Question Computer won't post, tried everything and at a loss for what else to do.

[Steven2788]

Hello All!

As the title states my computer will not post or even turn on. I've tried EVERYTHING, and have zero idea what to try next. I'll list out the timeline and what I've done to help rule things out, along with my specs below. I seriously appreciate any help I can get here. I've dealt with computers for years, built at least a dozen but have never been this stumped, so I'm desperate to get this fixed, or at least get a lead on what it could be.

• Received a new case (Phanteks P500A) and began transferring components into it
• Upon complete installation the computer would not turn on, clicking from PSU when power button pressed.
• CPU fan LED (Hyper 212 EVO black) , 2 small white LED's along GPU power connectors, and various MOBO lights would flicker on for a split second
• Went down the list of components, starting from barebones (CPU, and RAM in various channels / configuration) and still no post, same issue as above
• Eventually MOBO accent lights would pulse every few seconds, CPU and GPU lights no longer came on

It was at that point, with me not having the time, tools or parts necessary to continue fighting this thing all night, decided to take it to a local (allegedly reputable) computer repair shop. After 2 days I get a call from them that the CPU and MOBO are fried, and they actually told me that the MOBO VRM actually caught fire, but couldn't explain to me how. I ask about the PSU and get told that its good, then that its bad, then that he never checked it. Immediately after that I tell him that I just want my computer back, and I pay my $65 and learn a lesson, when i picked it up he did confirm the PSU was good. Fast forward to tonight.

• At the suggestion of the repair store I purchase a new MOBO, and receive my RMA'd CPU
• Once everything is installed again the same thing as in step 2 above happens (various lights flicker and turn off)
• Begin unplugging different components and confirming wiring connections. Upon another try. IT POSTS!! Lights up and gets me to bios, Cool.. I'm in the clear. POST is good, i can work with this.
• Computer leaves bios to arrive at a BSOD with the error "MACHINE CHECK EXCEPTION ERROR", then it begins to run auto repair, freezes and reboots
• Reboot again, fiddle with BIOS, it see's all of my components clearly, i change the boot order to the correct SSD, same error as above.
• Try for a third time to get past the BSOD. I only had about 5 minutes where it would POST. Only this time I'm back to square one, lights flicker and here I am.

I've tried literally everything I know and could find on google. I've jumped the power switch header, cleared CMOS, removed battery and flushed power, every combination of component in every slot with every cord that I have and nothing. The last thing I did was try to jump the PSU with the paperclip trick. The PSU fan spins for a second and then turns off. I think thats it, but to be thorough I also plug a case fan into it. PSU fan does the same thing, but the case fan purrs like a kitten. I believe that the PSU is the culprit, it is a few years old now. But I'd like more opinions before I buy another one, so i can buy more parts if necessary. Thank anyone who can help, I truly appreciate it.

Case: Phanteks P500A
MOBO: Gigabyte AORUS PRO WIFI
RAM: G-Skill 16gb (2x8gb) DDR4
CPU: Intel i5-9600k
Storage: 2x Intel SSD, 1x samsung NVME, 1x Seagate HDD
GPU: Asus ROG STRIX 1080
PSU: Corsair HX750

 

[MeanMachine41]

Hi Steven

Maybe somehow your Bios is corrupt or needs to be updated.
Only way to tell if it's the PSU is to swap it out with a known working unit of the same or higher Wattage.
Check your manual for location of any trouble shooting LEDs than come on and remain on. Yours is Socket AM4 so can I assume it is X570 or is it B450 ?

 

[Steven2788]

Hello!

I would be curious if its the BIOS as well, it was having the same issues whether it was my old MOBO / CPU or the new set. I'm going to try to locate a usable PSU, while I hope that the RMA for mine goes through.

no trouble LED's or codes / beeps on the MOBO.

It's also a socket LGA 1151, Z390 (the same as I had prior)

 

[MeanMachine41]

The only other thing I can think of are your storage drives. Try disconnecting all other drives but the one with your OS and also disconnect any unnecessary peripherals.

 

[Steven2788]

The only other thing I can think of are your storage drives. Try disconnecting all other drives but the one with your OS and also disconnect any unnecessary peripherals.

I've tried booting with every combination / lack of every drive I have. More reading leads me to believe the PSU is toast...

 

[MeanMachine41]

I think HX750 comes with 7 years Warranty so your covered if it's the PSU. It can also be a driver issue if you can actually boot to windows prior to a crash. Check Device Manager for yellow triangles.

 

[Steven2788]

I think HX750 comes with 7 years Warranty so your covered if it's the PSU. It can also be a driver issue if you can actually boot to windows prior to a crash. Check Device Manager for yellow triangles.

I've started the RMA process on the PSU, you're correct in the 7 years estimate. Luckily I purchased the PSU in December of 2013 so I'm still within the time frame. Having it for that long leads me to believe even more that it's the problem. Thank you so much for all your help.

 

[Paperdoc]

One common error when building a new computer is not getting the stand-offs located correctly. If you do not know the details of why and how to do this, see my post of Apr23/20 in this thread

https://forums.tomshardware.com/thr...ility-with-motherboard.3596512/#post-21705898

Your problems started when you moved things to a new case, and it MAY have had the stand-offs pre-installed in the wrong spots, OR it MAY not have had an stand-offs pre-installed at all.

