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Cant get PC to POST


Morph
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My computer started restarting itself last week and files started coming up missing. BF2 wouldnt start, and IE6 and Firefox would give me about 2-5 minutes and crash. I figure its a Virus or Windows made a boo boo. So I re-install XP and I get a Blue Screen telling me some errors, dont recall what. Well now I cant get the damn thing to POST or anything. HDDs spin up, and the fans on the motherboard spin up, but nothing else. I dont smell any burnt electronics either. I took out my PCI cards and AGP card one by one to see if it was one of those that may have been causing the problem but nothing. I also removed the Memory to see if it'd even give me that error beeps, and it did. It recognizes that it doesnt have any memory there or that there is a problem with it and lets me know. I also removed tha BIOS battery to reset BIOS, figuring maybe there was an error there, but nope. I took the mainboard out and looked and couldnt see or smell any shorts.

 

I did buy the Motherboard used on Ebay a few months ago, buts its been fine until this all started happening. The CPU is BRAND new. I dont know where to go from here. Anyone?

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Tried pulling out the drives? Drives can sometimes cause unexpected problems, without smelling burnt.

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Tried pulling out the drives? Drives can sometimes cause unexpected problems, without smelling burnt.

ie CD rom drives. Floppy, etc? No, I didnt. Although my CD burner had been acting up, it wasnt recognizing any CD I put in it. I will try that though, cant hurt. Thanks. Anything else that may help?

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I think he meant Hard drives...?

 

How many do you have? Maybe one of your hard drives has a bad partition or something.

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I think he meant Hard drives...?

 

How many do you have? Maybe one of your hard drives has a bad partition or something.

Two. One with the OS, one for everything else. I did unplug both power and IDE cables from them and try it and couldnt get the POST beep.

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I think he meant Hard drives...?

 

How many do you have? Maybe one of your hard drives has a bad partition or something.

No, I meant all drives. They all work on the same input to the motherboard, as they basically the same.

 

It unlikely its a bad partition. You would get further, likely when the BIOS tries to boot up the hard drive. Even if your hard drive was bad, the BIOS would warn you, in fact, it would even allow you to boot from a CD to install some OS over the dead hard drive, where the installer of the given OS would of course figure out a read/write issue.

 

Any luck removing the drives?

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maybe its a fried PSU?

 

I know you said it Powers up and all, but I once had a PSU die, and my computer stopped POSTing until I brought a new PSU and put it in...

 

Pretty much, Try the CPU in another Mobo, try another CPU in your Mobo, etc, try and see if everything else works....

 

Also, You could get one of them BIOS POST errors checking things off eBay and use that....

 

 

EDIT: Heres an Example of a POST checker Link.

Edited by Brutuz
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Well I'm at work now, until 6AM. night shift. I'm going to try it when I get home. Is there any definate way to tell if its the Motherboard or CPU? It'd be great if it was indeed one of the drives. Thanks to both of you for helping so far. Any other suggestions are welcome.

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maybe its a fried PSU?

 

I know you said it Powers up and all, but I once had a PSU die, and my computer stopped POSTing until I brought a new PSU and put it in...

 

Pretty much, Try the CPU in another Mobo, try another CPU in your Mobo, etc, try and see if everything else works....

 

Also, You could get one of them BIOS POST errors checking things off eBay and use that....

I dont have another CPU/Mobo, But I do have another PSU, I will check that too, Thanks alot guys! smile.gif

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Let me get this entirely straight. Cause something doesn't add up here. You tell us you cannot get to POST. POST first arrives after the CPU is verified. If the CPU doesn't work, you won't get to POST for any reason.

 

According to the Power-on self-test article on Wikipedia.

 

But it seems you are able to get it to beep if you remove your memory. I am gonna say that your BIOS has f*cked up POST. I am not a hundred percent sure, do some more tests. But it seems to me that your CPU is fine and that your RAM is fine. But there is something wrong with the BIOS handling POST.

 

Which is quite odd, as a BIOS rarely have problems handling POST. :x

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I cant get video during startup, nor a POST beep. However, when I remove the memory and start it up, It beeps at me like an angry mouse. I've never had any trouble like this. I figured removing the BIOS battery might cure it if it was a BIOS problem, but it didnt. The Mobo is a MSI 6702e, Not a cheepy one, but it was used and I was overclocking slightly on it. 45*C is the Tops the CPU got. I would just buy a new mobo and see if that works but I dont want to drop $150 for nothing. Anyway to flash the BIOS in my predicatment?

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Do the gold contacts on the RAM have burnt bits on them?

 

and with the Overclocking, I think you might of accidentally overloaded the Northbridge?

 

Probably not, but it has happened.

