Tower turns on multiple times

[Jasephel]

When I turn on my tower, nothing goes to the monitor (there's just a black screen). Sometimes, it starts up again after just a few seconds, and then it will sit there, fans blowing, for an indefinite period of time before I press and hold the power button to turn it off. I'm wondering why it is doing this. Sometimes it will turn on a couple times before doing that.
A few extra details to help:
1. It does this from cold, when I first turn it on in the morning or something
2. once after it did this, I came back 30-40 minutes later and tried again and it worked - I was even able to restart it and then turn it off, and then back on.
3. I just put in a new hard drive and installed fresh copy of Windows 7 pro on it in an attempt to fix the problem that was originally occurring, which was that it was turning on (it WAS showing the splash screen on the monitor this time), but it would pause at some point and do nothing.
Any help is appreciated. Thx

 

[Jasephel]

My computer just gave me this message: CPU fan error.

 

[Anonymous09]

If you're receiving a cpu fan error, the first thing I would check is, well, your cpu fan. Make sure it is properly seated, and that it is running. Also, I think we need a bit more information, are you able to load into your os? Or are you just stuck getting shut down a few seconds after boot? When you installed a new hdd, was it because the previous one had failed? Also, can you post your build specs please? And if you built it yourself, as always, make sure you're adhering to this before you post:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-perform-steps-posting-post-boot-video-problems

 

[Jasephel]

If you're receiving a cpu fan error, the first thing I would check is, well, your cpu fan. Make sure it is properly seated, and that it is running. Also, I think we need a bit more information, are you able to load into your os? Or are you just stuck getting shut down a few seconds after boot? When you installed a new hdd, was it because the previous one had failed? Also, can you post your build specs please? And if you built it yourself, as always, make sure you're adhering to this before you post:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-perform-steps-posting-post-boot-video-problems

I am able to load into OS (now). The previous HD had failed. I am not the one who built it, but it was custom built by someone.
I'm very sorry I haven't been active in this thread: I lost interest in this computer but now I am back at it.
1. The fan runs, so I believe that it is working correctly.
2. I've only received that message once I believe
3. I just turned on the computer right now, and it worked. When it came to the American Trends page, and gave the options to press F1 for setup (?) and F2 to load default values and continue, I pressed F2, and it works like normal. Also on that screen was a message that said that CMOS had the wrong time or something (Which I can verify is correct - I set the time when I reinstalled W7 and it says it is Jan. 1 when it is Feb. 3)
4. I just tried restarting the computer, and the CMOS error messages (two, but I cannot remember the other one - it may have something to do with "checksum") did not come back. In fact, I don't think that the American Trends screen came up either.

Alright, so CMOS is a part of the motherboard, right?
I read this thread on how-to-geek: http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/topic/corrupt-cmos
the thread was quite confusing to me, but I hope to learn.

I imagine that this problem will re-occur sometime, so when it does I will update. It could just be a dead CMOS battery, maybe?

Specs: Intel Celeron or something (not sure), not sure how much RAM (definitely 4GB or less, maybe 2), a Nvidia GPU. Asus motherboard. WD Hard Drive (new). Windows 7 pro. Please let me know how I can find this stuff out on my computer - I would appreciate it.
As always, any input is appreciated. Thank you very much!

 

[Jasephel]

Tragedy strikes again! It won't start up this morning. I got the Asus splash screen, the black screen with some words on it that said click any key to continue (which I don't usually click)(I think this is where if I had the Windows 7 disk in, it would give option to boot from CD or DVD), but then on the black screen with a blinking underscore (which is the same screen that previously had given me the cpu fan error), it stopped and just stayed there for a long time. After a minute I turned the computer off. That black screen usually comes up, but usually the underscore just blinks a couple times or something, and then it boots into windows.
I'm really wondering whether the CMOS battery is dead, because I think that would make sense.
What should I be looking for? How can I test the battery? I have an AC/DC Multitester with 0 to 1000 volt capacity, so could I use that? If the CMOS battery is dead and I have to replace it, will I have to reinstall Windows 7 again? My version was OEM so it locked to this motherboard - will that be affected in any way?

