computer won't boot, bad processor or something else?

[Josh88]

So about a week ago I started experiencing random crashes and restarts, as well my computer occasionally failing to boot windows. After a few days of this it restarted on me once and wouldn't boot after that. There were horizontal lines all across the display, and it kept loading startup repair and searching for the issue, followed by a restart and repeat of this process. After doing this a few times it finally restarted and wouldn't even POST.

I troubleshooted every piece of hardware besides the motherboard and CPU and still had the same problem. I reseated everything, nothing made a difference. I decided the issue was most likely the motherboard, so I ordered a new one and installed it today. It booted, but again with horizontal lines everywhere and just a generally messed up display. It started doing the same startup repair thing, and again after a few tries it stopped and now won't POST or do anything. The fans are on, there's just no signal to the monitor and no evidence that it's doing anything.

My question is, would a bad processor cause these types of problems? It seems to be extremely rare that a processor would die like this. It worked perfectly for 18 months, was never exposed to anywhere near critical temperatures and was never overclocked or even touched since it was installed. I've basically ruled out everything else at this point though, if it won't boot when stripped to the motherboard and processor and I've swapped the motherboard, what else could it be?

I'm leaning towards buying a new processor and trying it out, but I don't want to waste any more money on this machine and find out the problem is elsewhere. Any advice or suggestions would be really appreciated, thanks.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

When you say you troubleshot every piece of hardware except for the MB and CPU, what specifically did you to to test the hardware.

 

[Josh88]

I swapped everything with my other machine short of the motherboard and processor (different sockets) where it worked fine. I've had issues with PSUs before so I considered that, but when I installed it in my other pc it booted with no problems, and a new PSU in the bad machine didn't change anything. Even if another piece of hardware was the issue, why would it still not be able to boot when it's stripped to mobo/cpu/psu?

As I said I can't see what it could be besides the processor, that just makes no sense to me either.

 

[RebateMonger]

Is the monitor OK?

How about making a Linux Live CD and booting to that? That will test your memory, CPU, and other hardware, bypassing any Windows operating system issues.

 

[Josh88]

The monitor is ok, however the DVI adapter isn't. That wasn't the root of the problem as it still wouldn't boot when I connected the VGA cord to the onboard video, but apparently it needs replacing.

I'm starting to think the issue is with the power source, the 6-way it was plugged into randomly died today. I've also replaced multiple PSUs which seemed strange. I had 2 computer plugged into the same outlet because of the setup of the room they're in, but I switched one to another outlet to see if that does anything.

It would make more sense to me that the issue was with power than the CPU (those are really the only variables left) but I'll have to wait until tomorrow to investigate that further. If there is a power issue I just hope I haven't fried any of my PC's components, I doubt it though.