Solved After System Repair, my PC won't even POST.

[NariandColds]

So here's my issue. I was minding my own business watching some videos when I hear these weird sound. Like it sounded electrical or whatever. My PC restarts right after. No prob, I get back into Windows and resume what I was doing. And then it resets again as soon as I launch a video. After that I accidentally selected System Repair instead of booting up normally. I don't think the repair even finished working and my pc restarted again. Now I have just a big brick. I start it and it won't even post. No beeps, nothing. I unplugged my harddrives and still won't post. I switched the graphic card with an older one and still no game.
I'm using Win 7 64 bit and I have no idea what I can do. I don't have my win 7 dvd handy right now, but I have a feeling I won't even be able to install a fresh copy since it won't even post.
Anyone else have something similar happen to them? Any advice or past experience would be handy. I just don't know what to do with it. And I can't afford to buy and replace every piece of hardware to see if one of them is faulty.

 

[DustSailor]

Hello Colds, and welcome to Seven Forums.

This sounds very much like a hardware issue. It could be anything from the motherboard to the power supply to the CPU and more. Now I wouldn't recommend trying to use it in case it fries more of your hardware. I highly recommend taking it in to a good computer repair shop and telling them all that happened.

OR... you could risk everything and let us troubleshoot it with you...


If that is the case, unplug all power and hold the power button down 30 seconds. Then go in with the power still off, and:

1. reseat everything, check the CPU make sure it doesn't look burnt, and reapply thermal paste to it
2. make sure the fans and CPU fan is working
3. sniff for any burnt smell
4. inspect the graphics card and perhaps test it on another sytem
5. When you turn it on, count the beeps and light flashes on your motherboard according to your motherboard's manual to see if it tells you there is a problem.
6. Clean out the dust, and you can even try resetting the BIOS (especially if you've done any overclocking) by pressing the CMOS button if you have one.
7. :warn: Not recommended, but after all this, plug it back in, power on, and try to get into the BIOS. Reset the BIOS inside the BIOS, if you couldn't otherwise (failing this, you could reset it by removing its battery, but it is almost not worth it). Let me know if you can get into BIOS.
8. :warn: Not recommended, but try booting up and do system repair 3 more times. Failing that, read this: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/139576-startup-repair-infinite-loop-recovery.html
9. Failing all of that, take it in to a computer repair shop like you should have done to begin with...

 

[NariandColds]

That's the thing. There are no physical signs of foul play. The PC is running just fine, all the fans are working and there are no beeps or lights flashing.
I did notice that my hdd light on my case is not flashing at all after the system repair and even after I unplugged them in hope that it would boot into BIOS, it still won't post.
I'm starting to wonder if it's my motherboard. Everything was working fine before today and I never had issues with it rebooting all of a sudden. I was hoping someone else on here had the same issues and had it fixed already. Thanks for the advice though.
Oh, and I should say I'm not a newbie when it comes to PC's. I've built all the computers I had and they worked fine and I am highly skeptical of computer shops because I believe that if they can do it I can do it as well. Not to put your advice down or anything, just wanted to clarify this.
I appreciate you putting up a reply.

 

[DustSailor]

Not a problem, Colds. I couldn't really know your skill level until you told me. But if you are able to test it out on your own, go for it.

At least if you are able to replace the motherboard and CPU, test them to see if the computer can pass POST without any cards (graphics or network) or USB devices. That way you can narrow down whether or not the MB is actually causing the issues. But anything you do comes with a risk that any electrical problem gets passed down further to other componants.

 

[NariandColds]

I'm aware of that.
I have found my WIN 7 cd, and no game: it won't boot from it. And I had it set to CD->HDD in BIOS. This is not going to be easy.

So far:

1. No HDD led notification
2. No Beeps when computer turns on
3. No smell of burnt components
4. All fans running as they shoudl
5. Won't boot of Win 7 CD
6. Takes over 1 min to turn tower off using power button after being idle for 5+ min
7. After pushing reset button and trying to use power button to turn it off it turns off as usual: fast, no longer than 15 seconds.

A friend of mine said previously that he's going to bring his tower down for the weekend to test one of my old graphics card. I'll see if I can convince him to let me borrow some of his components for some tests. Hopefully I won't burn/break any of them.
Also, I hate it when stuff like this happens.

 

[DustSailor]

If the motherboard doesn't seem to be working and the HDD doesn't display the common light indicating it is receiving power from the PSU, chances are it is your Power supply. A plus side to this is there is no risk to damaging your friend's components if all you do is hook up his PSU to your computer for testing.

Are there normally beeps from your motherboard? Are there any light indications that the board is working?

 

[NariandColds]

I don't see any lights on the motherboard. And the hdd light hasn't worked ever since the sudden reboot. I am fairly confident at this point that it did reboot again during the system repair. It rebooted twice within a short interval right before I launched the sys repair utility.
Two more things I am noticing at this point:

1. My CPU fan slows down and speeds up at regular intervals while idle like this.
2. There is some sort of mechanical-type sound coming from the harddrive. As if they're trying to read, but they can't. And it is rhythmic. It does this every 4.5 seconds or so.