I just turned it on again and here is the sequence of screens: asus, screen with words (something about Jmicron technology), pause on Asus screen again, and it freezes there. I try to enter BIOS by pressing delete, and then by pressing esc (in the past DEL has worked), but it does nothing. So it froze on that screen, refused to go anywhere (just like before except on one screen earlier this time), and BIOS wouldn't work.

The next time I turn it on, I want to try to enter BIOS immediately, and see it it works. But I need to know what to do while I'm in there.

 

[Jasephel]

Some more info on specs: GPU is GeForce 9500 GT. The PSU is Asus 250W. Hard Drive is 1tb.
Could it be that my PSU is failing?

 

[Anonymous09]

What you are describing is almost a classic example of your cmos battery dying off, if you do have that multimeter check the voltages right away. If it dips below what it is rated at, usually 3v, by an significant amount, say 0.5v, then it is time to order a new cmos battery. You will not lose anything, your windows license is safe and so is everything else. But your settings in bios will all be reset when you put the new one in so if you had any custom settings, remember them now so you can put them back in later. Let me know how you make out, what the voltage is on your current battery, and when you buy that new one and put it in. They're usually under 5 dollars online, so fairly inexpensive, or most definitely at your local hardware store.

 

[0451]

I was having this same issue a week ago on my,brand new build, but the issue seems to have resolved itself. A few notes:

-Happens only when room temp is below 20 C.
-I have a Kaby Lake processor and Asus board
-I have a custom water cooling loop with the fan hub plugged into the CPU fan plug.
-I think the processor has a temperature range of 20C too 100C unless temperature protection is disabled.
-restarting the computer a few times brings the processor temp above 20C

 

[Anonymous09]

I was having this same issue a week ago on my,brand new build, but the issue seems to have resolved itself. A few notes:

-Happens only when room temp is below 20 C.
-I have a Kaby Lake processor and Asus board
-I have a custom water cooling loop with the fan hub plugged into the CPU fan plug.
-I think the processor has a temperature range of 20C too 100C unless temperature protection is disabled.
-restarting the computer a few times brings the processor temp above 20C

I don't know what voodoo kaby lake you're running, but if that cpu is running at or below 20C, you should be very happy indeed. Lower cpu temps are generally sought after by the world, and make your processor very happy indeed. It might've been another component causing this problem, namely off the top of my head, sounding like the motherboard. As long as it resolved itself though, I guess all is well.

 

[0451]

Anon, sorry I accidentally downvoted. I was trying to quote you but I don't see an option.

With my water loop, CPU temp is below 20 C for about 5 minutes whenever the room temp is 15C or lower. The CPU is stable under load at 5.1ghz when gaming. Temps approach 60C at 5.0ghz/1.325v and 90C at 5.1ghz/1.4v. I will delid to improve temps further.

If the original poster lives in a cold climate (not Los Angeles like me) he might have the same issue with air cooling if the bios has a 20C lower cpu temp limit. Adjusting the lower limit in the bios may help in this case,

 

[Anonymous09]

It's fine idc yeah I thought of something like a thermal range option provided by the mb a little after I posted. I can't think of why there would be a minimum field to fill out, maybe to help diagnose some underclocking problems or the sort, but I can't think of a definite answer right now. A maximum is of course extremely helpful to set at a custom value, but I don't think the rebooting would be purely due to the low temperature itself. As to the OP's, well everything he has told us, time getting messed up, strange hardware errors, etc, are the classic symptoms of a failing cmos battery, so I'm pretty confident until he gets back to us on the power levels he tests that it is most likely the problems, I can't think of a reason, like I said, for itself to set a lower limit for the temperature.

 

[Jasephel]

What you are describing is almost a classic example of your cmos battery dying off, if you do have that multimeter check the voltages right away. If it dips below what it is rated at, usually 3v, by an significant amount, say 0.5v, then it is time to order a new cmos battery. You will not lose anything, your windows license is safe and so is everything else. But your settings in bios will all be reset when you put the new one in so if you had any custom settings, remember them now so you can put them back in later. Let me know how you make out, what the voltage is on your current battery, and when you buy that new one and put it in. They're usually under 5 dollars online, so fairly inexpensive, or most definitely at your local hardware store.

