Emergency! Computer won't start...

[TBSN]

My computer has been working fine for some time, but last week it crashed a few times and now it won't start at all. The fans all turn on and the dvd drive opens, but nothing comes up on the screen. My first guess at the problem was that the once-stable overclock isn't working anymore...

Intel C2D e6420 (OC'ed to 3.2GHz, 400fsb)
Asus P5K Deluxe
Geil DDR2 (800mhz)
8800GTS
Corsair 520W PSU

So, since it won't even start up I have NO idea what to do! ANY advice would be appreciated... Thanks

 

[bryanW1995]

reset the bios.

 

[JustaGeek]

1st step - reset the CMOS, and when you can boot, change the values in BIOS to stock speeds/frequencies/timings/voltages.

 

[JustaGeek]

That's quite a coordinated response, huh? LOL

 

[bryanW1995]

yes, we are like troy aikman and michael irvin...cosmic e-twins.

 

[TBSN]

Ok, I already tried reseting the bios, and nothing happened, but I may have done it wrong. I am going to try it again, this time with the manual at hand. (maybe I was supposed to leave the battery in?)

 

[bryanW1995]

removing the battery for a few seconds should be sufficient. if you can find a backup battery, try it to make sure it's not a failed battery. failing that, try removing one stick of ram at a time. many boards make you put a single stick in slot 3 instead of 1, so be careful . if that doesn't solve it, try testing one component at a time. psu, mobo, and cpu are most likely other culprits.

 

[TBSN]

OK, I tried resetting the bios again, still no luck. I have to take the video card out to do it, I don't know if that matters. Still when I turn it on, all the fans go on, but nothing happens. I also noticed that the video card fan goes to full speed.

Is there anything else I should try? All my schoolwork is on this computer!

 

[bryanW1995]

see my post above your last one. looks like we posted at same time. don't worry, even if your mobo/cpu/etc is fried, your hd is fine. you're not even POSTing so the problem is with something else.

do you have the parts lying around to test each individual component one at time like I mentioned?

 

[TBSN]

I did miss that post, thanks. I don't have parts here unfortunately but I'll try the thing with the RAM. I'll just use one stick and see if that works.

Ok, tried with one stick, no dice. I have a videocard at home that I can try, maybe that's the problem. Unfortunately I'm not home now- I'll have to wait until next weekend. The video card fan takes a couple seconds after I hit power for the fan to turn on, after the computer would usually have begun booting, so maybe that's it. I never thought of checking the battery. It is a fairly new motherboard, but I guess it could have come with a bad battery. If I go to a radioshack or something I'll get another 3V button battery to try...

 

[nanaki333]

Originally posted by: bryanW1995
see my post above your last one. looks like we posted at same time. don't worry, even if your mobo/cpu/etc is fried, your hd is fine. you're not even POSTing so the problem is with something else.

do you have the parts lying around to test each individual component one at time like I mentioned?

unless he put all of his critical data on a raid0 array. that would suck.

 

[bryanW1995]

true, but anyone good enough to oc his own system would most likely be smart enough to not put critical info on a Raid 0 array.

 

[TBSN]

there's only a single hd. I'm not really worried about the data- it seems to me that something just went bad, hardware wise. I just really hope it's something easy to test, like the graphics card. If it's the RAM I'm shit out of luck because I don't have any spare DDR2 around.

 

[TBSN]

This is annoying, bc the only real way to troubleshoot this is to use different hardware-which I don't have. I'm thinking that I will go to a computer store, buy a cheap PCI-e video card and try that. Hopefully I'll be able to return it...

 

[The-Noid]

Pull the cpu out when you reset the bios. This will fully reset the bios.

You may have better luck.

 

[TBSN]

Ok, thanks for the advice. I think there may be a problem related to hardware (duh) I'm just not sure what it is.

I pulled out the ram and started it up, but there were no beeps from the motherboard. (P5K-Del).
I unfortunately don't have the parts to test everything, but I was thinking about getting a cheap PCI-e video card, putting that in and seeing if maybe the graphics card is dead...

 

[pugster]

It might sound stupid but try to boot up with the fewest parts as possible. Just the motherboard, cpu, memory, video card and nothing else. It could also be your 520w power supply not supplying enough juice to the 8800 gts so see if you can try using a lower end video card. If using a lower end video card still doesn't work, your motherboard might be flaking out and you might want to get another one.

 

[TBSN]

Thanks for the advice everyone, I just fixed the problem. I tried resetting the bios, but this time I disconnected all the cards, SATA cable/ IDE cable and all the power cables first. For some reason it cleared the bios only when I did all that.

 

[aigomorla]

well i dont know if anyone told you this.

You can debug your computers for RAM/Memory by listening to the beep noises it makes at bootup.

The first problem sounds like a RAM problem. Your voltage was most likely running too low for the ram to be ran at stock voltage.

Now that your computer is up, i would recomend you do 2 things. 1 backup your data, and then perform a memtest for about 3-4 hours. This should see if your ram is having issues.

After that, you should run orthos or prime95 at stock settings for a couple of hours to test board and cpu.

Lastly, you want to download a program called RTHDRIBL. And run it. See if it artifacts or not. If you pass all 3 then your bios got bugged, and you cleared it. If one of those 3 tests i list fail, then yeah, you should start looking at an RMA.

 

[TBSN]

Cool, so that doing all that will check the RAM, CPU, then the Video card? I am familiar with the Memtest and Orthos, but I've never used RTHDRIBL...