Question CPU and case fans spin, but no post

annopolis230

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Jul 22, 2019
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Hello,

After reseating my memory because I accidentally put them in the wrong slots, my PC went into a post-loop. It would turn on (all fans spinning) and turn off again with no post, in a loop. This morning, I tried again and this time no loop after many many tests, but all the fans will spin and if I have my keyboard and mouse plugged in, only the keyboard will light up after about 30 seconds.

I have tried:
Reseating memory,
Using only one stick of memory,
Putting memory in different slots,
Clearing CMOS,
Bench testing

I really doubt it’s the CPU. My guess would be the motherboard. But why would it only start to happen after I changed memory slots? Did I break something when I moved the PC?
 

annopolis230

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Jul 22, 2019
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Can you list your system specifications please, especially the motherboard. Are you getting any beep codes, or any LED lights on the motherboard that stay on?

No beep codes (my motherboard has never beeped) and no LEDs on the board. My specs are:

Ryzen 5 2600
Asrock AB350 Pro4
2x 8GB 3200 MHz GSkill Trident Z
GTX 1050ti
 

Feren142

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Jul 14, 2019
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That's odd, nothing is jumping out at me so far, and installing memory in the wrong slots shouldn't cause any hardware damage. Did you just upgrade to these 3200mhz dimms? have you tried installing the old to see what happens? Bad memory is fairly rare but it does happen.
 

annopolis230

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Jul 22, 2019
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That's odd, nothing is jumping out at me so far, and installing memory in the wrong slots shouldn't cause any hardware damage. Did you just upgrade to these 3200mhz dimms? have you tried installing the old to see what happens? Bad memory is fairly rare but it does happen.

Yes, I did just upgrade to the 3200MHz. I tried using the old memory and the same thing happens so I’m fairly certain it’s not a memory issue.

I don’t think the new 3200MHz are defective either. When I first installed them (in the wrong slots) everything booted perfectly and I was able to get into Windows without a hassle, but then I noticed they weren’t running at 3200MHz so I enabled XMP and it didn’t work, and that’s when I noticed they were in the wrong slots, so I thought that was the problem. And yes, I did try putting those sticks back into the wrong slots.

I think I may have damaged the motherboard while I was moving the PC to change memory slots.
 

Feren142

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Yes, I did just upgrade to the 3200MHz. I tried using the old memory and the same thing happens so I’m fairly certain it’s not a memory issue.

I don’t think the new 3200MHz are defective either. When I first installed them (in the wrong slots) everything booted perfectly and I was able to get into Windows without a hassle, but then I noticed they weren’t running at 3200MHz so I enabled XMP and it didn’t work, and that’s when I noticed they were in the wrong slots, so I thought that was the problem. And yes, I did try putting those sticks back into the wrong slots.

I think I may have damaged the motherboard while I was moving the PC to change memory slots.
Okay, when you said you reset the CMOS, what exactly did you do? You may want to short the jumpers then turn the machine on and see if it will let you get into BIOS, because sometimes just pulling the battery for a bit doesn't do the job like it should. If you don't want to do that (which I understand) have you tried pulling out the CMOS battery for an extended amount of time then reinstalling it and seeing how that goes? Make sure the computer is unplugged for this entire process.
 

annopolis230

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Jul 22, 2019
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Okay, when you said you reset the CMOS, what exactly did you do? You may want to short the jumpers then turn the machine on and see if it will let you get into BIOS, because sometimes just pulling the battery for a bit doesn't do the job like it should. If you don't want to do that (which I understand) have you tried pulling out the CMOS battery for an extended amount of time then reinstalling it and seeing how that goes? Make sure the computer is unplugged for this entire process.

When I cleared the CMOS I shorted the jumpers, then took the battery out and held the power button in a for a while to drain any power left. Then I waited about 20 minutes before putting the battery back in and replacing the jumper to the default position. Should I try it again?
 

Feren142

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Jul 14, 2019
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When I cleared the CMOS I shorted the jumpers, then took the battery out and held the power button in a for a while to drain any power left. Then I waited about 20 minutes before putting the battery back in and replacing the jumper to the default position. Should I try it again?
It sounds like you were pretty comprehensive when clearing this cmos, but given the lack of other obvious avenues to try, giving it another shot wouldn't hurt. This time, pull the battery first, and you could even leave it out since you should be able to get to BIOS even with a dead/missing cmos battery, of course it wouldn't save any changes you made, were you able to get in.

Are you certain the memory is all the way in and or properly installed?
View: https://imgur.com/a/njOEri8


Edit - if you are unsure whether you did this properly or not each time, there is a possibility you have damaged the motherboard :(
 
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annopolis230

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Jul 22, 2019
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Yes, I’m certain the memory is properly installed. The motherboard’s DIMM clamps will automatically snap down once the memory is installed correctly, and it does do that. I’m going to try to clear the CMOS again.
 

annopolis230

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Jul 22, 2019
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OK -- Update

I didn't clear the CMOS again. I turned the system on (keep in mind I did NOTHING) and it booted and loaded windows just fine. No funny business. I did nothing.

Why did it just feel like working? How do diagnose any problems before I turn it off to see if it happens again?
 

