PC getting power, but Mobo won't POST

[Warpspasm]

I've had a problem going on for a while, but now it's critical. For the last few months my PC would take a few, then later several tries to get it to post after shutting it down for the night. My solution for the last month as been to leave it running all the time. Well.... I went for a while this evening and my wife turned off the PC because she said it was too loud. Now the thing won't post no matter how many times I try. I've reset the RAM, cleared the CMOS, unplugged the reset switch, but to no avail. The CPU fan is spinning fine. The MOBO doesn't have speaker (and from what I can tell no place to plug one in) to get beeps. I'm at a loss here. Can somebody give me some help please?

My system is listed in my signature.

Thanks.

 

[jaquith]

^ As you we'll know, by now, I retire fully functioning rigs and I don't wait for them to fail. {Thankfully, I have some $ and that's what 'I' can do' for myself'} Older rigs - I get extremely worried about loosing or having my data corrupted. {Financials, Documents, Photos, Music, etc} BTW - they are ALL backed-up at least X1 per day and my 'work' {real-time backup} all including 'home' all run RAIDs/Home - home server back-up/Work - NAS + Data warehousing + off premises back-up via ~ NAS {The Planet}.

If I had a fire or other catastrophic corruptions then I'd be out of business, and similarly I don't want to loose my daughter's baby pictures, etc.

 

[Gekko Shadow]

^Wholy scat! wow - talk about hardcore backups. You sir are my idol! :lol: I'm actually gonna shell out a couple of hundred bucks to buy another hard drive or two. I'm just about to run out of space and need to make a full backup of everything. But it's nothing like what your doing lol xD. I backup everything once - but backup my important data three or more times.

And that's something you cannot afford to lose! You should maybe put a few hard drives in a fire-proof case or something xD.

 

[jaquith]

If you lost the baby pictures - you'd sell your soul to get them back. Knock on wood never lost any data since the 90's and then I still had archived. We replace a drive every month or three in the office {part of a RAID}. If they fault there're yanked, if multiple fail the server gets yanked.

 

[Gekko Shadow]

Hey don't go all Dante up in here :lol: (Dante's Inferno? 'cept instead of going after a damsel in distress you're going after hard drives in boiling point temperatures =P)

[strike]Do you do back-ups to a separate location or it's all just there on-site?[/strike]

 

[jaquith]

^ As I stated "off premises back-up via ~ NAS {The Planet}. "

I'm just trying to put things in perspective of 'value' ; I have hard achieves via DVD-DL media and I'm looking into BR.

 

[Gekko Shadow]

Oh my bad. Seem to have skipped over that x).

BR? They are like 25GB per side - i say it's a fairly good value. You could also back up the baby pictures there x)

 

[Warpspasm]

Well, it's not the power supply. I hooked up the Corsair and it's back to not posting again. I've tried running with all but one ram removed, no drives etc, but still no post.

Here's something I've noticed, which may or may not be helpful. If I shut down my system and boot it again within a minute or so, it will start. But, if I let is sit for 10 minutes, the problem shows up. Could this be a clue?

 

[jaquith]

As I first stated "This could be a lot of 'bad' things, faulty -> CPU, MOBO, PSU, GPU, USB. "

Are you certain this is NOT a thermal shutdown? Monitor the temps, if they quickly spike then replace the Thermal compound on the CPU.

Also, have you EVER breadboarded - if NOT then NOW is a good time to start.

 

[Warpspasm]

I don't think it's a thermal shutdown, because it appears to fail starting when cold as opposed to hot. I guess it could be a reverse thermal start up. You're right about the breadboarding at this point. What do i have to lose? But, since the motherboard doesn't have any place for a speaker, and I have to take out the GPU, how will I know if it posts?

Since there are so many things it could be, and this system is a bit old anyway, I might go for a new build. Here's a link to my thread I just started there if you'd like to help with that. I'd appreciate it.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/297825-31-rebuild-dead-system-advice

 

[Shadow703793]

Now the thing won't post no matter how many times I try. I've reset the RAM, cleared the CMOS, unplugged the reset switch, but to no avail.

