Why won't my computer start? Is it a hard drive failure or a power supply failure?

[Elf_Knight]

Hello,
Today I had a weird problem with my Gaming PC. I move it around a lot and moved it upstairs since someone was my room was unavailable at the moment. I was moving it around back and forth on the dining room table to get the best set-up position and I wish I had just left it alone but once or twice I switched off the power supply manually like I always do. However the second time around or third time it wouldn't turn on. Previously a few weeks or couple months ago my PC crashed on start up or would just crash all-together. I am worried that it was my hard drive because when I opened up the case my hard drive was loose.

The screw had popped off because I modded the ODD bay to fit my hard drive since it wouldn't fit in any of the hard drive cages initially in the case. My PC had been fine before and worked like charm but now it won't turn on. Just to see what was wrong I reinstalled the screw and tried again. I tried with multiple extension cables so I know that's not a problem. I could try new power cables. My monitor works and turns on so I know that's okay. It is either my power supply or hard drive because when I unplugged my hard drive and turned on my PC without the HDD I turned on my PC and the Corsair H60 and case fans turned on for a few seconds and then died. So it is a power supply failure?

I am thinking it is either a PSU failure or an HDD failure or both. My PC is over a year old and I only have an EVGA 500 watt PSU. It worked fine with my system until I replaced the cooler master 212 Hyper evo with the Corsair H60. My specs: i5 4690k, lga 1150 motherboard (micro atx), 1.5tb hdd, zotac gtx 970, and 8gb of ram with the Fractal Design Core 2300. What is wrong with my PC? Is it a mobo failure? Dead PSU or dead HDD?

Many thanks in advance!

 

[Ironsounds]

Hello... you had Mb/Bios Boot failure... Reseat your RAM and Look for anything else out of place... wire in your CPU fan? something went wrong with all moving around inside there.. OK... B /

 

[Elf_Knight]

I unplugged my graphics card and turned it on. Fans started 1 second and heard a single loud beep from the motherboard. I will try to reinstall some stuff and see what happens.

 

[AJ Kenway]

Reset the bios. Normally, resetting the bios is the solution to this problem. I have been constantly battling with this problem since I built my first Intel-based machine. If it does not work, try putting the SATA cable to another slot and reset the bios again. Also, try to re-seat the CPU (this method always works for me when my computer decides to lock up on me with a boot loop).

 

[Elf_Knight]

I don't want to reset the CPU because then I have to unplug my AIO cooler which is a real pain. My ram is fine and I don't think that's the problem. I unplugged my GPU and plugged it back in. I unplugged my hard drive and the PC started normally and the fans actually stayed on. It stayed on for a while leading me to believe it is my hard drive that is the culprit. Would you say that sounds correct?

 

[Elf_Knight]

Also I can't get to the BIOS because nothing shows on the monitor. Well the BenQ logo does and stuff so I know the monitor is working but nothing from my PC that is.

 

[Elf_Knight]

I will try to reconnect my SATA cable though.

 

[AJ Kenway]

When I said "reset the bios" I meant that you either jumping it or removing the CMOS battery for like 5 minutes and put it back in and turn the system on again. If you can hear persistent clicking noises on your HDD, then it is likely that it's broken (or if it's not spinning at all).

 

[Elf_Knight]

I don't hear any noises from the HDD but it doesn't spin or turn on at all.

 

[AJ Kenway]

Then there is a high probability that it is dead. If you can, plug it in to an external SATA Bridge or install it to another computer. That way you can verify if it is dead. You can also use different SATA data and power cables to further verify. If it got bumped somewhere or dropped, it probably is dead. Have you experienced it slowing down over the past few days when it was still working? Also, try unplugging it and start the system, if a text that says "no bootable device found" then you do not need to reset the bios. You just need a new HDD or SSD

 

[Elf_Knight]

I've experienced crashes in a couple times a few weeks ago. I am going to wait until I get my components for a mini-itx system tomorrow before changing everything. But I haven't had any slow downs. I don't have any other SATA cables unfortunately. I will probably just get a Western Digital blue drive cause I can't be bothered anymore. However I was wondering cause I already had Windows 8 installed on that so if I install Windows 8 on my new hard drive would that cause the OS to get invalidated? I can't uninstall it from my HDD cause it isn't working obviously so what should I do? Do you think I'll be fine with the validation of the OS? It is a retail version of Windows 8.1!

 

[Elf_Knight]

I got a new hard drive because I just want peace of mind that I will have a stable PC. Now to reinstall windows! 🙁

 

[AJ Kenway]

I don't think you can use your old key though. I've done it in the past, It didn't work for me. My key became invalid for replacing the motherboard and CPU because my key was an OEM key. You could try to contact Microsoft if you have the time or you could just buy a cheap key from Kinguin though I haven't personally used it, a lot of people recommend the site.

 

[Elf_Knight]

My version is the full retail version. I have looked online and people have said I will be okay. Thank you for all your troubleshooting help! I will let you know when/if my PC works when I rebuild it. Before it broke I ordered some components to convert it into a Mini-ITX system for portability but I will be very careful when moving it around. I think I have been a bit too careless in the past.

I am getting a new case: Fractal Design Core 500 and a mini-ITX motherboard with a usb wifi adapter since I can't use my wifi card. I ordered a western digital blue 1tb mechanical drive since my new case can fit 3 3.5" drives! It can also fit some 2.5" ssd drives. I will reuse as many components from my old build as possible. Should be a wicked tiny system if it works!

 

[AJ Kenway]

Best of luck to you my friend. Fractal Design is a good choice. I have a Define S myself. Okay then, I have to play CS:GO now. Until next time. May the PCMR be with you

 

[Elf_Knight]

Enjoy CS-Go! I had the Fractal Design Core 2300 before the 500 so I wanted to stick with a case company that I knew and trusted. The Define S appears to be a great case based on the reviews. I have seen some YouTube videos about it.

May the PCMR be with you!

 

[JunCLJ]

First, may I know what is the model of your motherboard? Did your motherboard has BIOS posting indicator? If you want to solve this problem yourself, firstly you need to buy a PCIe BIOS post card. Some motherboard has an indicator to show your BIOS posting status.

If your posting code is just showing "00" which mean your CPU is bad. Remove the heatsink to check whether your CPU is burnt or the CPU socket is blocked by thermal grease. If the posting code is stopped at around 50+ which mean your RAMs are in bad connection. You need to clean up your RAM to fix your problem.