 

[Steven2788]

One common error when building a new computer is not getting the stand-offs located correctly. If you do not know the details of why and how to do this, see my post of Apr23/20 in this thread

https://forums.tomshardware.com/thr...ility-with-motherboard.3596512/#post-21705898

Your problems started when you moved things to a new case, and it MAY have had the stand-offs pre-installed in the wrong spots, OR it MAY not have had an stand-offs pre-installed at all.

Hey there!

Case did have pre installed standoffs, which I did double check before dropping the Mobo in the new case. When I switched the components beach to the old case I have the same issue. I've got a new PSU in tow, I'll update if that's it.

UPDATE: new PSU does the same thing. I'm lost.

 

[Steven2788]

Sorry for the double post but I've noticed something. 2 of the standoffs. ( Middle and top middle) are a good bit longer than the others and have a sort of sleeve on them. Could this be causing an issue?
https://ibb.co/kHq4ch6

EDIT: Also just breadboarded the mobo cpu and RAM, the below is what happens when i plug the power cable into the PSU, shorting the power sw jumper does nothing additional, only get the little blip of lights when i plug in

https://imgur.com/a/FMZbnqt

View: https://imgur.com/a/FMZbnqt

 

[Paperdoc]

OK, the failure at breadboarding certainly verifies the problem is NOT stand-offs. That very brief flash of light indicates that the PSU does supply power but something shuts it down right away. Usually that is a short circuit someplace that causes an overload of a PSU output.

If you still have it out of the case and in the breadboarding place, you could try a bit of sleuthing. Basically, go back to before the normal first stage of breadboarding. Disconnect any peripherals (even monitor, keyboard and mouse). Remove from the mobo any cards added into the PCIe slots. Disconnect your storage drives. (IF you have an NVMe type of SSD card in a mobo socket, consider temprarily removing that, too.) Unplug all your case ventilation fans, but ensure the CPU cooling fan system is still installed. Remove the RAM modules. Ensure the CPU is installed correctly and it has its power supply cable attached to its socket nearby. Now try turning on. It certainly will not boot this way. BUT is should survive with power for more than a second, and start to generate some errors like lack of RAM or some such. HOWEVER, you won't see any messages with no monitor of course. You MIGHT hear a beep-code IF your mobo has a small PZO speaker unit attached. But, having tried and failed to boot, the board should still be keeping power on and just sit there waiting for the errors to get fixed. If the board cannot even get that far - if it still blips and goes dead - then there is a major problem with some of this very limited equipment.

If the board survives that first experiment and keeps power on, shut it down by disconnecting power. Connect up only the monitor, apply power and reboot. It won't boot again, but this time you shuld get info on the screen to show you error messages.

If that works, shut down and install the RAM. Reboot again, watch for error messages.

If that works, shut down, re-connect mouse and keyboard, and reboot. This time it at least should get all the way through the POST process and tell you to insert some bootable media somewhere so it can actually boot up. If you get that far, shut down and start to re-connect any NVMe SSD modules and/or disk drives, and try again. With those connected, it should be able to complete a boot.

Somewhere along the way you should have a failure, and that points to the last item added as a likely culprit.

Let us know what happens.

 

[Steven2788]

OK, the failure at breadboarding certainly verifies the problem is NOT stand-offs. That very brief flash of light indicates that the PSU does supply power but something shuts it down right away. Usually that is a short circuit someplace that causes an overload of a PSU output.

If you still have it out of the case and in the breadboarding place, you could try a bit of sleuthing. Basically, go back to before the normal first stage of breadboarding. Disconnect any peripherals (even monitor, keyboard and mouse). Remove from the mobo any cards added into the PCIe slots. Disconnect your storage drives. (IF you have an NVMe type of SSD card in a mobo socket, consider temprarily removing that, too.) Unplug all your case ventilation fans, but ensure the CPU cooling fan system is still installed. Remove the RAM modules. Ensure the CPU is installed correctly and it has its power supply cable attached to its socket nearby. Now try turning on. It certainly will not boot this way. BUT is should survive with power for more than a second, and start to generate some errors like lack of RAM or some such. HOWEVER, you won't see any messages with no monitor of course. You MIGHT hear a beep-code IF your mobo has a small PZO speaker unit attached. But, having tried and failed to boot, the board should still be keeping power on and just sit there waiting for the errors to get fixed. If the board cannot even get that far - if it still blips and goes dead - then there is a major problem with some of this very limited equipment.

If the board survives that first experiment and keeps power on, shut it down by disconnecting power. Connect up only the monitor, apply power and reboot. It won't boot again, but this time you shuld get info on the screen to show you error messages.

If that works, shut down and install the RAM. Reboot again, watch for error messages.

If that works, shut down, re-connect mouse and keyboard, and reboot. This time it at least should get all the way through the POST process and tell you to insert some bootable media somewhere so it can actually boot up. If you get that far, shut down and start to re-connect any NVMe SSD modules and/or disk drives, and try again. With those connected, it should be able to complete a boot.

Somewhere along the way you should have a failure, and that points to the last item added as a likely culprit.

Let us know what happens.

Thank you for the thorough reply! Last night while breadboarding I tried every combination of components I could. The video above is from just the CPU and 1 ram stick, but it had the same fate with CPU only. So I assume the issue lies with my brand new MOBO and fresh RMA CPU. At this point I'm done fighting these components. I'm taking a trip to the Mecca (microcenter) tomorrow to get a new CPU, MOBO and RAM so hopefully I won't have any further issues.