Firstly, I apologize in advance if this is extremely lengthy but I’m going to try and get as much detail out there to, hopefully, make it easier for someone to help recognize the problem.
I’ve already searched this site and the rest of the internet and have only found slightly similar posts to the problem I’m having but didn’t find the solution to my problem. I'm fairly amateurish in pc building and troubleshooting, this is the 4th system I assemble from scratch and the previous three have POSTed, booted up, OS installed, and have been running fine (with the exception of one having a constant blue screen that I was able to troubleshoot but since has been running like a champ)… all thanks to the step-by-step guides I have followed from this site.
System specs:
CPU: AMD Phenom X4 9750 Quad Core 2.4Ghz AM2+
MOBO: Gigabyte MA74GM-S2 AMD, Micro ATX AM2+
RAM: 4GB OCZ SLI-Ready DDR2 800MHz (2x2GB)
HSF: Thermaltake V1 LGA1366 copper
HDD: 1TB Seagate ST31000528AS Barracuda 7200.12, SATA
PSU: Ultra LSP650-Watt ATX
GPU: (using onboard graphics)
DVD: Lite-on IHAS124-04 internal writer, SATA
CASE: Cooler Master Elite 330 ATX Mid-Tower
Thermal Compund: the one that came with the cpu cooler, it didn’t have a brand name (I know, I know, I should’ve probably bought a better one separately but I didn't)
So after building this new system I proceed to power it on, hear (and see) all the fans and LED’s come on, hear the ‘single short’ beep and the compter POSTs. Good so far. I proceed into BIOS and ONLY make(2) changes; enable cpufan fail warning and system fan fail warning (they are set to ‘disabled’ by default), I then go into PC health and monitor CPU and system temps for a few min (which is just a habit I’ve done with all previous builds) cpu temp is steadily between 19-21C and system is 33-34C. I hit F10 to save & exit, hit enter, then the pc instantly shuts down. I knew something wasn’t right since everything seemed to be running fine until I exited BIOS.
I power it back up and starts again normally, fans all come on, single short beep, POST, so I proceed to install the OS (Win7) and the install is going smoothly until it gets to the first point at which it does an automatic restart before it continues installation of the OS, then instead of re-starting it just shuts down. I try to power it back on and all the fans come on, LED lights up, but NO single beep, no POST, nothing coming up on the monitor. I let it run for a few minutes waiting to see if it’ll POST and nothing (fans and LED still on and running though). I do a hard shut down check monitor power and cable and try re-starting it and get the same results.. no beeps, no POST, nothing but the fans running and LED’s.
I swapped monitors (w/known good one) and nothing, swapped DVI cable (w/known good one) and nothing, used a VGA cable instead of DVI and still nothing. I didn’t think that would fix it since I knew the computer wasn’t POSTing but I figured I’d rule out the monitor and cables. I already had the side cover open so I check 4-pin CPU power connector, 24-pin MOBO connector and make sure they aren’t loose and are plugged in properly. Checked the RAM and made sure it was seated properly. Checked all cables and wires for anything loose or abnormal.. didn’t find anything unusual. Fire it up again and same deal as before, no POST, nothing on screen but fans all on (did a handful of hard shut downs and re-starts with same results).. pretty much followed everything in the "System won't boot" and "no video output" checklist.
Next I pulled out the CMOS battery on the MOBO and waited 1min before re-installing to reset the BIOS. This time it POSTs properly and continues where it left off installing the OS. It then gets to the next stage during the OS install where it does another auto re-start (this is normal for Win7 and is not the first time I intall using the same disc so I know the Win7 disc is not bad) then does the same as before; shuts down instead of re-starting. I power the computer back on and all fans come on but no single beep, no POST, nothing onscreen.. same problem as before.
I have another system with almost all compatible parts so I start swapping parts to try and isolate the problem:
Swap the RAM w/known good RAM and same results; everything runs/turns on but no POST and blank screen. Tried removing ALL the RAM to see if I would get the long error beeps and yes I get the long error beeps. Tried installing only (1) stick of RAM at a time and same results. Switched the single stick of RAM to another slot and same result.
