PC Died :( Booooooo
 

Tried turning my PC on today and its not responding at all. There is power going into the machine but nothing is booting at all. Not even to the Bios screen.

I'm thinking it's probably the motherboard thats finally given out or possibly the CPU. I've ordered replacements for both but wondered what anyone else thought it might be. I know the GFX, the power supply and the RAM to all be fine.

Tried clearing the CMOS and booting with a basic setup(removed all but necessary hardware) but nothing. Keyboard lights up when plugged in so know there is power going through the system.

Also whats the best thermal paste around at the moment ?

Re: PC Died :( Booooooo
 

If you are not even getting as far as hearing a beep from the motherboard (assuming it has a speaker attached to the MB) then I'd be suspicious of the PSU. Just because one p0art of the PC is powered doesn't mean it all is.

Re: PC Died :( Booooooo
 

Your right it does not even get as far as running POST but the Power supply is only about 2 months old and I've tested it in another machine and all booted fine. Only thing's I couldn't test was the CPU and MB as don't have compatible parts around :(

Re: PC Died :( Booooooo
 

Remove the GFX and memory, make sure you have a speaker attached to the spkr header connector (not the soundcard output) and try booting.. Does the power light flash? (normally a sign that there's a short somewhere)

If need be also remove the CPU and see if you get any post beeps (the motherboard should beep even with no CPU ;) although new motherboards with the new post system wil not do this

Re: PC Died :( Booooooo
 

Arent we gonna have fun when the BIOS is thrown away starting next year lol

Re: PC Died :( Booooooo
 

Nah, will just mean those with spares will get somewhere, those without will be lost..

Does mean a boost for the computer industry whilst leaving the user out in the cold

Re: PC Died :( Booooooo
 

It will keep the returns departments of the component suppliers busy :(

Re: PC Died :( Booooooo
 

Unfortunatly I can't find one of them speakers to connect to the MB. I'm sure I had one somewere but I can't for the life of me find were it is. I've searched through 4 MB boxes an still can't find one.

Re: PC Died :( Booooooo
 

ice, normally it should just work on normal speakers as well.

Re: PC Died :( Booooooo
 

Arctic silver is a good thermal paste, i use it often it is good...

Re: PC Died :( Booooooo
 

Not getting anything through them. Will have a new MB to try tomorrow but am not holding my breath.

---------- Post added at 02:47 ---------- Previous post was at 02:44 ----------

Thats what I normally use. Just wanted to make sure there wasn't something better around now. Been a while since I followed such things.

Re: PC Died :( Booooooo
 

Without the speaker then no post beeps..

Re: PC Died :( Booooooo
 

If you ordered it to be delivered to you, I can't see it coming tomorrow as it New Year day and Monday a bank Holiday.

Re: PC Died :( Booooooo
 

Had a similar incident not to long ago and it was the motherboard, as you`ve pretty much narrowed it down to mb or cpu i`ll give 4-1 it`s the mb :p:

Iv`e got a couple of SKT775 pentium 4`s knocking around if you need one.

Re: PC Died :( Booooooo
 

I meant today as it was past midnight when I posted and it has arrived.

Very Strange problems am having now. The MB is a direct replacment. Exact same model. I've now fitted it and can get to the operating system choice(I duel boot XP and Win7) but as soon as I click on either the PC loops back to the beginning of start-up.(Like its just been powered on)

I can't access windows 7 normally or in safe mode(Loops back to start-up everytime) I can't access Windows XP normally but I can access it under safe mode which I'm currently on now and posting this message.

I can't run any repair - Loops back to start up. Am very confussed. Tried booting one drive or the other alone and same issue. Can't for the life of me understand whats going on. I've read a CPU thats overheated can cause this but I can't be sure.

Got a new CPU arriving next week but for now am stuck. Any ideas ?

Note - In the bios the 12V rail is giving 11.9V and the 3.3V rail is giving 3.2V but this shouldn't be causing these problems I'd assume.

---------- Post added at 15:31 ---------- Previous post was at 15:29 ----------

Thanks for the offer Matt but its an AMD AM2 system I am currently using.

Re: PC Died :( Booooooo
 

Make sure that the bios is updated. and that the bios is defaulted and then set to the right cpu and memory speed (auto should do it but sometimes it doesn't).. Also make sure that all the cards have been seated correctly especially the graphics

Re: PC Died :( Booooooo
 

Tried running the BIOS in default mode but still same issue. Have the CPU and Mem speed set to auto. Will try changing that now and see if it makes any difference.

---------- Post added at 17:19 ---------- Previous post was at 15:37 ----------

Can't seem to make any progress at all. Tried to boot with just the Win 7 Drive connected and it comes up "system boot failure insert system disc and click enter". I insert the Win 7 Disc and it loads windows files then reboots. Did this several times before eventually loading the disc. Tried repairing but still same fault.

Machine powers up, runs through startup procedure. starts loading windows and just before it comes up with the Logon screen - Reboot. Same with safe mode. Has me stummped. Can only access safe mofe in Win XP.

Gonna give up before I spend the whole weekend pulling my hair out trying to firgure it out. Will wait for the new CPU next week then investigate further. Thanks for all the helpful surgestions so far and if anyone has any ideas feel free to post on. Thank you.

Re: PC Died :( Booooooo
 

Access to safe mode is normally a sig of a driver that's crashing the system, as it also does it with the set-up disk I'd suggest you recheck all devices that have hardware memory in them (gfx, cpu and dimms)

Which mobo and cpu is it? and again have you updated the bios (replacement boards might only have a low end bios so might have problems with some CPU's/Mem

Re: PC Died :( Booooooo
 

Thanks for your ongoing help Kymmy. The Bios is already on the latest version. Been no new ver since 09. The MB is a gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3 and the CPU is an AMD 9600 Phenom X4.

I also tried Booting with each stick of RAM alone to eliminate that. Same issue. The GFX should be fine as I have a spare of the same model 8800GTS an made no diffrence again.

Gonna leave it over the weekend now as I've wasted the day gettin nowhere. Thanks again Kymmy.

Re: PC Died :( Booooooo
 

Only a sugestion but.... It couldn't be a failing hard drive could it?

Re: PC Died :( Booooooo
 

Not unless two hard drives are failing at the same time.

Re: PC Died :( Booooooo
 

Can you boot and work from a live CD? The fact you can boot into XP Safe Mode only....have you tried sfc /scannow from safe mode?

Just thinking out loud here :erm: What about the boot order for the hard drives, are they the same as they where on the old motherboard.

Re: PC Died :( Booooooo
 

Haven't tried to boot a Live CD. I am currently downloading the latest Ubuntu to try that out and will report back after I've tried it.

The boot order is still the same as it was before any changes. Tried nfsc/ scannow and it would not run. Can't remember the exact message but said something about access to a server. Will check again later after trying the Live CD and report the full message.

Edit**

Ok so can't even boot a Live cd. The OS goes to load then the exact same issue. Reboots.

In XP safe mode I cant run sfc /scannow I get the following message -
"Windows file portection could not innitiate a scan of protected files systems"

"The specific error code is 0X000006ba (The RPC server is unavalible)"

Re: PC Died :( Booooooo
 

this may sound strange, but if you have spare thermal paste, clean the top of the CPU and post a picture of it. as high a quality as you can. I just want to test a hypothesis that there will most likely be a matt surface on the CPU with an area that looks like it has been polished surrounding the center of the chip.