System Won't Boot Up

KT888

Distinguished
May 5, 2012
79
0
18,640
I'm really not sure if this is a MB issue but it's where I'm starting because of how this is manifesting.

I have a 4770K setup with an Asrock Z87 OC Formula/ac MB running Windows 7 Ultimate. I had a 3TB SATA HD that I guess is on it's last legs. It works intermittently but drops out of Windows for no reason at all. According to Speccy the SMART readings for the drive show no problems with the drive. In my experience this is always the case right up to the point a drive is dead. Does anyone know if SMART is a real technology because my drives right up to the point they're dead always register with no problems with their SMART readings. Every time...

Anyway this last time I was trying a reformat of the drive which worked. I ran MS disk checker on the drive to see if there were any problems that it could find but windows disk checker says the drive is fine. But the drive is definitely having issues. When disk checker finished I clicked on close but the result window froze on the screen. Windows explorer also froze and then FF froze. Then Windows Froze (Start bar) I waited a while to see if it was just stuck temporary but ended up hard shutting it down with the power button. When I tried to start up again there's nothing.

I should mention that I have recently been having another unrelated issue (I think). When I shut the power down ie turn off the power bar and then start it again in the morning when I boot the machine the bios is wiped and I have to reset the time and all settings in the bios. People from Google research seem to think it's the CMOS battery. Haven't gotten around to getting a new one yet but I will try that. Anyway I'm not sure it the issue I'm having now is related to that. Would a dead CMOS battery stop ANYTHING from happening when trying to boot up the PC. Does there HAVE to be power to the CMOS for the PC to boot or can it boot on the power from the wall and I just have to reset the bios settings and the clock if the CMOS battery is dead. Because that's what has been happening up to now. But that could be because the battery wasn't quite dead and now it is completely dead.

Other than that anyone have any suggestions of what may be the issue.

I've disconnected everything to troubleshoot but there's still nothing when I try to boot up. The H80 fan starts spinning and then stops. All the LEDs on the board stay off. After the failed start the thing is completely dead. I have to actually disconnect the power cables for the MB and the CPU from the PSU and reconnect to be able to try it again. otherwise the PC won't even try, not even the H80 fan starts spinning it's completely dead. But after another try the MB and CPU need to be disconnected again.
 

KT888

Distinguished
May 5, 2012
79
0
18,640
Seriously. Nothing. That's very unusual in my experience usually there are people who at least have suggestions.

I tried a new CMOS battery and nothing happened. The watercooler fan starts and then stops and nothing else happens it's completely dead so I guess the issue I'm having now is not the result of the dead battery but maybe when I figure out what the issue is I won't have to keep resetting the clock and all the bios settings everytime I boot up.

So now I have a totally dead system and no idea why? Anyone have any experience that might be helpful in this situation. Ever have this happen to you. What was the issue?