Feren142

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OK -- Update

I didn't clear the CMOS again. I turned the system on (keep in mind I did NOTHING) and it booted and loaded windows just fine. No funny business. I did nothing.

Why did it just feel like working? How do diagnose any problems before I turn it off to see if it happens again?
That's pretty bizarre, but there are some quick tests you can try without restarting.

Open a command prompt and enter the following then hit enter and see what returns
sfc /scannow

This command will look for problems in your windows install. It should come back as all clear. Additonally.... even if it comes back problematic, it doesn't explain why you couldn't post or access BIOS, but it still may help point us in the direction of a potential hardware problem.

If you get any bluescreens after or during this, take note of what it says and report back.

Before you finally restart, I would also suggest scheduling a memory test using windows memory diagnostic, this however will require a restart to run, so do this last.

EDIT - Forgot to mention you will need to open up a command prompt as ADMIN to run SFC commands.
 
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annopolis230

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Jul 22, 2019
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That's pretty bizarre, but there are some quick tests you can try without restarting.

Open a command prompt and enter the following then hit enter and see what returns
sfc /scannow

This command will look for problems in your windows install. It should come back as all clear. Additonally.... even if it comes back problematic, it doesn't explain why you couldn't post or access BIOS, but it still may help point us in the direction of a potential hardware problem.

If you get any bluescreens after or during this, take note of what it says and report back.

Before you finally restart, I would also suggest scheduling a memory test using windows memory diagnostic, this however will require a restart to run, so do this last.

I did the scan and it returned that Windows found some corrupt files but were unable to fix some of them.

I should note that before I saw your message I just went ahead and turned the system off then back on again to get into the BIOS because the RAM was still not at the correct speed. Again, it booted just fine and I was able to get into the BIOS and set my RAM to the correct speed. I'm back in Windows now for the second time and everything is operational (as far as I can tell) and no blue screens.

Before I turned it on and it worked for the first time, I pressed the CMOS battery in a little just in case it wasn't all the way in from when I cleared the CMOS the first time. At this point I think it's the power supply causing this --Every other piece of hardware is working fine.
 

Feren142

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I did the scan and it returned that Windows found some corrupt files but were unable to fix some of them.

I should note that before I saw your message I just went ahead and turned the system off then back on again to get into the BIOS because the RAM was still not at the correct speed. Again, it booted just fine and I was able to get into the BIOS and set my RAM to the correct speed. I'm back in Windows now for the second time and everything is operational (as far as I can tell) and no blue screens.

Before I turned it on and it worked for the first time, I pressed the CMOS battery in a little just in case it wasn't all the way in from when I cleared the CMOS the first time. At this point I think it's the power supply causing this --Every other piece of hardware is working fine.
That could be the case, but the PSU cannot corrupt the SFC, at least not directly. In the meantime, if you're looking to correct said windows corruptions you can try running the following command below. Please note this command requires an internet connection and can take a while.

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

From this point I am having a hard time pointing my finger at any particular piece of hardware as the definitive culprit, but you're not alone in suspecting that the PSU could be the problem here. Again, keep an eye on what happens and make sure you make note of any blue screens of death if they occur.
 

annopolis230

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Jul 22, 2019
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That could be the case, but the PSU cannot corrupt the SFC, at least not directly. In the meantime, if you're looking to correct said windows corruptions you can try running the following command below. Please note this command requires an internet connection and can take a while.

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

From this point I am having a hard time pointing my finger at any particular piece of hardware as the definitive culprit, but you're not alone in suspecting that the PSU could be the problem here. Again, keep an eye on what happens and make sure you make note of any blue screens of death if they occur.

Could the corrupt files be leftover from a while ago? About a year ago when I first built the system I had a faulty stick of RAM (go figure) and it left me with a corrupt windows install (Don't worry - that faulty stick of RAM is long gone). I reinstalled Windows but could it be possible that few files are leftover from that period of time with the faulty stick?

Edit: I found another article from someone that had a very similar problem to me. He said that a malwarebytes update bricked his computer and made it do the same thing mine did. I happen to have malwarebytes on my computer so I uninstalled that as soon as I got in the system again.
 
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Feren142

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Could the corrupt files be leftover from a while ago? About a year ago when I first built the system I had a faulty stick of RAM (go figure) and it left me with a corrupt windows install (Don't worry - that faulty stick of RAM is long gone). I reinstalled Windows but could it be possible that few files are leftover from that period of time with the faulty stick?
That is totally possible, windows corruptions are actually not rare. Depending on which file is not validating successfully, it can cause huge problems or nothing noticeable from the user at all.
 

brookliner

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Oct 7, 2017
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This happend to me also, and it just randomly worked, i also have installed Malware bytes and i also changed the memory as i saw it was in the wrong spots. Can MalwareBytes cause this, if so i'm gonna uninstall it right away.
 

annopolis230

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Jul 22, 2019
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This happend to me also, and it just randomly worked, i also have installed Malware bytes and i also changed the memory as i saw it was in the wrong spots. Can MalwareBytes cause this, if so i'm gonna uninstall it right away.

In my case, I'm not sure if Malwarebytes was the cause but I made sure to uninstall it anyway. That other post I was talking about narrowed down Malwarebytes as the case though.