PC Wont Turn On

[deadlydragoon]

Hello Everyone,

Recently, i have been unable to turn on my computer and I've been unsuccessful in fixing it so far.

My Specs:
Asus P55D E-Pro MoBo
corsair 750 watt PSU
i5-750 CPU
Coolermaster Hyper TX3 i5/i7 compatable cooler
g skill eco 2x2GB ram
gigabyte 5850C GPU
Coolermaster Haf 922 case

Description of my Problem:
I made this computer at the beginning of the summer and it has never given me problems until now. I have recently traveled back to college, and brought my desktop with me. After setting it up and turning it on in my new location, it worked fine for a few days. But then I started having problems when the computer would go idle. If I left my computer idle for an hour or so, or if I told it to go to sleep, about half of the times when I came back to it the computer would be unresponsive. I would press a key to get out of sleep mode, and everything would turn on, the fans would be spinning, the moniter was on (but blank), the HHD would start spinning, etc… Next, I would hold the power button down to force a shut down, and then restart my computer, and everything would work fine. After it was on it generally worked fine (although I did get a blue screen of death a few days ago, I’m not sure if that signifies something in particular).
The second part of my problem happened after one of the incidents above. My computer was locked in its idle state so I held down the power button so I could restart it. But when I pressed the power button to turn the computer back on, nothing happened. No fans spinning, no POST beeps.

Some of my observations thus far:
• When the PSU is plugged in, the MoBo power LED lights up, indicating its getting power.
• I’ve tried manually creating a connection to start the computer to check if the power button itself was malfunctioning,
• My case has an onboard LED that I can normally switch on and off via a button, but the button does not work.
• I tried doing a paperclip test described here: http://www.corsair.com/helpdesk/psu_support_tips.aspx and the PSU fan turned on when I did it
• I’ve tried multiple outlets & have tested to make sure the outlet works
Currently I’m thinking that the culprit must be either the PSU (hopefully), or the MoBo

Any help would be greatly appreciated and thanks in advance!

 

[dfuze]

Do you have another machine (like the one posting from) where you could test your memory? Other than that the only other part that I would suspect would be the motherboard.

 

[deadlydragoon]

I have my laptop, but thats it. Do you know of a way to test if its the motherboard that is malfunctioning?

 

[dfuze]

One way is to test the components on another machine, but it doesn't sound like you have access to one.

I remember when my Asus socket 939 died a couple years ago, the lights came on but nothing else. Sounds pretty similar. Unless it changed, Asus was real good about exchanging/repairing the board pretty quick on the RMA. Unless someone else chimes in with something else for you to test, you may need to go that route.

 

[RebateMonger]

In your case, it'd be good if you could get the PC to boot from a CD containing a memory tester (Memtest86+) or a hard drive tester (one of many by Seagate, WDC, etc.) That'd give you a good start on common points of failure.

If nothing's working at all, it could be a failed power supply. You can test the voltages with a DVM or a digital power supply tester.

In real life, most component testing is done with these three tests and then with component substitution (i.e. different power supply, different motherboard, different memory, different video card).

 

[KGB]

Two things to try immediately:

1. Clear the CMOS.
2. Re-seat / replace the MB button battery.

 

[Necrolezbeast]

I had a very similar thing happen recently and I used it as an excuse to build a new computer... during the process of building the new one I realized what the problem was. One of my molex connectors going to my GPU was dead, it popped the wires out, it still looked connected but they were just not making a connection. This caused everything to fire up, HDD's were spinning, fans were on, just no post or beeps or anything. I looked for this sort of thing when I was troubleshooting but somehow just missed it as it looked like the molex was plugged in correctly... Not saying this is your problem, but check all the power connections to everything thoroughly as it could be similar or maybe just a simple short somewhere...

Also, you said you just move the computer? If all else fails you may want to make sure the heatsink is seated correctly. Of course, try to check the memory/mobo/power supply as well. But I still vote that a simple problem is probably your issue, especially as you stated that you have moved and something coming loose or improperly seated can easily happen during a move.

After all I felt pretty dumb when I found my issue was so simple, lol... but I got a new toy out of it, and my dad got a free upgrade...