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Build Troubles

S

Sleepingforest

Platinum Member
Hey guys, I've turned around and I'm asking for help again. Here's the scenario: I've got a buddy who's trying to build his own PC. He's got an Asrock H77M, 2x4GB sticks of G. Skill 1600MHz 9-9-9-24 RAM, an i5-3470, a Corsair CX600, a MSI 7850 TFIII, a Seagate 500GB HDD, and a NXZT Gamma.

A few weeks ago, we sucessfully put it all together. A few days after, there was a "DVI error" (in his words) and that output on his graphics card stopped working. He then switched to the iGPU for a while. Then, one day, the thing dies. Completely dead, won't boot, and no error log I can access.

He's RMA'd the motherboard and PSU. I've tested the CPU, and it boots into my PC.

UPDATE: The exact scenario was this: he booted one day, and DVI would not work. Period. He turns it off competely, and then remounts the RAM and graphics card in case there was a problem there. Then it won't boot at all. I have personally checked, and the PCIe power connector is in place, the card is in the correct location, and the RAM sticks are in the only 2 slots, mounted firmly.

Any ideas?
 
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It certainly isn't the power supply. Could be the motherboard, but if it was really a DVI (graphics) issue, it's more likely a gpu issue. When he used the iGPU, did he actually switch to the motherboard graphics output? I wonder if there are two unrelated issues.

By the way, it would help to know what he was doing when the first error occurred. Playing a game or just sitting at the desktop?

Nice of you to test his cpu in your system. That's a lot if work!
 
Hey Termie, thanks for the reply! We live pretty close, so it was easy to pop his CPU into my rig briefly. It power on, POSTed and everything. I need to check with him for the dirty details of the failure. 😛
 
I would check to see if onboard video is working as well as testing the graphics card in a working system. Not booting at all seems odd, if it was a video card issue I would think it should still boot.
 
Yeah, it just doesn't boot. I suspect maybe static from when he remounted stuff killed it, but he RMA'd the mobo and PSU, so who knows?
 
Sleepingforest said:
Yeah, it just doesn't boot. I suspect maybe static from when he remounted stuff killed it, but he RMA'd the mobo and PSU, so who knows?
Click to expand...

Floor is carpeted and humidity low in his house? If yes, he certainly would have given the board so much invisible lighting that Emperor Palpatine would be jealous.


First thing he should have done was simply try the onboard mobo DVI without opening the case at all.
 
Floor was hardwood, and since he knows about static, I suspect that he actually did discharge himself. The CPU still works, which is confusing for me. If the CPU works, the mobo is RMA'd and thus probably good, and the PSU is RMA'd and probably good, does that mean it has to be the memory keeping him from booting?

Man, I should have definitely kept a couple of extra DDR3 DIMMs around the house for cases like this...
 
Sleepingforest said:
Floor was hardwood, and since he knows about static, I suspect that he actually did discharge himself. The CPU still works, which is confusing for me. If the CPU works, the mobo is RMA'd and thus probably good, and the PSU is RMA'd and probably good, does that mean it has to be the memory keeping him from booting?

Man, I should have definitely kept a couple of extra DDR3 DIMMs around the house for cases like this...
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First thing he has to worry about is that GPU being a bad apple and possibly RMA'ing that thing. Did he try booting the system with the GPU not physically attached to the board?

Also, by not booting, does it still power on but Windows doesn't boot or does it not even start up the fans?
 
Are there any lights on the motherboard that lit up when the system was plugged in?

If not, it had to be the power supply, although that's a strange failure to occur. If there are lights, it's probably a motherboard or RAM issue.
 
Termie said:
Are there any lights on the motherboard that lit up when the system was plugged in?

If not, it had to be the power supply, although that's a strange failure to occur. If there are lights, it's probably a motherboard or RAM issue.
Click to expand...

I also have an H77M, and there are no indicator lights on it.


Digressing from the topic at hand, the H77M absolutely great if you want to use legacy printers that use parallel ports because it got all the headers. The really nice thing about the board is that you can set in BIOS to have the computer turn on by pressing a key on the keyboard or moving the mouse, thereby extending the life of the power button on the computer case. :awe:
 
Strip it down! Pull the mobo out of the case and run it with just the CPU, HSF, and one DIMM. See if you get a post, if not try the other DIMM.
 
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Man, no multimeter. Time to go old fashioned with the ol' paper clip trick, the ol' "one DIMM at a time" trick, and the ol' "put the mobo on some cardboard" trick.
 
Sleepingforest said:
Man, no multimeter. Time to go old fashioned with the ol' paper clip trick, the ol' "one DIMM at a time" trick, and the ol' "put the mobo on some cardboard" trick.
Click to expand...

Sometimes the old ways are the best ways being that they are tried and true. If those don't help you narrow down the issue I would be very surprised.
 
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