I have no idea how to use my multimeter - it's fairly old. I don't know what the knob on the side is, and I don't know how to read the result.
The battery is 3v. I just don't know how to test it. Uggggghh! Any tips? Good explanations on YouTube or How-to-geek or something?

 

[Anonymous09]

What you are describing is almost a classic example of your cmos battery dying off, if you do have that multimeter check the voltages right away. If it dips below what it is rated at, usually 3v, by an significant amount, say 0.5v, then it is time to order a new cmos battery. You will not lose anything, your windows license is safe and so is everything else. But your settings in bios will all be reset when you put the new one in so if you had any custom settings, remember them now so you can put them back in later. Let me know how you make out, what the voltage is on your current battery, and when you buy that new one and put it in. They're usually under 5 dollars online, so fairly inexpensive, or most definitely at your local hardware store.

I have no idea how to use my multimeter - it's fairly old. I don't know what the know on the side is, and I don't know how to read the result.
The battery is 3v. I just don't know how to test it. Uggggghh! Any tips? Good explanations on YouTube or How-to-geek or something?

Just look up a video on it, the positive end is the top of the battery and the negative is the bottom. Touch the probes to each end, make sure you set it to the right voltage before you do, should be 10 or 5.

 

[Jasephel]

Well, about the multimeter... I don't think that it works. I might get a new one.
But anyways, I just got the new CMOS battery, and I put it in there. I turned on the tower not knowing what I needed to do to setup the new battery (I should've looked it up before I turned it on). I tried pressing F2 to load default values and continue, which was a mistake, as it gave me some diagonal white lines in the top right corner of the screen; I turned it off after a bit.
Now, I don't get anything on the screen - the fan blows for a while, and then I have to turn it off. Sometimes it will run for a few seconds, and then restart on its own - sometimes a few times. Sometimes it will restart after only a second or two. I will give it some time and try again tomorrow.

 

[0451]

Well, about the multimeter... I don't think that it works. I might get a new one.
But anyways, I just got the new CMOS battery, and I put it in there. I turned on the tower not knowing what I needed to do to setup the new battery (I should've looked it up before I turned it on). I tried pressing F2 to load default values and continue, which was a mistake, as it gave me some diagonal white lines in the top right corner of the screen; I turned it off after a bit.
Now, I don't get anything on the screen - the fan blows for a while, and then I have to turn it off. Sometimes it will run for a few seconds, and then restart on its own - sometimes a few times. Sometimes it will restart after only a second or two. I will give it some time and try again tomorrow.

What ia your room temp?

 

[Jasephel]

Well, about the multimeter... I don't think that it works. I might get a new one.
But anyways, I just got the new CMOS battery, and I put it in there. I turned on the tower not knowing what I needed to do to setup the new battery (I should've looked it up before I turned it on). I tried pressing F2 to load default values and continue, which was a mistake, as it gave me some diagonal white lines in the top right corner of the screen; I turned it off after a bit.
Now, I don't get anything on the screen - the fan blows for a while, and then I have to turn it off. Sometimes it will run for a few seconds, and then restart on its own - sometimes a few times. Sometimes it will restart after only a second or two. I will give it some time and try again tomorrow.

What ia your room temp?

Well I would guess about 18 degrees celsius/64 Fahrenheit since it is our basement.

 

[0451]

Well, about the multimeter... I don't think that it works. I might get a new one.
But anyways, I just got the new CMOS battery, and I put it in there. I turned on the tower not knowing what I needed to do to setup the new battery (I should've looked it up before I turned it on). I tried pressing F2 to load default values and continue, which was a mistake, as it gave me some diagonal white lines in the top right corner of the screen; I turned it off after a bit.
Now, I don't get anything on the screen - the fan blows for a while, and then I have to turn it off. Sometimes it will run for a few seconds, and then restart on its own - sometimes a few times. Sometimes it will restart after only a second or two. I will give it some time and try again tomorrow.

What ia your room temp?

Well I would guess about 18 degrees celsius/64 Fahrenheit since it is our basement.

Try taking a hairdryer to your processor. It may be too cold.

