any other part of the case touching the motherboard at the back where it might short something and cause this kind of behaviour.

 

[PARANOiA]

Thanks for the massive post. I do have power and the drives spin as per normal - just nothing beyond that. I have tried reseating the video card and swapping memory sticks but that didn't help. I also did a pin reset but no luck there. I wasn't overclocking - just normal use, reboot and then a dead machine can't think of much else to do now but try a new board. Any suggestions on a good board for a ddr3 and q6600 combo? I currently have a p5qc though i am not overly impressed with it right now heh heh. Thanks all

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

What drives are you using? Have you tried booting off a boot disc, or even disconnecting the drives to see if it boots but gives you a no boot drive error?

I'm using a P5Q Deluxe, so I would probably have recommended the DDR3 version, but it looks like it's let you down.

 

[suryad]

Something tells me that your video cable is kaput because it happened to my brother.

If not then the only thing I can think of is your mobo let you down

 

[Bludd]

Does it beep once when it starts up? Does the fan on the graphics card spin up and stay at full speed?

Have you tried unplugging the power and CMOS battery and leaving it for a minute or so?

 

[Davros]

you have a p5qc - it has built in linux can it boot into that no ?

 

[digitalwanderer]

You tried reseating the video card, have you tried a different viddy card or the onboard graphics if your mobo has them? For some weird reason I've had luck switching GPUs on dead machines and getting them to boot...

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

you have a p5qc - it has built in linux can it boot into that no ?

If it won't post to the BIOS, he won't be able to get to the SSD.

 

[cychris]

Try POSTing with one one RAM stick.

Last time this happened to me was faulty RAM

 

[PARANOiA]

An update (from work PC, thankfully!):

I have tried

• Booting with each RAM stick individually
• Booting with NO RAM (is that even possible?)
• Changing the video card with an old one
• Reseating the current video card
• Powering down and removing the CMOS battery for a minute
• Removing and replacing the CPU
• Disconnecting all drives (this was the first thing I did)

I had 3x1tb SATA drives plus a SATA optical drive if that matters.

I have no beeps due to a lack of PC speaker, but the PC looks just like it would if it "could" beep - nothing on screen, and no HDD activity indicating it's booting normally. I have two monitors hooked up - one DVI, one DVI->HDMI, and neither screen shows activity. I haven't tried just booting with the HDMI connector (my HDTV) but I'll have a go at that next.

I can't get into the BIOS/use a boot disc since I physically get nothing on screen - it doesn't get to the post screen.

I have no display telling me any info about the nature of the problem (LED onboard or otherwise).

My options as I see them are:

• Try and hook up a PC speaker for trouble-shooting. I don't know where to start there... can you buy "after-market" internal PC speakers that hook up to the two-prong thingies on the mobo?
• Try and buy new parts until I find one that's not broken

My order of parts would probably be

• Motherboard
• CPU
• Video card (in case the spare is dead too :/ )
• RAM

My main headache is if I buy a new CPU/mobo I'd probably want to upgrade - but I can't without buying both at the same time!

Anyway - any other tips/things I can test?

 

[PARANOiA]

Oh a couple of other points raised/asked:

• GPU spins up as per normal - doesn't seem to be anything odd there
• One thing that's a bit odd, so I'm not sure if it's "normal" or a warning sign... when I turn the machine on after removing a bit of hardware/changing something major, the PC will turn on as normal for about three seconds (no posting), turn off, then turn back on and not post. So basically it seems to be doing a mini-reset after changing hardware. Haven't seen anything like that on any PC I've used in the past.

Thanks again

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Oh a couple of other points raised/asked:

• One thing that's a bit odd, so I'm not sure if it's "normal" or a warning sign... when I turn the machine on after removing a bit of hardware/changing something major, the PC will turn on as normal for about three seconds (no posting), turn off, then turn back on and not post. So basically it seems to be doing a mini-reset after changing hardware. Haven't seen anything like that on any PC I've used in the past.

Thanks again

That's normal after a full loss of power (PSU powered off), or a major change in the BIOS. Effectively, it's cold rebooting with the new BIOS settings, rather than just changing the settings and continuing to boot.

To me it tends to imply something like a corrupt BIOS. I've seen it when I've pushed the BIOS out of booting spec and got the same symptoms you describe, but I just reset the BIOS with the CMOS jumper.

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

An update (from work PC, thankfully!):

Powering down and removing the CMOS battery for a minute

You need to actually move the reset jumper too. Just removing the battery isn't enough. I've heard variations on this, but IIRC, the guy that does the third party BIOSes swears by:

1. Power down and unplug the PSU.
2. Remove the CMOS battery.
3. Move the BIOS reset jumper.
4. Press the power switch on the PC case/motherboard a couple of times.
5. Move the CMOS jumper back.
6. Replace the CMOS battery.
7. Plug in the PSU.
8. Power up.


There is also the option of swapping out the second BIOS chip. It's supposed to work automatically, but if you have real problems, people have got their systems back by swapping the two BIOS chips about (they are socketed, not soldered).

If that solves your problem, then you either have to send off for a new BIOS chip, or if you are feeling particularly brave, you loosen the chips, boot off the working BIOS, hot swap the chips and then re-flash the corrupted chip. It's not a procedure for the faint of heart.

 

[PARANOiA]

You need to actually move the reset jumper too. Just removing the battery isn't enough. I've heard variations on this, but IIRC, the guy that does the third party BIOSes swears by:

1. Power down and unplug the PSU.
2. Remove the CMOS battery.
3. Move the BIOS reset jumper.
4. Press the power switch on the PC case/motherboard a couple of times.
5. Move the CMOS jumper back.
6. Replace the CMOS battery.
7. Plug in the PSU.
8. Power up.


There is also the option of swapping out the second BIOS chip. It's supposed to work automatically, but if you have real problems, people have got their systems back by swapping the two BIOS chips about (they are socketed, not soldered).

If that solves your problem, then you either have to send off for a new BIOS chip, or if you are feeling particularly brave, you loosen the chips, boot off the working BIOS, hot swap the chips and then re-flash the corrupted chip. It's not a procedure for the faint of heart.

Thanks BZB. I tried removing the jumper last night (didn't follow your instructions since I didn't have a computer to read it on funnily enough) however no go there. I'll go the whole hog tonight and see how it goes.

I also ripped a system speaker out of an old case I had lying about - and had no beeps at all. I tried this with and without RAM in, too. So I'm thinking possibly a dead board, but I'll try the full power-down CMOS reset idea.

I'm not savvy enough to try the BIOS chip swapping... my first thought when I read your post was "where do I get a second BIOS chip?" Any links you may have would be useful.

My last idea is to simply replace the board with another and see how that goes. Cheers all :]

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Thanks BZB. I tried removing the jumper last night (didn't follow your instructions since I didn't have a computer to read it on funnily enough) however no go there. I'll go the whole hog tonight and see how it goes.

Check your motherboard manual. If yours is like mine, you have to move the jumper to the reset pin - just removing it isn't enough.

I'm not savvy enough to try the BIOS chip swapping... my first thought when I read your post was "where do I get a second BIOS chip?" Any links you may have would be useful.

There are (IIRC) two on the motherboard, one is the live one and one is the backup. They should do their thing automatically, but if the primary is trashed, you can manually swap them over.

If you then don't want to reflash the faulty one via a hot swap, you would buy a replacement from Asus.

My last idea is to simply replace the board with another and see how that goes. Cheers all :]

That might be the final thing, but I have a sneaking suspicion that you haven't reset the BIOS properly, or that it's corrupted, and the board might be recovered with a full reset or even replacing/swapping the BIOS.