PC won't POST

[Mayfriday0529]

I'm trying to solve an issue on a system. The system will not POST and the monitor light stays at orange.
Here is the background.
Initially the system would not always POST. You press the power button the fans would spin and the power light in front of the pc would come on. You have to shutdown and press the power again and after a few tries it would come up.

I went ahead and grabbed another Power supply and hooked it up to the motherboard from outside the case. The system started to boot normally every time. So the PSU needs to be replaced. In order to do that I had to remove the motherboard to take the old PSU out and put the new one in.

After putting everything back, I could not get the system to do anything; found out there was a short on the motherboard from one of the screws. Pulled the motherboard out again and place it back in and problem solved. But now with the new PSU installed the damn machine never POST and monitor light stays orange. I disconnected all drives and left only what are necessary items on and still same problem. Not sure what else to do. I even tried the old PSU again, attaching it from outside the case.

The system uses an Asus motherboard with an AMD 3200 processor. Old PSU was 350, new PSU is 450.

Cliffnotes:
Would not always POST.
Hooked different PSU and system worked fine.
Removed Mobo and old PSU and inserted new PSU
System will not POST at all now.

 

[ojai00]

Have you tried running it again with the new PSU outside the case like the way you did when it was working? If that doesn't work, I suspect you might have a memory problem. Try booting with only one stick.

 

[Mayfriday0529]

Originally posted by: ojai00
Have you tried running it again with the new PSU outside the case like the way you did when it was working? If that doesn't work, I suspect you might have a memory problem. Try booting with only one stick.

I have taken out the Mobo and placed on an antistatic foam. I have connected only the video card and one stick of memory. All the fans spin, PSU, CPU, Mobo, Graphic fans. But nothing comes up on the screen.
I reset the CMOS.
Also tried original PSU and still nothing. Just won't boot. At this point i'm thinking Motherboard or CPU problem. But it would be just bad luck since it was woking before I pulled the parts out to place the new PSU in the case.

 

[Mayfriday0529]

Replaced the Mobo and that fixed the problem... breathing better, because if it was the CPU thats $900 dollars dead

 

[mealsonwheels]

Sounds like my problem, everything is pointing to a bad motherboard when i just bought it 🙁

 

[Feldenak]

I'm having a similar problem now too.

Last night I had those samy symptoms. Fans spinning up, LEDs looking normal but it wasn't booting.

I pulled the HDD last night and put it in another machine to test, worked fine. I got a couple sticks of different RAM from work to test. I came home, put the HDD back in and swapped out the RAM. Now, I'm getting no response from the machine. I was sure it was a mobo issue but now I'm not certain...the LEDs on the mobo aren't even lit now.

What's the collective intelligence here think? PSU? Mobo?

 

[Mayfriday0529]

Originally posted by: Feldenak
I'm having a similar problem now too.

Last night I had those samy symptoms. Fans spinning up, LEDs looking normal but it wasn't booting.

I pulled the HDD last night and put it in another machine to test, worked fine. I got a couple sticks of different RAM from work to test. I came home, put the HDD back in and swapped out the RAM. Now, I'm getting no response from the machine. I was sure it was a mobo issue but now I'm not certain...the LEDs on the mobo aren't even lit now.

What's the collective intelligence here think? PSU? Mobo?

Did you remove the RAM that you borrowed from work? Take off everything and just have the PSU connected to the motherboard and the CPU; see if the fan on the CPU spins. Also if you have the speaker from the case connected it should beep with error codes. If you get that add the video card and then the RAM.
In my opinion if you can get the fan on the CPU to spin and you get beeps from the speaker than the MOBO is good. If you get no sound from the speaker then MOBO can be bad. If the CPU fan spins one cycle and stops then it could be the CPU. If absolutely nothing happens then try another PSU.

Although I have now fixed my no post problem, I still have a small quirk with getting the system to boot every time. If I take the power off completely and wait about 30 minutes. That first type I try to boot will not work. The Fans spin but no post. I then press the power button for 5 seconds and try again and it works and will continue to work. It only seems to happen when all power has been drain from the MOBO. I'm thinking maybe a problem with the power switch on the PC Case.se.

 

[Feldenak]

Originally posted by: Jnetty99

Originally posted by: Feldenak
I'm having a similar problem now too.

Last night I had those samy symptoms. Fans spinning up, LEDs looking normal but it wasn't booting.

I pulled the HDD last night and put it in another machine to test, worked fine. I got a couple sticks of different RAM from work to test. I came home, put the HDD back in and swapped out the RAM. Now, I'm getting no response from the machine. I was sure it was a mobo issue but now I'm not certain...the LEDs on the mobo aren't even lit now.

What's the collective intelligence here think? PSU? Mobo?

Did you remove the RAM that you borrowed from work? Take off everything and just have the PSU connected to the motherboard and the CPU; see if the fan on the CPU spins. Also if you have the speaker from the case connected it should beep with error codes. If you get that add the video card and then the RAM.
In my opinion if you can get the fan on the CPU to spin and you get beeps from the speaker than the MOBO is good. If you get no sound from the speaker then MOBO can be bad. If the CPU fan spins one cycle and stops then it could be the CPU. If absolutely nothing happens then try another PSU.

Although I have now fixed my no post problem, I still have a small quirk with getting the system to boot every time. If I take the power off completely and wait about 30 minutes. That first type I try to boot will not work. The Fans spin but no post. I then press the power button for 5 seconds and try again and it works and will continue to work. It only seems to happen when all power has been drain from the MOBO. I'm thinking maybe a problem with the power switch on the PC Case.se.

Well, I was out of town for the weekend and finally got a chance to test again. Only things I had connected to the PSU were the mobo & proc and I still got absolutely nothing. I don't have any other backups to swap out and I'd rather avoid buying stuff I don't need...which is most likely PSU or mobo?

 

[Rommel44]

Originally posted by: Feldenak

Well, I was out of town for the weekend and finally got a chance to test again. Only things I had connected to the PSU were the mobo & proc and I still got absolutely nothing. I don't have any other backups to swap out and I'd rather avoid buying stuff I don't need...which is most likely PSU or mobo?

I´d bet that its mobo.

 

[Feldenak]

Originally posted by: Rommel44

Originally posted by: Feldenak

Well, I was out of town for the weekend and finally got a chance to test again. Only things I had connected to the PSU were the mobo & proc and I still got absolutely nothing. I don't have any other backups to swap out and I'd rather avoid buying stuff I don't need...which is most likely PSU or mobo?

I´d bet that its mobo.

That's what I'm figuring as well. I have a decent PSU (Antec TruePower 430)