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No burn marks on the Ram, I checked. I dont know about the Northbridge. I didnt add any extra cooling other than extra case fans, but I wasnt going nuts either, just 200Mhz over, if that. Like I said though, not visible burns and I certainly dont smell any. I'm going to try all these suggestions when I get home. If anyone has anymore, no matter how rare, I'll try it. Thanks agian, your responses are appreciated!

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Hmmn, Try checking all chips except the Heatsinked ones for heat by touching them, I have a old board that the IDE controller broke, it posted then, but now it doesn't and the BIOS ROM and IDE chip get really hot, like hot enough to burn in 10 seconds, but be careful, It can hurt if it is really hot, Don't bother touching the southbridge either, thats always hot.

 

 

Also, Whats your CPU, Make, Model, Core (If you can know it/can get it) and all that stuff, because (Looking for a Example....) a certain series of Pentium 4/3s (I don't know which) got really, really hot at stock, I also have a feeling you've fried something by accident, 200Mhz isn't that much, but if its a real hottie (Like my Athlon XP) and you can't be bothered to get a Zalman, or something/can't because they aren't made for you CPU slot, then its best not to overclock, I can only get my Athlon up 60Mhz before it gets too hot, but I keep it at 1960Mhz, thats at my heat limit, but its gets me a little more 3Dmarks, and I've noticed that my games run a little faster, but anyway, going back on topic....

 

I think you could of done something to the RAM with the overclock, did you turn the timings, MHz down so it doesn't fry?\

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Hmmn, Try checking all chips except the Heatsinked ones for heat by touching them, I have a old board that the IDE controller broke, it posted then, but now it doesn't and the BIOS ROM and IDE chip get really hot, like hot enough to burn in 10 seconds, but be careful, It can hurt if it is really hot, Don't bother touching the southbridge either, thats always hot.

 

 

Also, Whats your CPU, Make, Model, Core (If you can know it/can get it) and all that stuff, because (Looking for a Example....) a certain series of Pentium 4/3s (I don't know which) got really, really hot at stock, I also have a feeling you've fried something by accident, 200Mhz isn't that much, but if its a real hottie (Like my Athlon XP) and you can't be bothered to get a Zalman, or something/can't because they aren't made for you CPU slot, then its best not to overclock, I can only get my Athlon up 60Mhz before it gets too hot, but I keep it at 1960Mhz, thats at my heat limit, but its gets me a little more 3Dmarks, and I've noticed that my games run a little faster, but anyway, going back on topic....

 

I think you could of done something to the RAM with the overclock, did you turn the timings, MHz down so it doesn't fry?\

Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego. I never messed with any voltages or timings, but According to Motherboard Monitor the CPU never reached over 45*C, and the case never above 40*C.

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Hmmn, I can't think of anything else, so I'd say try what we've said, and if that doesn't work, See if you can get a cheap 939 Mobo, then try out all your stuff on it, and if it works, then you might be able to get it on Warranty, Sorry, Can't think of anything else.....

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Hmmn, I can't think of anything else, so I'd say try what we've said, and if that doesn't work, See if you can get a cheap 939 Mobo, then try out all your stuff on it, and if it works, then you might be able to get it on Warranty, Sorry, Can't think of anything else.....

Nah buddy, I appreciate everything from buy a new mobo to blow off dust! But if you had to choose between Mobo or CPU, what would you choose thats bad? I guess I've never had either fail and dont know the sympotoms of each. I also posted this on another forum I visit and the general consensus is that its the Mobo as well.

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Can you link to that other post?

 

I'd say get a new Mobo that supports 939, Then test all of your stuff on that.

Then We'll know DEFIANTLY what it is.

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OCing? Some motherboards have a feature that shuts them down after you hit a certain CPU temp, and they won't boot until you reset the sensor. Try unplugging the power cable from the back of the PSU, wait 30 seconds, and plug it back in. If that doesn't fix it, well, I'm useless.

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OCing? Some motherboards have a feature that shuts them down after you hit a certain CPU temp, and they won't boot until you reset the sensor. Try unplugging the power cable from the back of the PSU, wait 30 seconds, and plug it back in. If that doesn't fix it, well, I'm useless.

Done and Done. tounge.gif

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As its 9 Where you are, You've probably done those tests, etc

 

I'd say, if all the stuff we've said doesn't work, try and use a Cheapo Motherboard and see if the motherboard is the problem.

 

btw, The Red Ranger in you sig on the other forums looks good wink.gif

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Fixed. One of my Memory Modules was bad, and still is. I've already got a new one on RMA.

 

And thanks, I traded in my 2002 FX4 for my Jetta. Its tons faster but doesnt have that 'Tough' Look that 33" Mudders provide. Still got the little 93 though, 200,000+Miles on her, still running strong smile.gif

 

Thanks for EVERYONES help, its very much appreciated!

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I'm here to help, With computers anyway....

 

 

P.S. I prefer Muscle Cars, Look Tough and Sound Tougher, and go the Toughest of all tounge.gif.

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