Question [FIXED] System won’t even get close to booting after HDD install ?

[Birdygomeow]

I recently installed an old hard drive to recover some of my old files including some very old Minecraft worlds (for nostalgia), but after the install my pc wouldn’t even boot anymore. At first I misplaced the power button header on the motherboard, but even after I seated it correctly it , the only thing that changed was now the lights come on but turn immediately off and doesn’t turn on again unless I starve it of power for a few seconds and turn it on again, only for it to do the exact same thing.

I tried resetting the CMOS and trying a new battery, tried booting without the graphics card, tried booting without anything but the bare minimum, and tried booting with different power cables.

The only things I haven’t tried was installing a new ram stick ( ordered it today and it’ll come in a few), I haven’t tried using a different psu ( also ordered it ), and of course I haven’t tried using a different motherboard.

I chalked it down to a motherboard issue, psu issue, or a ram issue, but it’s so bizarre to me that I can’t find much that simulates this exact problem I stumbled upon.

Specs:
Amd fx 8320(5-6 yrs old)
MSI GTX 950 (5-6 yrs old)
8 gb atdata ram (5-6 years old)
Thermaltake 650w bronze 80+ PSU (2 years old)
Kingston SSD 240GB (2 years old)
Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 REV6.0 (5-6 years old)

Note: I inspected the RAM stick and noticed 2 pitch irregular shaped black spots on the green, could be the ram but I don’t know if faulty ram would cause the pc to “take a breath” (best way to describe the 0.5 secs of life it shows before turning off)

 

[Ralston18]

How did you install/connect the old HDD?

Modular PSU - correct? Did you mix and match cables from other sources?

Did you try swapping in known working power and data cables for the drive? (Noted you swapped in some (?) power cables....)

Make and model HDD? Capacity?

Will the system boot into safe mode?

 

[Birdygomeow]

I recently installed an old hard drive to recover some of my old files including some very old Minecraft worlds (for nostalgia), but after the install my pc wouldn’t even boot anymore. At first I misplaced the power button header on the motherboard, but even after I seated it correctly it , the only thing that changed was now the lights come on but turn immediately off and doesn’t turn on again unless I starve it of power for a few seconds and turn it on again, only for it to do the exact same thing.

I tried resetting the CMOS and trying a new battery, tried booting without the graphics card, tried booting without anything but the bare minimum, and tried booting with different power cables.

The only things I haven’t tried was installing a new ram stick ( ordered it today and it’ll come in a few), I haven’t tried using a different psu ( also ordered it ), and of course I haven’t tried using a different motherboard.

I chalked it down to a motherboard issue, psu issue, or a ram issue, but it’s so bizarre to me that I can’t find much that simulates this exact problem I stumbled upon.

Specs:
Amd fx 8320(5-6 yrs old)
MSI GTX 950 (5-6 yrs old)
8 gb atdata ram (5-6 years old)
Thermaltake 650w bronze 80+ PSU (2 years old)
Kingston SSD 240GB (2 years old)
Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 REV6.0 (5-6 years old)

Note: I inspected the RAM stick and noticed 2 pitch irregular shaped black spots on the green, could be the ram but I don’t know if faulty ram would cause the pc to “take a breath” (best way to describe the 0.5 secs of life it shows before turning off)

It was the PSU after all, last thing I expected. Thanks all, works perfect ^-^