Computer won't post

[DeDann]

When I press the power button the fans turn on, there's no beeps on the case speak and nothing displays on screen. The first boot up it worked, I went into the BIOS and set the ram to 2400mHz. I reset it to make sure it works and it did. I went into the BIOS again and checked if everything was okay. I exited out of the BIOS and went to install Linux (Mint 64 bit) on my SSD. I went through the menus and clicked install. Nothing happened at all, it froze and after a few minutes I decided the installation wasn't doing anything. I turned it off completely and boot it up again. Now it doesn't want to boot at all. No post, no bios, nothing. The monitor couldn't even recognize a connection.
ASRock A88M-G/3.1
AMD A10-7890K
Cosair Vengeance DDR3 2×8gb 2400mHz
EVGA 650 G2
Samsung 850 EVO 250GB

 

[altazi]

Have you tried power-cycling it a few times? Motherboards I have used in the past had the ability to automatically restore safe default timings after a few fail-to-start scenarios.

 

[DeDann]

Have you tried power-cycling it a few times? Motherboards I have used in the past had the ability to automatically restore safe default timings after a few fail-to-start scenarios.

Yea I have tried it multiple times, sometimes the cpu fan goes at its fastest and after a few restarts it's normal. Would the restart button also work on this? Or should I just continue holding the power button,m

 

[altazi]

When I had similar problems, I would start the system and see the blank screen as you note. I would then hold the power button to force a power-off. I repeated this several times - sorry, I didn't count, but it might have been four or five - and then the motherboard forced a load of failsafe defaults.

 

[DeDann]

When I had similar problems, I would start the system and see the blank screen as you note. I would then hold the power button to force a power-off. I repeated this several times - sorry, I didn't count, but it might have been four or five - and then the motherboard forced a load of failsafe defaults.

I have tried this many times, still a failure. I tried clesring the CMOS but that didn't work.

 

[altazi]

I also have an ASRock A88M-G3.1 motherboard, which I just put into a system I am building, so I am quite interested in your situation. Have you tried stripping the system down to the bare minimum, e.g., power supply, motherboard, APU, & RAM? Is there any chance something might have gotten unseated?

Update: With this motherboard & APU, you don't need a video card for non-gaming use, so you can do these initial tests without a video card.

 

[DeDann]

How do i undo that.. woops.. well that also didn't work and the system still doesn't boot up.

 

[altazi]

With the minimum system configuration, there are only so many things that could be wrong. I don't know what would happen if you tried booting the system with only the motherboard & APU - no memory - but it might be worth a try.

There are some great threads on 'my system won't POST' here on Tom's Hardware - have you checked them out? Does the manufacturer have any guidelines or suggestions? Have you checked their forums for people who have had similar problems?

 

[DeDann]

I've done all of these.. I'm not sure why my computer does this. I do have some experience with computers before and this is extraordinary. When I removed the ram, it was the same problem. It might be faulty ram, but why would the ram five up now?

 

[altazi]

I suggested removing the RAM only to reduce the number of variables with which you are dealing. Do you have a DMM to check all of the power supply voltages, or have some way of verifying that the PSU is operating properly?

 

[DeDann]

The PSU is working properly, I checked it in another machine. The other machine was able to go into the BIOS and everything was okay. I'm just not sure if it was the cpu, motherboard, or the ram that is faulty. I can't check the ran on another machine because my other machines aee too old.. (DDR2, DDR)

 

[altazi]

Knowing the PSU is operating properly is a place to start. I'm not a fan of the shotgun approach, but there are limited options . . . I don't suppose you have a spare FM2+ motherboard floating around - or access to one from a friend? Ditto for an FM2/FM2+ CPU/APU?

Admittedly I am running out of things to suggest. It's a real stretch, but you could remove the motherboard from the case and set it on an anti-static (but non-conductive) surface and try it that way. This eliminates the very remote chance of some sort of short from the motherboard to the case.

You could even remove the APU and try powering the motherboard alone. It's possible the case speaker could beep, telling you there's a problem with your CPU/APU . . .

When in doubt, there is this:
http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-1893016/post-system-boot-video-output-troubleshooting-checklist.html

 

[DeDann]

Sadlt I don't have a FM2+ motherboard laying around. I have removed the motherboard put of the case and tested it on the cardboard box it came with. no difference.. I havnt removed the apu since I last put it in. so I might check that until I RMA these components.. I might have a cousin who might have a ddr3 to check if it isn't he ram. I did check that forum post before posting this.

 

[altazi]

I am having my own problems . . . I have the same motherboard, an A10-8760K APU, and am seeing APU temperatures of 51C at IDLE. No overclock, just stock settings. Everything seems to work OK, but the temps are just way too high, IMO. The heatsink temp is around 49C, so the heatsink seems to be installed properly. I don't suppose you happened to notice your APU temperature in the BIOS HW monitor function, did you?

 

[DeDann]

Before my PC didn't want to post anymore, it was at 51°c idle as well.. the motherboard temperature was around 54°c after idling for a while. (No other fans were connected at the time) (Idle at the BIOS)

 

[altazi]

Uh, I meant 'A10-7860K' - my dyslexia must have kicked in . . . 50C idling in BIOS doesn't seem realistic. Another poster said that BIOS isn't really idle, but I can't imagine that it would thermally stress the device . . . I could be wrong, of course, but this would be the first time in 20+ builds that I have seen high CPU temps while in BIOS . . . Maybe the APUs are different (?)

 

[DeDann]

Yea I noticed your typo. That's strange, do you have thermal paste in it? I doubt that's he issue. Somehow my computer decides to work again.. I'm not sure how but it did.. I don't know what to say

 

[altazi]

Hi Dedann, I'm glad to hear your system is up again.

I have thermal paste, and it is obviously doing a good job if the reported CPU temp is 51C and the heatsink fin temp is 49C. A two degree differential seems an indication of respectable thermal coupling.

I have loaded Windows 10, and am currently running Prime95 on all four cores. AMD system monitor shows all CPU core utilizations at 100%, and GPU at 0%. Interestingly enough, my thermal imager shows 45C on the heatsink - a bit lower than what I measured when it was "idling" in BIOS. There is a mystery here. I will step through the various test configurations and see how it does.

What RAM speed are you using? Did you bump it back to PC2400? I'm running mine at 2133 - fast enough for my wife. I'm going to be running stability tests for the next few days, and am still looking for an accurate Windows-based APU temperature monitoring program. Judging from some of the threads I have seen on Tom's, I am not the first person to want such a thing.

Let me know how your system is doing . . . if it seems stable, etc. Best of luck to both of us!

 

[DeDann]

My pc is running like a breeze, cpu tens to stay at 25% on my current workload which is nice, my ram has done very good. I love my new system already. I am starting off with Linux Mint for now and I'm staying like this until I get a product key for windows. I set my ram to 2400 and there has been no problems at all. Everything is pretty stable. And the temperature has been great. Everything has been great. Can't wait to upgrade to windows. Good luck to you as well!