 

[Jasephel]

Hey everyone. New query: I unscrewed the cpu fan, and it made a popping noise when it was almost unscrewed. But that was only for the one set of screws; when I started with the screws on the opposite side, it didn't make the popping noise. Weird! I am going to re-apply thermal compound. I have done some research, and I am going to get Arctic Silver 5 b/c everyone says it's amazing, but do I need to clean the old stuff first, and how would I clean it? Do I need to buy some special cleaning solution for the purpose?

 

[Anonymous09]

Yes absolutely you must clean off the old stuff. All you need is some standard isopropyl alcohol to get it all off. Just make sure there aren't any hairs or much dust when you reapply the new paste. If you want a more in-depth step by step instruction, go to artic's website and they have all the guides you'll need. But all you really need to know is drop a pea sized glob on the center of the heat spreader(the silvery thing attached to the actual processor), which is just the "top" for all intents and purposes, and secure the heatsink. You can also spread it evenly over the heat spreader, either way there is a raging debate over which is better. I personally have subscribed to the pea method for desktop processors, and most definitely the only way you can do it for unexposed cpu dies is the spread method. As to your fan dilema, I'm afraid I don't understand your problem, did the fan pop or the heatsink? And when exactly did it happen?

 

[Jasephel]

Yes absolutely you must clean off the old stuff. All you need is some standard isopropyl alcohol to get it all off. Just make sure there aren't any hairs or much dust when you reapply the new paste. If you want a more in-depth step by step instruction, go to artic's website and they have all the guides you'll need. But all you really need to know is drop a pea sized glob on the center of the heat spreader(the silvery thing attached to the actual processor), which is just the "top" for all intents and purposes, and secure the heatsink. You can also spread it evenly over the heat spreader, either way there is a raging debate over which is better. I personally have subscribed to the pea method for desktop processors, and most definitely the only way you can do it for unexposed cpu dies is the spread method. As to your fan dilema, I'm afraid I don't understand your problem, did the fan pop or the heatsink? And when exactly did it happen?

Well, I'm not exactly sure what made the popping noise. It happened while I was loosening the screws for the heatsink/fan combo. It was almost like if you could only unscrew it a certain amount, and then the threading of the screw ran out... if that makes any sense. I don't think it was the heatsink or the fan that was popping, but rather the place where it screws into.
It could also possibly be that since the processor and the heatsink are stuck together with the thermal compound, that when I was unscrewing the heatsink/fan it pulled the processor (which is securely fixed to the motherboard) and the motherboard a little bit up, which in turn would put a lot of weight on the screws threads, causing it to jump down a couple threads. I don't really think it's anything to worry about. "popping" was probably the wrong word to describe it anyway lol!

 

[Jasephel]

Okay, so I got the Artic Silver, read all the instructions, looked up how to remove the old stuff, and apply the new stuff; then I turned on the tower. It is running but nothing is happening. Nothing shows up on the monitor. What should I do now? Like I said before, doing the wrong thing when I put the new CMOS battery in might have screwed it up, so how would I fix that? Thx.

 

[Jasephel]

So I breadboarded system: first took out CMOS battery and reset CMOS - started system and got no POST beep. Did the same thing with RAM with no beep. Then I took out the video card, and it gave me one long beep and two short beeps (it kept repeated the pattern). So that means my Video Card is bad, right? Do I need to replace it?

 

[Jasephel]

I'm pretty sure that either the video card or the MOBO is shot, and I am out of money, so I am done messing with this computer. Thank you everyone who has helped me out!

 

[Anonymous09]

Oh that is strange, I did not receive an email for either of your comments, just that the problem was solved. Regardless, hold on about giving up. May I inquire as to what motherboard you have, so I can determine those beep codes you listed, also, if what you said is true then your graphics card sounds fine, since the graphics card has to be installed for it to determine if there is an error, otherwise how else would it know it exists. It is possible the memory is bad, unlikely but possible, but the key piece of info I would need is your motherboard.

 

[Jasephel]

This is the motherboard: https://www.amazon.com/P5B-BN-LGA775-Motherboard-T3-PH1-System/dp/B014A0LDWY