Any comp people on here tonight who can help me with a no post issue? I'm not completely nooby, but I'm stumped now. I started rebuilding my comp about 2 hours ago. I had a few successful post screens during the first stage of bench testing, but now I get nothing :( I'll explain how this all happened down below.
Two years ago, I built my budget comp (first ever all by myself).
Specs:
Windows Vista Home 32-Bit
XFX GeForce 8200 MCP Socket AM2+ Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Socket AM2
OCZ SLI 4096MB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz (2x2048MB)
ULTRA LS600 600W ATX POWER SUPPLY
WD Caviar Green 500GB 16MB/SATA-3G
I like a game called CrimeCraft (the only one I play since I'm time limited)and this game is graphics/cpu demanding and really buggy. The game devs are constantly shutting down their server for emergency maintenance. So when I first started the game 2 months ago, I figured the crashes i was having randomly were game related. I also didn't like the way everything was rendered since I was using the onboard graphics chipset. A few weeks ago, I had some extra money and bought a new GPU in a moment of weakness.
Galaxy GeForce GT 430 Video Card
I installed it, got a driver update, tweaked some settings and my system ran nicely until last week. It started crashing often and repeatedly. Yesterday, I got a chance to do some testing. I took out the vcard and that worked well enough for me to stay on long enough to back up all my files. After backup, I reinstalled Windows, got all the updates, reinstalled the video card and drivers. Was fine for an hour or so before it started crashing again. Decided I needed to check temps and found I was getting CPU temps in the 40's idle and 70's when in game or doing something intensive like zipping a large amount of files. Not good! I checked the cpu fan, it was filthy. Went out today and got a new CPU fan.
Rocketfish Universal CPU Cooler RF-UPCUWR
Disconnected all the cords from my comp, removed the old fan/heatsink, took the CPU out, cleaned the thermal paste off (very very gently!), put the CPU back in and locked it in place. I put new thermal paste on it, installed the new fan, hooked the comp back up and turned on the power. That's when it failed to boot. Power wass working, all the fans were spinning, but nothing was happening...
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
After reading like 50+ forum posts, I tried the following:
-Removed vidcard and tried booting with monitor connected to OB
-Removed battery from mobo for an hour to try to clear CMOS
-Moved jumper to try to clear cmos
None of that worked. So I figure, what the hell, I'll start from scratch and do a bench test.
-Unplugged again, this time everything inside the case as well
-Removed the mobo and put it on my vid card box
-Removed memory, heatsink, cpu
-Cleaned CPU again, reseated it, reinstalled heatsink
-Added one of my memory modules
-Connected monitor, keyboard, and mouse to mobo
-Plugged in the PSU and started it up by connecting my screwdriver to the power pins
SUCCESS!! Bios screen! Happy Dance!
Watched the temp indicators in the bios for about 10 mins. Still high, about 47C, consistent. Okay, thats a bit of a dampener, but it's still working. I exit the bios, shut down power, add the other 2gb memory, turn it back on.
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR No post again.
You know that little animation where the stick figure bangs his head repeatedly against a desk until his head is a bloody mess? I feel like doing that now.
I take out the second memory and reboot. Get a post screen. Maybe that one module is faulty. Shut down, take out the working one, put the other in, start up and no post. Okay, it probably is faulty. I switch back to the one that worked.
NO POST AGAIN!!!!
Take out mobo battery, wait a few mins, put it back in, restart. Hello bios screen! Nice to see you back. Shut down. Power up again. Still there, that's encouraging. Stupid me, I try to add the second module again :( Haven't gotten a post screen since. Tried each memory combination and removing battery over and over and got nothing.
Anyone have any clues for me?
UPDATE
Thanks to everyone who commented! All the suggestions kept me looking way past when I felt like giving up. I now have a functional, though somewhat slower, computer again.
It did turn out to be one of the RAM (0+ / 0-)
modules. My SO had 2 sticks 1GB each, coincidentally supported by my mobo, that he removed from his comp two years ago and saved all this time. I put them in and got the post screen, then I experimented a bit more. I'm running the original one of my sticks right now, because it's 800 as opposed to 666.
I think the new graphics card ran too hot for my dirty cpu fan to keep up with and my cpu overheated and killed the closer/weaker ram stick.
by AkaEnragedGoddess on Sun Jan 30, 2011 at 09:54:49 PM EST
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