PC not POSTing

ptolemyash · June 30, 2015

Hey everyone,

Having an odd issue that I can't seem to figure out. Yesterday I nabbed an old 250GB HDD from work, got home and put it in my rig and now it wont post.

OS: Windows 8.1

CPU: e6300

MoBo: ASUS p5kpl-am/ps

Ram: 4GB

GPU: Gainward GTX260

PSU: VS 650

HDD1 (boot): WD Green 1tb

HDD2: Toshiba 2.5" 750GB

New HDD: Seagate Barracuda 250GB

Basically I have my monitor plugged in with DVI and everything always runs smoothly, I get a relatively fast boot and never experience any issues. I turned my PC off and plugged in the new HDD and it wouldn't boot. I removed it and it still wouldnt boot, so I tried the following:

Switched to onboard VGA, no boot.

Switched to HDMI from the GPU, booted but with horrible rainbow lines on the screen and only 640x480

Switched to VGA and it booted fine and everything went well.

Turned off and tried booting with DVI, still nothing.

Removed all but the boot drive, the cpu and its fan, ram and gpu from the system, including case fans. No boot.

Returned system to how it was last time it worked perfectly only without DVI and used VGA, perfect.

Concerned that my GPU might be dead, I know its old but it still barely manages 1080p 60FPS in CS:GO and DotA2, with mid/low settings anyway. I also noticed when I booted fine with my two original drives plugged in, they had swapped boot order which needed to be changed otherwise Windows wouldnt start. Could it also be a PSU issue? It's relatively new, around 6 months old.

drew1ind · July 1, 2015

Yes, this is most likely a GPU issue. As for why onboard VGA doesn't work, I'm pretty sure with your (I think?) FX-6300, it can't give data to the monitor as (again, I think?) it needs onboard graphics (I have an APU, and to use a monitor I have to enable the gpu on it). FYI if you're worried about bottlenecking a new GPU, the FX-6300 can do up to an R9 280x.

*EDIT* It's possible that it's a driver issue... Check/update your drivers

ptolemyash · July 1, 2015

Yes, this is most likely a GPU issue. As for why onboard VGA doesn't work, I'm pretty sure with your (I think?) FX-6300, it can't give data to the monitor as (again, I think?) it needs onboard graphics (I have an APU, and to use a monitor I have to enable the gpu on it). FYI if you're worried about bottlenecking a new GPU, the FX-6300 can do up to an R9 280x.

*EDIT* It's possible that it's a driver issue... Check/update your drivers

I meant the Core 2 Duo e6300, will be running driver updates when I return from work.

Captain_WD · July 1, 2015

~snip~

Hey ptolemyash,

I would also suggest updating your drivers and the OS. If you are able, do test another GPU on your system and your current GPU on another system to confirm the problem is with it and not somewhere else.

I would also check the drives for errors with diagnostic tools provided by the manufacturers. For the WD Green that would be WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostic too: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=S43Fdo

Captain_WD.