My older system has a known good GPU card so I installed it and plugged in the DVI cable accordingly (thinking maybe the onboard graphics took a dump) and same result.
Tried a known good PSU and same result.
Removed the CPU and HSF to see if I put too much thermal paste and there was a small amount that oozed down the side of the CPU but didn’t drop low enough touch the MOBO so I didn’t think that was an issue.. regardless I still cleaned off the slight excess with isopropyl alcohol and some q-tips. Tried again and same result.
Swapped in a known good CPU (AMD Athlon X2 Dual-core 3.2Ghz that I’ve been running for years now in another system) and BAM! She lives again, POST successful and this time it finishes loading the OS.
(So now I’m curious if my other system will run with the newer system’s CPU that I just took out and negative, it doesn’t; fans turn on and all but no single beep and no POST blank screen. So up til this point I’m thinking the CPU was the problem.)
I let Windows run for a while just to see if it stays on and it and seems stable so I proceed to do a manual re-start (click on start menu and click re-start) and sure enough it re-starts normally. I go back into BIOS and without making changes I exit then déjà-vu! PC shuts down again! And this time when I try to power it back up I get nothing, zero happens, nothing comes on.
So now I’m confused and thinking it wasn’t the CPU that was bad and maybe the MOBO (or who knows what) caused the CPU to go bad? I’m freaking out thinking I just ruined a good CPU so I stop, put my old CPU back in the old system to see if it works and thankfully my old system started and booted back up normally…
So that’s where I left off since I was breaking my head thinking about it. The only thing I didn’t swap in from my older system was the MOBO but I thought if I did that then I wouldn’t know if the new MOBO was bad. I was trying to isolate the MOBO which is what I think is bad but if the CPU didn’t work in my older system then could it be that both the MOBO and CPU are flawed? Could the MOBO have caused the CPU to fail? Is that possible? And if it is under what circumstances would that happen? Could there be an internal short in the motherboard (manufacturer defect) that could've caused this?
I was thinking of installing everything outside the case (breadboarding is it?) but since the CPU caused the same problem in my other ‘known good’ system I thought it might not make a difference.
Thanks in advance for any help in identifying this problem.
I’ve already searched this site and the rest of the internet and have only found slightly similar posts to the problem I’m having but didn’t find the solution to my problem. I'm fairly amateurish in pc building and troubleshooting, this is the 4th system I assemble from scratch and the previous three have POSTed, booted up, OS installed, and have been running fine (with the exception of one having a constant blue screen that I was able to troubleshoot but since has been running like a champ)… all thanks to the step-by-step guides I have followed from this site.
System specs:
CPU: AMD Phenom X4 9750 Quad Core 2.4Ghz AM2+
MOBO: Gigabyte MA74GM-S2 AMD, Micro ATX AM2+
RAM: 4GB OCZ SLI-Ready DDR2 800MHz (2x2GB)
HSF: Thermaltake V1 LGA1366 copper
HDD: 1TB Seagate ST31000528AS Barracuda 7200.12, SATA
PSU: Ultra LSP650-Watt ATX
GPU: (using onboard graphics)
DVD: Lite-on IHAS124-04 internal writer, SATA
CASE: Cooler Master Elite 330 ATX Mid-Tower
Thermal Compund: the one that came with the cpu cooler, it didn’t have a brand name (I know, I know, I should’ve probably bought a better one separately but I didn't)
So after building this new system I proceed to power it on, hear (and see) all the fans and LED’s come on, hear the ‘single short’ beep and the compter POSTs. Good so far. I proceed into BIOS and ONLY make(2) changes; enable cpufan fail warning and system fan fail warning (they are set to ‘disabled’ by default), I then go into PC health and monitor CPU and system temps for a few min (which is just a habit I’ve done with all previous builds) cpu temp is steadily between 19-21C and system is 33-34C. I hit F10 to save & exit, hit enter, then the pc instantly shuts down. I knew something wasn’t right since everything seemed to be running fine until I exited BIOS.
