PC doesn't go past startup screen

[Guest]

Hi. Kinda awkward to have my first post on the forum begging for help. Oh, well.

 

So I have this PC I assembled way back in July 2015. It turns on, I get to the BIOS splash screen (text-only because I set it to text-only), and then the PC refuses to proceed further. I cannot enter the BIOS, boot menu, or boot as normal.

 

First, the specs:

 

Intel Core i5 4440

8 GB DDR3 1866 MHz Kingston HyperX Fury (runs at 1600 due to board limitations)

4 GB DDR3 1600 MHz Simmtronics Random Ass Memory (also why Kingston runs at 1600)

Gigabyte B85M-DS3H-A motherboard

ZOTAC GTX 960 2GB

Seasonic S12ii 430W

Antec X1-T case

 

Now, what I've tried:

 

1. Remove hard drive, change GPU (to ZOTAC GeForce G210), remove GPU, remove each stick of memory one by one, change PSU (to Antec VP450P): no effect, same as before.

 

2. Connect a motherboard speaker to see the beep code: single beep, indicating normal boot.

 

3. Try CPU/RAM/PSU with different board: all three work with another board (ASRock H81-VGS). I unfortunately forgot to test the GPU this way, and the person I borrowed that system from has since taken it back. But since removing GPU doesn't solve the issue, I'm assuming the GPU isn't the problem.

 

4. Breadboard outside the case and power on by shorting pins on board: no effect, same as before.

 

5. Try removing all peripherals: no effect.

 

6. Reset CMOS: I can't. I tried shorting the CLR_CMOS pins - didn't reset it. I tried removing the CMOS battery for hours at a time - didn't reset it. How do I know it didn't reset? Cause the default option was the Gigabyte splash screen, which I disabled for the text mode one in the UEFI settings because I thought it looked obnoxious. If I reset the CMOS, the screen should become obnoxious again, but it doesn't - same old American Megatrends every time.

 

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated, guys. Thanks.

 

[Peter041098]

When you disconnected the battery did you leave the power supply plugged into the wall? 

[Guest]

Just now, Peter041098 said:

When you disconnected the battery did you leave the power supply plugged into the wall? 

I tried both with and without it being plugged into the wall. Neither helped.

[Peter041098]

Have you tried booting with the igpu only? 

[Guest]

Just now, Peter041098 said:

Have you tried booting with the igpu only? 

Yep. Doesn't work.

[kurtstir]

1 minute ago, namandoesnotpanic said:

Yep. Doesn't work.

Have you tried using a new hard drive

[Windows7ge]

No reason to feel awkward about it. More people than you know come here on their first post seeking help. You're very much not alone in that regard.

 

You've done quite a bit of troubleshooting. More than I can say others have before posting to the forum. You've ruled out everything already. The issue seems to be the motherboard. You even said you put everything but the GPU on a different board and it worked fine. Everything points to something wrong with the board.

[Guest]

Just now, kurtstir said:

Have you tried using a new hard drive

Yeah, tried a laptop hard drive. Didn't work either.

[Guest]

Just now, Windows7ge said:

No reason to feel awkward about it. More people than you know come here on their first post seeking help. You're very much not alone in that regard.

 

You've done quite a bit of troubleshooting. More than I can say others have before posting to the forum. You've ruled out everything already. The issue seems to be the motherboard. You even said you put everything but the GPU on a different board and it worked fine. Everything points to something wrong with the board.

Thanks!

 

Yeah, that's what I thought too, but then why would it single beep? And why doesn't factory reset work? And, well, what could have possibly gone wrong with the board? I just turned it off one night and the next day it didn't boot.

[Windows7ge]

6 minutes ago, namandoesnotpanic said:

Yeah, that's what I thought too, but then why would it single beep? And why doesn't factory reset work? And, well, what could have possibly gone wrong with the board? I just turned it off one night and the next day it didn't boot.

Those beep codes can only be thrown by what the firmware is programmed to detect. If something stops working that the firmware isn't designed to check then you'll get a normal beep enough though there really is a problem. Something could be wrong with the board that the manufacturers didn't account for to monitor.

 

As to it's spontaneous death. Sometimes computer parts do unexpected things like that. Computers parts can show up at your door Dead On Arrival (DOA). Sometimes they can die short after installation. It's not a terribly pre-mature death making it 1 & 2/3rd years although hardware usually lasts longer. The exact cause is something that will probably remain a mystery but whatever it is something important stopped working on the board.

[Guest]

10 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

Those beep codes can only be thrown by what the firmware is programmed to detect. If something stops working that the firmware isn't designed to check then you'll get a normal beep enough though there really is a problem. Something could be wrong with the board that the manufacturers didn't account for to monitor.

 

As to it's spontaneous death. Sometimes computer parts do unexpected things like that. Computers parts can show up at your door Dead On Arrival (DOA). Sometimes they can die short after installation. It's not a terribly pre-mature death making it 1 & 2/3rd years although hardware usually lasts longer. The exact cause is something that will probably remain a mystery but whatever it is something important stopped working on the board.

Well... that's bad. One last question. Now that it's dead and the box said five year warranty, do I need everything that came in the box to return it? I have the box and receipt, and I can probably dig up the second SATA cable, but I'm sure I threw away the manual (PDFs FTW) and driver install disc (don't even have a CD drive). Would that be a problem? And do I claim it with the store I bought it from or do I contact Gigabyte directly?

Edited March 8, 2017 by Guest
meme

[Windows7ge]

18 minutes ago, namandoesnotpanic said:

Well... that's bad. One last question. Now that it's dead and the box said five year warranty, do I need everything that came in the box to return it? I have the box and receipt, and I can probably dig up the second SATA cable, but I'm sure I threw away the manual (PDFs FTW) and driver install disc (don't even have a CD drive). Would that be a problem? And do I claim it with the store I bought it from or do I contact Gigabyte directly?

You can contact the store you bought it from. If they do nothing for you contact Gigabyte directly. I cannot say one way or another if they will complain that a manual or SATA cable is missing. I'd like to say you'll be fine but I cannot verify that that'll be true. Personally I'd think yes. If Gigabyte is giving you a 5 year warranty I'd imagine they can't expect you to hold onto absolutely every component for that time. Unless that's their loophole to make it so they don't honor the warranty. I can't say one way or the other but you have to try.

[Guest]

Just now, Windows7ge said:

You can contact the store you bought it from. If they do nothing for you contact Gigabyte directly. I cannot say one way or another if they will complain that a manual or SATA cable is missing. I'd like to say you'll be fine but I cannot verify that that'll be true. Personally I'd think yes. If Gigabyte is giving you a 5 year warranty I'd imagine they can't expect you to hold onto absolutely every component for that time. Unless that's their loophole to make it so they don't honor the warranty. I can't say one way or the other but you have to try.

Oh, well. Thank you so much for all your help, you've been great!

[Windows7ge]

18 minutes ago, namandoesnotpanic said:

Oh, well. Thank you so much for all your help, you've been great!

You're welcome. Come visit the forum again if you need help with anything else.