What to do in a "no post" situation

[Tucan]

So my new gtx 970 arrived in the mail and before i put it in my system i had to take out a few hard drive bays so that it could fit.While i was taking the hard drive bays out i decided to redo my cable management because the side panel of my computer was bowing. After a couple hours unplugging all the cables and making everything look pretty its was time to put in my 970. At this point it's about 2:30 at night. I plugged in my PC and everything was fine, turned on went straight to the desktop and i wanted to see what my bench scores would be like. After the benchmark i fell asleep in my chair. So lately my computer has been occasionally blue screening and i presumed that it was the overclock on my CPU, i ignored the issue because of how noticeably faster my CPU was. While after i finished the benchmark i forgot to shut down my PC and it must have crashed at some point in the night. After i woke up i took my PC and installed the rest of my fans (i had to use a couple of fan splitters, but i assume this is irrelevant). I set my PC next to my desk and plugged it in, meanwhile my friend is over anxious for me to turn on my PC (i like to walk myself through everything i did before turning it on just to double check that i didn't do anything wrong). My friend got impatient and started turning on my PC and me turning it off immediately after (he did this just a few times so i thought it was fine but i unplugged the PC to make him stop). I was annoyed by him now so i plugged in my PC and when i turned on the power supply the fans lit up and spun for a few seconds then stopped without me even touching the power button on the top of the case. i pressed the power button after that happened, nothing. I looked it up and saw that one person had a similar problem and figured out that his problem was that he routed some cables through a hard drive bay, this is exactly how i routed the power to my graphics card. I took out the graphics card to make sure it wasn't that and tried again, same thing, i plugged in the power supply and turned it on and then the fans spun for a second and stopped without me touching the power button.

 

Did i burn out my PSU?   Is it a problem with my motherboard?   I cant afford to replace more than maybe one thing right now.    Any insight as to how i can resolve the issue or what i might need to replace is much appreciated.

 

CPU: i5-4670 4.4 Ghz

Motherboard: MSI Z87-G45 gaming

Ram: 16Gb corsair vengeance ram

GPU: Gigabyte gtx 970

PSU: Corsair AX860 

 

[Godlygamer23]

Reset your BIOS by removing the CMOS battery for about 10 seconds and try again.

What is that yellow cable next to the CPU cooler?

[Tucan]

Reset your BIOS by removing the CMOS battery for about 10 seconds and try again.

where about would this be on the motherboard?

[Godlygamer23]

where about would this be on the motherboard?

It's the coin shaped battery. It's shiny - can't miss it.

[soup]

where about would this be on the motherboard?

[Tucan]

It's the coin shaped battery. It's shiny - can't miss it.

ok i just removed it for about a minute put it back in and the same thing happened, i flipped the switch on the psu and before i even touched the power button it turned on for a few seconds then turned off

[soup]

Strip system to Bare essentials :- CPU, RAM, MoBo, PSU (only use the GPU if your CPU doesn't have onboard graphics.

See if that works, if not try a RAM dance [every stick in every slot] , if still no joy  try a known good PSU .  If system still doesn't work it is LIKELY your MoBo (CPUs very RARELY fail).

If it does work add one thing at a time to find the failed item/iffy wiring.

Once you have done all that, calmed down and fixed everything kick your EX- friend hard in the balls for potentialy bricking your system. .

 

Good luck. 

[D3L3T3D]

Perhaps worth trying to plug a motherboard speaker. It might be able to tell you what's wrong.

[Godlygamer23]

Take out your RAM and put each stick in each slot to see if you get anywhere.

[Tucan]

Strip system to Bare essentials :- CPU, RAM, MoBo, PSU (only use the GPU if your CPU doesn't have onboard graphics.

See if that works, if not try a RAM dance [every stick in every slot] , if still no joy  try a known good PSU .  If system still doesn't work it is LIKELY your MoBo (CPUs very RARELY fail).

If it does work add one thing at a time to find the failed item/iffy wiring.

Once you have done all that, calmed down and fixed everything kick your EX- friend hard in the balls for potentialy bricking your system. .

 

Good luck. 

Thanks hopefully this will work 

[Godlygamer23]

Thanks i hopefully this will work 

I'd still kick your friend regardless. Tell them to keep their mitts off your expensive stuff. (I'm not actually telling you what to do)

[Tucan]

Perhaps worth trying to plug a motherboard speaker. It might be able to tell you what's wrong

i put in a speaker, is there somewhere i can look to see what the different error codes mean?

[Tucan]

Reset your BIOS by removing the CMOS battery for about 10 seconds and try again.

What is that yellow cable next to the CPU cooler?

The cable is black the yellow is a tag saying that you cant dispose of it in a regular trash bin because it has potentially harmful materials in it

[D3L3T3D]

i put in a speaker, is there somewhere i can look to see what the different error codes mean?

Yes. On the Internet. You might want to look for a list that is specific to your motherboard manufacturer.

[othertomperson]

Double check that everything is actually plugged into your PSU, and properly.

