New PC 'died' overnight

[hwDaishi]

Put together a new PC yesterday, consisting of:
i7-2600k
Asus P8P67
8gb G.skill Ripsaw RAM
GTX560 Ti
Antec 650W Earthwatts PSU
SSD
Couple HDDs
DVD-RW

After I initially put everything together, it wouldn't post. Had a solid red light by the RAM. Looked it up, turns out that color-matching RAM slots don't always mean they're the same channel. Moved a stick of RAM, and everything was fine. Installed win7, couple games, etc, enjoyed my new PC. Put it to sleep as I went to sleep.

Woke up in the morning for work, decided to check the weather, etc. Noticed the computer was on, rather than asleep. No video signal, and my bluetooth keyboard was informing me there wasn't any connection. Attached a corded mouse, and the LED on it would blink on very briefly then turn off.

Figuring there was an issue with sleep mode, I cut the power, waited a few moments, then turned it back on. The PC turned itself on; so I figured that I didn't turn it off long enough. Turned the PSU off for a good minute, then back on. Didn't restart itself, so I figured that's a plus. However, it will not boot now. The system and CPU fans spin up, as do the hard drives. I did notice that the video card's fans do not appear to be powering up. They had a distinctive noise that I heard during all the restarts during OS installation and such that is now absent.

The red LED near the RAM will illuminate briefly, then turn off; so I assume the RAM is passing the motherboard's check. I am thinking possibly something happened to the video card? I still have my old card I will swap in when I get home from work if my PC is still being difficult, but nothing else of my old PC will work in the new. It's been a very long time since I was in the 'scene,' as it were, so I've forgotten a lot of various troubleshooting techniques... or they simply don't apply to all this new-fangled gadgetry.

So then, does anyone have some recommendations on steps I should take to figure out what's wrong? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[Joseph F]

It sounds like your Graphics Card (Or possibly your Motherboard) may be toast. So try another card and see if it works.
Also, try using other ram that you know works if you have it, if not then try using one stick at a time.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Clear CMOS

 

[hwDaishi]

Clear CMOS

Funny how some things never change. I'll certainly do this, but why would it be required?

I know about the P8P67s having issues resuming from sleep; but I figured killing the power would end the sleep state. Is the sleep state saved, regardless or whether or not there is actually power to the system?

 

[Joseph F]

It shouldn't be saved. AFAIK sleep state just shuts down all of the components except the RAM and therefore should be cleared upon a hard reset.

 

[hwDaishi]

Resetting the CMOS worked.

I tinkered with it a bit more - putting it to sleep and then trying to get it to come back. Even when pulling the power cord and letting it sit for a bit, it would not POST until I reset the CMOS after every attempt to put it in sleep mode.

 

[BadThad]

Sleep mode sucks, turn it off. I've seen plenty of PC's with problems resuming from sleep and/or hibernate. If you can't afford the extra 10 cents a day in power, shut the PC off when you're done.

 

[AFurryReptile]

Resetting the CMOS worked.

I tinkered with it a bit more - putting it to sleep and then trying to get it to come back. Even when pulling the power cord and letting it sit for a bit, it would not POST until I reset the CMOS after every attempt to put it in sleep mode.

Is is sleeping or hibernating? There is a big difference. Usually a motherboard will have several options regarding hibernation state; try some of the others (S1 and S3 are the two that come to mind). I had issues with mine until I disabled hibernation support entirely.

You just built the machine; did you go into the BIOS and verify all the correct voltages, frequency, and timings for your RAM and CPU? Often times you'll have stability issues if you just let the motherboard default to whatever it likes.

 

[hwDaishi]

More testing shows that it sometimes will come out of sleep if I disable PLL (is that right? I'm at work and can't look it up.) Having it enabled is a sure-fire ticket to not wanting to come out of sleep. Maybe a UEFI update will fix it or something in the future. I also hate to admit this, but I'm not sure what the voltage for a 2600k should be. Due to the speed-stepping tech, it's all over the place.

At any rate, having an SSD means boot-up takes not even 20 seconds anyways, so not being able to sleep the computer isn't any great loss. Just a curiosity that it doesn't work, I guess.

Also, I've just been hitting 'sleep' from within the Windows shutdown menu. The first things I do whenever I install Windows is disable all the auto-sleep, auto-HDD spindown, etc. They tend to interfere greatly with older games, heh.

 

[tonygeor]

In the past 3 years I thought they got all the kinks out of sleep/hibernation mode...