I feel a little bit better now. I will try and find a PSU this week to replace my own and see if that is the issue.

 

[CShark]

The cyclic clicking of a HD can mean it is dead or dying. It sounds like the read arm is seeking the boot sector without success. If possible, get another HD, and go from there. Good luck.

Oh, there is a chance you can repair the damaged drives, so don't chuck them out just yet!

 

[NariandColds]

Oh man, that would suck big time. I'll check them out in another friends computer see what's going on. I have two drives so I hope one of them is still going to be good.
Shouldn't the PC at least still post even if the drives are close to dying?
Thanks for the info CShark.

 

[metalmania31]

It definitely sounds like PSU or motherboard. You said it sounded like electrical when this initially happened. You think there was a power surge or a brown out when this occurred? If that's the case then one or more of those components could be toast. But you said you didn't smell any burning so the damage could have been more abrupt. Possible it hit the HDD. Do you have another hdd to try. So if you unplug all the drives you don't get post either?

 

[gregrocker]

Will the HD maker's HD Diagnostic bootable CD scan autostart?

Unplug the HD to see if known-good CD/DVD will boot. If not then it's likely not your HD. If so then it may have boot sector corruption which is holding up the POST.

But the electrical noise sounds a lot like fried components so work through to eliminate each.

 

[NariandColds]

Yes, I unplug both drives and still no POST. So I don't think it's the drives either. I didn't see a power surge with my lights, but I remember definitely hearing some sort of crackle. It'll be more difficult to test for my motherboard since I don't have a spare one.
It's a Gigabyte AM2+ board and it has dual-bios if that makes any difference. It's been over two years since I got it and I'd have to dig up my old emails to tell you exactly what type it is.
If it was my PSU would it still be running after the surge? Shouldn't it just not start at all? Right now I start it up and just sits in idle till I try and shut it off again. Speaking of shutting off, I can't shut it off using the power button anymore. I have to manually shut my PSU off to turn my unit of. I held the power button down for two minutes at a point and it just wouldn't shut off.

 

[NariandColds]

I've unplugged both drives and put in a good boot-CD and still no post. Nothing. Now I'm really starting to think it's the mobo

 

[DustSailor]

No, putting in Cds or DVDs or even testing/using HDDs won't matter if you can't even POST. That means it is indeed a hardware error. And no, it could be the PSU. It would make sense since both the motherboard and HDD aren't working, and there is a missing light indicator both on the MB and the HDD.

 

[NariandColds]

So I managed to get a new power supply to test my computer. Removed the old one, plugged all the cables in. As soon as I turn the power supply on using the power button on the back my computer keeps on trying to turn on and then turns off over and over again. The power LED just flashes and the fans don't even get to start but I can see it tries to start again and again. After I turn the supply off with the power button it keeps going on like this for 10-15 more seconds until there's no more power left to use.
Wth is going on? Anyone else have this issue before?

 

[DustSailor]

Triple check your cables. Sometimes that can be overlooked.

It could be anything. If you don't have the parts to test the computer with, you may need to see about getting it repaired somewhere.

 

[NariandColds]

I triple checked them already. Still the same. It would just keep on rebooting. The power led just flashes over and over again. I should say it is a OCS ModxStream 500 w power source and the previous one was a Rosewill 600w.
So I started removing components from the case. I unplugged both my harddrives and my optical drive. Still the same. I unplugged my graphic card 2x6 pin power cables. Same. Then I unplugged two of my 4x1gb memory modules and the unit powered on. The GPU fan was maxed out though since it had no external cable so I turned it off after 10 sec using the power button. As soon as that happened, it started flashing again like it's trying to boot but can't.

 

[Zepher]

So I managed to get a new power supply to test my computer. Removed the old one, plugged all the cables in. As soon as I turn the power supply on using the power button on the back my computer keeps on trying to turn on and then turns off over and over again. The power LED just flashes and the fans don't even get to start but I can see it tries to start again and again. After I turn the supply off with the power button it keeps going on like this for 10-15 more seconds until there's no more power left to use.
Wth is going on? Anyone else have this issue before?

I've had a similiar issue with an Antec PSU and an Intel Motherboard. They wouldn't work together for some odd reason, but on that system, the fans would turn on and off over and over, basically power cycling over and over.

I would unplug everything (drives, video card, etc) and pull out all the ram and see if it will at least give you the beeps telling you that there is no memory. Use your PSU first.

 

[NariandColds]

Damn it to hell. I unplugged everything. Just kept the power supply in and it keeps on power cycling. I guess I should send it back since I can't use it. That will be a pain.

 

[NariandColds]

After changing both my power supply and motherboard, the PC now finally works again. But now I have a new problem. If I turn it off, it won't turn on again. At least not immediately. I can never really figure out what I do that I manage to turn it back on again, but once it's on it stays on. So now I'm frustrated because I do not know why it won't turn back up once i turn it off.