The dreaded "no beep, no POST, no signal" - and more!

[Steve Kerry]

Just over a week ago, my PC died. I hit the start button, the fans turned, and that was it. No beep, no POST, no signal, nothing. I still had power because the LED on the mobo was on, and the lights on the GPU were pulsing.

My rig: i5-4670K, Asus Z87-K, 32GB DDR3 (Corsair Vengeance), GTX 1060 Strix (6GB), 3 x 24" monitors, 700W PSU, 200W Arctic CPU cooler.

Edit: Yes I have followed the checklist of things to try when the PC won't start. Twice.

So I put it on the table and stripped it down, looking for the problem. All the plugs were snuggled up tight, nothing was loose or flapping around, no signs of anything wrong. I pulled the mobo out and breadboarded it on the (wooden) table. The fans would spin but that was it.

I installed a beeper (didn't normally have one) to get the error code. BeepBeepBeepBeepBeepBeep, reboot, BeepBeepBeepBeepBeepBeep, reboot, ad infinitum
Memory problems, I figured. Removed the RAM, cleaned the slots out, put one stick back in: it works! Put in another stick, reboot, it works! Put in all 4 sticks, reboot, it works! Must have been some dirt or grit in the RAM socket, right?

Worked okay for the rest of the day, including several reboots. Turn it on next morning: BeepBeepBeepBeepBeepBeep

Dragged it all apart again, couldn't find anything wrong. This time none of the RAM worked in any slot (I tried every combination of RAM sticks in slots I could think of).

Conclusion: either the RAM or mobo was faulty. The chance of all 4 RAM sticks failing at the same time was pretty low, so I figured my venerable old mobo must have died.

I managed to get a used Gigabyte Z87X-OC board, everything worked and I was quite happy.

The following week, I turned on the PC, the fans spun but that was all. Dragged it out again, the readout said Error 15. A quick Google search showed a lot of people getting Error 15 with this mobo, but my RAM was listed on the Gigabyte page as fully supported. None of the remedies suggested in other posts have worked for me.

I got another CPU, just a little i3 so I could swap out the existing CPU. It made no difference. I swapped out my 700W PSU for a 600W from a previous build, and even an old 400W. No beep, no POST, no signal.

I am fresh out of ideas. I have swapped out the mobo, the CPU, the PSU, and even the cooler. I have effectively built another PC. I found a bent pin on the old mobo and straightened it, no difference. None of the RAM works in any slot, or in any combination. I don't see how all 4 RAM sticks could have failed overnight but they are the only thing I haven't yet replaced.

Any suggestions? I'm using my wife's old laptop and I am going crazy 🙁

 

[Steve Kerry]

It's working again, but I'm not sure I should flag this as Solved because I'm not entirely clear what caused the problem in the first place.

I picked up a spare 2GB card of DDR3, installed that alone, and got into BIOS where I reset everything to factory default. Reboot, everything loaded fine - but running Win 10 on 2GB doesn't leave much room to actually do anything. So I rebooted again with a couple of the 8GB in place, everything worked and the system reported 18GB RAM. Reboot once more with the full complement of RAM, and it says 32GB are all healthy and working well.

So was it a BIOS problem all along? I reset the BIOS to factory default many times, and left the battery out for hours but it wouldn't boot with my 8GB sticks installed. Boot off the 2GB stick and then reset everything from inside BIOS and suddenly it's all working fine. Makes no sense to me.

 

[jayarebee84]

Thanks for the post. I am having the same issue with my old AMD Phenom 9850/ASUS M3A32-MVP Deluxe. I HIGHLY doubt my RAM went bad. But I am certainly going to try that I suppose, but I found the same board and CPU on eBay for a total of like $80. Guess if I get this one here currently running I'll have another backup.....

 

[jayarebee84]

It's working again, but I'm not sure I should flag this as Solved because I'm not entirely clear what caused the problem in the first place.

I picked up a spare 2GB card of DDR3, installed that alone, and got into BIOS where I reset everything to factory default. Reboot, everything loaded fine - but running Win 10 on 2GB doesn't leave much room to actually do anything. So I rebooted again with a couple of the 8GB in place, everything worked and the system reported 18GB RAM. Reboot once more with the full complement of RAM, and it says 32GB are all healthy and working well.

So was it a BIOS problem all along? I reset the BIOS to factory default many times, and left the battery out for hours but it wouldn't boot with my 8GB sticks installed. Boot off the 2GB stick and then reset everything from inside BIOS and suddenly it's all working fine. Makes no sense to me.

I am glad you got yours back up, I have that same issue, I tried the checklist as well, and played with the RAM, I've got 4x2GB DDR2 G.Skill. I tried every combo and even no combo, motherboard lights up, and fans spin, but no POST, no BEEP, nothing. I'm guessing the CPU died, but what do I know. I have a "refurbished" board coming Monday that I found online cheap, I'm afraid to put this CPU into it now, I also have a 600 Watt PSU coming, maybe the 500W shorted it? But I always had a 550Watt on it with older GeForce Cards, I eventually got a 650Watt for newer video cards.

Ugh Frustrating.. I've given up for now, just waiting for this "new" MB and CPU (replacements/refurbished), this PC would make a nice gift to my mom who's on an Intel i3 laptop or some garbage that freezes all the time.

I remember this ASUS M3A32-MVP Deluxe MB producing SOO much heat, maybe it was the CPU (AMD Phenom 9850 BE), but I always had a Zalman Heatsink (big orange soda can thing), love the Zalmans, always kept the temps down, but with my new system there is like 0 heat produced, it's scary quiet and cool heh.