[Tucan]

Take out your RAM and put each stick in each slot to see if you get anywhere.

i tried all possible combinations of ram in each slot and im still having the same problem

[StainlessSR]

Try going down to the bare essentials, just cpu, memory, harddrive (nothing else), reset your cmos to stock by clearing the cmos with the jumper labeled jbat1 which is to the bottom right of the cmos battery.

 

If this works then add one part back and test each time (one fan at a time also as it may be due to the draw being to high causing the psu to fault on overdraw from the motherboad connector)

 

If the problem continues then remove the motherboad connector and use the paperclip jumpstart to start the psu to see if there is an internal fault in the psu causing it to power off.

 

If the psu starts and runs then the problem may reside on the motherboard side of things.

 

Beg/Borrow/Rent/find a cpu compatible with your socket and see if it boots in your motherboard if it boots with the borrowed cpu then your cpu is probably bad,

 

test your cpu in a (friends) compatible MB (if you can) to verify, if it will not start in the borrowed system then your cpu is probably bad. If the borrowed system starts with your cpu then try swapping the power supply in your system.

 

Being able to test things with known good parts is the best (non electronic engineering) way to verify which part is not working, it just requires the known good parts unfortunately.

[Tucan]

Try going down to the bare essentials, just cpu, memory, harddrive (nothing else), reset your cmos to stock by clearing the cmos with the jumper labeled jbat1 which is to the bottom right of the cmos battery.

 

If this works then add one part back and test each time (one fan at a time also as it may be due to the draw being to high causing the psu to fault on overdraw from the motherboad connector)

 

If the problem continues then remove the motherboad connector and use the paperclip jumpstart to start the psu to see if there is an internal fault in the psu causing it to power off.

 

If the psu starts and runs then the problem may reside on the motherboard side of things.

 

Beg/Borrow/Rent/find a cpu compatible with your socket and see if it boots in your motherboard if it boots with the borrowed cpu then your cpu is probably bad,

 

test your cpu in a (friends) compatible MB (if you can) to verify, if it will not start in the borrowed system then your cpu is probably bad. If the borrowed system starts with your cpu then try swapping the power supply in your system.

 

Being able to test things with known good parts is the best (non electronic engineering) way to verify which part is not working, it just requires the known good parts unfortunately.

Thank you, fortunately i have a couple friends with with good parts that i can borrow

[Tucan]

Try going down to the bare essentials, just cpu, memory, harddrive (nothing else), reset your cmos to stock by clearing the cmos with the jumper labeled jbat1 which is to the bottom right of the cmos battery.

 

If this works then add one part back and test each time (one fan at a time also as it may be due to the draw being to high causing the psu to fault on overdraw from the motherboad connector)

 

If the problem continues then remove the motherboad connector and use the paperclip jumpstart to start the psu to see if there is an internal fault in the psu causing it to power off.

 

If the psu starts and runs then the problem may reside on the motherboard side of things.

 

Beg/Borrow/Rent/find a cpu compatible with your socket and see if it boots in your motherboard if it boots with the borrowed cpu then your cpu is probably bad,

 

test your cpu in a (friends) compatible MB (if you can) to verify, if it will not start in the borrowed system then your cpu is probably bad. If the borrowed system starts with your cpu then try swapping the power supply in your system.

 

Being able to test things with known good parts is the best (non electronic engineering) way to verify which part is not working, it just requires the known good parts unfortunately.

What do i connect to "jbat 1" in order to reset the cmos?

Edited March 23, 2015 by Sir Odo rosmarus

[soup]

What do i connect to "jbat 1" in order to reset the cmos?

Isn't there a clear CMOS button on that board?

[StainlessSR]

What do i connect to "jbat 1" in order to reset the cmos?

you just need to turn off the computer, unplug it (from wall or back of psu) then short the two terminals, either with a spare jumper or a flat metal blade (do not touch any other part with the metal but the two terminals)

 

A jumper is shown on this page (scroll down a little)

[soup]

you just need to turn off the computer, unplug it (from wall or back of psu) then short the two terminals, either with a spare jumper or a flat metal blade (do not touch any other part with the metal but the two terminals)

 

 

Only works on certain boards. 

On my board you have to take the jumper from two pins put it on two others count to ten  and then back on the initial two, the jumper has to go back or the system will not POST.

[StainlessSR]

Only works on certain boards. 

On my board you have to take the jumper from two pins put it on two others count to ten  and then back on the initial two, the jumper has to go back or the system will not POST.

The manual for his board only shows the one jumper, with no need to move a jumper as your board requires. I tend to research before I give an answer so that I give correct information pertaining to what I am discussing, the downside is it takes me a bit to reply most of the time.

[soup]

The manual for his board only shows the one jumper, with no need to move a jumper as your board requires. I tend to research before I give an answer so that I give correct information pertaining to what I am discussing, 

 

Fair one. 

[Tucan]

Isn't there a clear CMOS button on that board

I eventually found the jumper, turns out it was a little piece of plastic that i previously thought was the base of where the pins are but is actually removable in order to clear the CMOS