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Just bought a new computer last week and got it all setup Thursday night. It was working great till Saturday morning when one of my new 750GB drives failed (DOA presumably). That was no big deal though as I had another 750 and my 120GB SSD, it did require reinstalling windows though as I had moved the users folder to the 750GB drive. I then had to reinstall a few more times to get everything setup right (I don't recall all of them, but one was because I entered in my password wrong and couldn't figure out the right combo). So round about 2pm Saturday I was finally ready to start installing games and applications. Everything was working great and I even got some gaming in. I put it to sleep that night and Sunday it is working great. I installed some more stuff and then play some games.

Sunday night I put it to sleep and when I wake up Monday it appears that the computer is on. It is unresponsive to any input so I try restarting it, but that does nothing, so I hold the power button down and that does nothing. I finally just decide to switch the power on the PSU. When I turn the power back on the computer just blinks on, then goes off and then repeats that cycle. I tried a different PSU, swapping the memory sticks around and using just the power on button on the motherboard. Nothing seems to be working. So I'm guessing that I, somehow, have a bad motherboard, but I figured I'd post on here to see if anyone has any thoughts.

Nori
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    What is the model of the motherboard and how many beeps do you get on startup? – wbeard52 Nov 22 '10 at 14:16
  • No beeps and it is a ASRock Extreme4. I wish it beeped... :) – Nori Nov 22 '10 at 15:41
  • Well I tried some of the suggestions you guys had and it still doesn't work. So I RMAed it back to Newegg. If I'm lucky I'll get a new one back by mid-late next week. That is assuming they don't discover that I forgot to pack a little cable and faceplate :(

    Anyway, thanks for the suggestions!

     – Nori Nov 24 '10 at 20:23
  • Well, Newegg shipped me a new one and I'll get it tomorrow. So hopefully it'll work fine this time. :) – Nori Nov 30 '10 at 16:06
  • Seems to be working. So it would appear that it was actually a bad motherboard. But get this; the new harddrive they sent was bad! Plugged it in right out of the box and it makes horrid clicking noises. – Nori Dec 03 '10 at 21:23

4 Answers4

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If you bought this pc pre-built, take it back to the shop and have them fix it.

If you put it together yourself however, let me extend my sympathies. As someone who also likes to build his own machines, this is about my worst nightmare (well, insofar as pc building goes at least).

  1. Visually check the board (in place) for any signs of electrical or other damage.

  2. Check the mobo documentation for any clues given by leds and the system speaker.

  3. Are all components well seated? Re-seat them anyway.

  4. Check every power connection. (Sometimes the auxiliary ones are overlooked and not connected).

  5. Check every other connection. Switches and so forth.

  6. Try to restart without various components such as the graphics card, drives etc. Try on it's own in turn each stick of ram. Try no ram. Be systematic. Look for changed behavior.

If at this point it is still not booting, it likely is the motherboard. Remove and return it to place of purchase, together with your dead hard drive.

If you get any guff from the store, don't stand for it. This stuff pretty much clips together only one way so it's highly unlikely that you caused the problem. Stick firmly to this story.

Good luck.

bitslave
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  • Yeah, I built it... I've tried most of the things you said, but I only had a half hour this morning, so I'm going to try re-seating the video card and memory and see if that makes any difference (I did try with no RAM and with each stick individually to no effect). Already tried a different PSU and that didn't work either. My guess is the motherboard, though that really sucks since I spent quite a bit of time putting it nice and neat in the case with good cable management... :) – Nori Nov 22 '10 at 15:44
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One thing I always check for with electronics is blown, bulging or leaking capacitors. Over the past decade, there has been a mass problem with faulty capacitors due to some company that made them wrong. Apparently the electrolyte formula was made wrong and the capacitors build up hydrogen inside until they burst. Check out http://www.badcaps.net/ for the full story, pictures and even instructions for replacing them if you're so inclinded. Its interesting and explains a lot about electronics problems over the past decade too.

Anyways, check the capacitors (the cylindrical objects that stand up straight) on the motherboard to see if they are bulging near the top or if they are leaking anything (residue around the base or side) or even if they are blown out at the top. Take a look at the following picture for an example of capacitors on a video card I had that blew out and made an audible popping noise when it happened:

enter image description here

I go through a lot of computer component electronics and I've seen quite a few bad capacitors over the years, I've seen them do anything from just causing the computer to lock up to having them break other hardware in the computer.

Gareth
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deltaray
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  • Good idea. Something to check when I get home. I did a quick inspection and didn't see any blown capacitors, but it could be bulging and I didn't notice. – Nori Nov 22 '10 at 18:04
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  1. Try a PSU reset.

  2. When nothing works: remove anything except PSU connectors (CPU, RAM, anything). When the PSU works and nothing else is connected your board should beep. If not, try with another PSU. If still silent, buy another board. If not, buy another PSU.

Community
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knitti
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sounds like some card or ram is not seated completely to me

RobotHumans
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  • Maybe, I'll try the video card when I get home and cross my fingers. Already tried the RAM but I will be trying it again. – Nori Nov 22 '10 at 15:45