I power it back up and starts again normally, fans all come on, single short beep, POST, so I proceed to install the OS (Win7) and the install is going smoothly until it gets to the first point at which it does an automatic restart before it continues installation of the OS, then instead of re-starting it just shuts down. I try to power it back on and all the fans come on, LED lights up, but NO single beep, no POST, nothing coming up on the monitor. I let it run for a few minutes waiting to see if it’ll POST and nothing (fans and LED still on and running though). I do a hard shut down check monitor power and cable and try re-starting it and get the same results.. no beeps, no POST, nothing but the fans running and LED’s.
I swapped monitors (w/known good one) and nothing, swapped DVI cable (w/known good one) and nothing, used a VGA cable instead of DVI and still nothing. I didn’t think that would fix it since I knew the computer wasn’t POSTing but I figured I’d rule out the monitor and cables. I already had the side cover open so I check 4-pin CPU power connector, 24-pin MOBO connector and make sure they aren’t loose and are plugged in properly. Checked the RAM and made sure it was seated properly. Checked all cables and wires for anything loose or abnormal.. didn’t find anything unusual. Fire it up again and same deal as before, no POST, nothing on screen but fans all on (did a handful of hard shut downs and re-starts with same results).. pretty much followed everything in the "System won't boot" and "no video output" checklist.
Next I pulled out the CMOS battery on the MOBO and waited 1min before re-installing to reset the BIOS. This time it POSTs properly and continues where it left off installing the OS. It then gets to the next stage during the OS install where it does another auto re-start (this is normal for Win7 and is not the first time I intall using the same disc so I know the Win7 disc is not bad) then does the same as before; shuts down instead of re-starting. I power the computer back on and all fans come on but no single beep, no POST, nothing onscreen.. same problem as before.
I have another system with almost all compatible parts so I start swapping parts to try and isolate the problem:
Swap the RAM w/known good RAM and same results; everything runs/turns on but no POST and blank screen. Tried removing ALL the RAM to see if I would get the long error beeps and yes I get the long error beeps. Tried installing only (1) stick of RAM at a time and same results. Switched the single stick of RAM to another slot and same result.
My older system has a known good GPU card so I installed it and plugged in the DVI cable accordingly (thinking maybe the onboard graphics took a dump) and same result.
Tried a known good PSU and same result.
Removed the CPU and HSF to see if I put too much thermal paste and there was a small amount that oozed down the side of the CPU but didn’t drop low enough touch the MOBO so I didn’t think that was an issue.. regardless I still cleaned off the slight excess with isopropyl alcohol and some q-tips. Tried again and same result.
Swapped in a known good CPU (AMD Athlon X2 Dual-core 3.2Ghz that I’ve been running for years now in another system) and BAM! She lives again, POST successful and this time it finishes loading the OS.
(So now I’m curious if my other system will run with the newer system’s CPU that I just took out and negative, it doesn’t; fans turn on and all but no single beep and no POST blank screen. So up til this point I’m thinking the CPU was the problem.)
I let Windows run for a while just to see if it stays on and it and seems stable so I proceed to do a manual re-start (click on start menu and click re-start) and sure enough it re-starts normally. I go back into BIOS and without making changes I exit then déjà-vu! PC shuts down again! And this time when I try to power it back up I get nothing, zero happens, nothing comes on.
So now I’m confused and thinking it wasn’t the CPU that was bad and maybe the MOBO (or who knows what) caused the CPU to go bad? I’m freaking out thinking I just ruined a good CPU so I stop, put my old CPU back in the old system to see if it works and thankfully my old system started and booted back up normally…
So that’s where I left off since I was breaking my head thinking about it. The only thing I didn’t swap in from my older system was the MOBO but I thought if I did that then I wouldn’t know if the new MOBO was bad. I was trying to isolate the MOBO which is what I think is bad but if the CPU didn’t work in my older system then could it be that both the MOBO and CPU are flawed? Could the MOBO have caused the CPU to fail? Is that possible? And if it is under what circumstances would that happen? Could there be an internal short in the motherboard (manufacturer defect) that could've caused this?
I was thinking of installing everything outside the case (breadboarding is it?) but since the CPU caused the same problem in my other ‘known good’ system I thought it might not make a difference.
Thanks in advance for any help in identifying this problem.