Have you tried replacing the CMOS battery? It could be the CMOS battery is dead and when it boots, it's probably trying to reset to default settings.

 

[Warpspasm]

Hmmmm... good point. I haven't tried that.

 

[Warpspasm]

Nope. That wasn't it.

 

[Warpspasm]

Here's the latest. I took the system to a guy who has a Post board and it displayed the code C154. The trouble is, neither of us could find out what that code means. Also, I hooked up a case speaker and started the system. No beeps at all.

 

[Twoboxer]

Contact Gigabyte support with the post code, and post a message here:

http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/

 

[keith263]

Hi warpspasm,

My 10 month old Intel 860 system with an Asus Evo motherboard has 2 days ago started behaving exactly the same!
Only on start up when cold.
Have to unplug the PSU and press the reset button on the motherboard (sometimes several times!).
Once up and running it is fine, but the thing I noticed is that when I first power on in the morning the Sapphire 5870's
fan is often going at full speed and and not advancing beyond that point and perhaps that is maybe where the issue is occuring!
I'll try another graphics card when I have the time.
I didn't notice in your posts if you had the same graphics card fan issue or if have tried another card.

Regards keith263

 

[keith263]

Forgot to mention if left alone in this pre post state, it sometimes go into an OFF then ON cycle.

Regards keith263

 

[Warpspasm]

Keith, I didn't notice the GPU fan because it's pointing towards the bottom of the case and I have so darn many other fans in the case I can't really hear it either. But, I did try a different GPU at one point and the problem is still there. Except now mine won't POST at all anymore.

 

[jaquith]

This could be a lot of 'bad' things, faulty -> CPU, MOBO, [strike]PSU, GPU, USB[/strike].

Did you ever breadboard yet?

{my wife had surgery a few days ago, so I'm not online much now...}

 

[Shadow703793]

^ Tell your wife we all at THF said get well soon. 😉

 

[Gekko Shadow]

^ Tell your wife we all at THF said get well soon. 😉

^ x2 I'm with shadow mate! Hope she's doing well!

 

[jaquith]

Thanks - she's in pain and still nauseous, but she'll be fine in a couple of weeks!

 

[Gekko Shadow]

Thanks - she's in pain and still nauseous, but she'll be fine in a couple of weeks!

That's good to hear! 😀 Great to know she's doing well x)

 

[Warpspasm]

This could be a lot of 'bad' things, faulty -> CPU, MOBO, [strike]PSU, GPU, USB[/strike].

Did you ever breadboard yet?

{my wife had surgery a few days ago, so I'm not online much now...}

I think I just got it worked out! I resigned myself to the fact I was going to have to just rebuild the system and was doing some research on RAM. In one forum post a guy was talking about having "cold boot" problems as a result of some new RAM he bought. It was Crucial RAM, which is what I have. On a hunch, I started looking into this being a problem with Crucial RAM and sure enough it came up enough in forums and reviews that I was curious. I pulled both sticks or Crucial RAM out of my system and put in a stick of Kingston from my son's system. Turned it on, it posted normally and booted to Windows. What threw me off in the troubleshooting was, I was removing one stick of Crucial at a time, trying to isolate if one of the sticks was bad. I NEVER expected both of them to go hinky on me! I have a few more things to do before I'm positive this is the problem, but I'm pretty darn sure at this point. Weird one.

 

[jaquith]

Typically, not all at once unless the PSU failed/spiked and destroyed the RAM. I did not focus on the RAM because of the (one stick).

Before concluding RAM, run Memtest one stick or you can try all sticks. Create a bootable CD/DVD {ISO/zip} - http://www.memtest.org/

Is your MOBO GA-P35-DS3L? {listed as GA-P35-D3SL} Tested RAM - http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=GA-P35-DS3L%20(rev.%201.0)

 

[Warpspasm]

Yep, right MOBO, but I'm (or WAS) using Crucial Ballistix RAM. I just tried taking out the Kingston stick and put back one of the Ballistix sticks and the system posted then froze trying to launch Windows. Put the Kingston stick back in and it booted right up.