PC Wont post (cant get any video)

Tange1Tange1
edited March 2009 in Hardware
I have a gigabyte p35-dq6 custom build that wont post, I cant get any video. It loops like this over and over:

Power on, power light looks good.
All fans spin, including case fans and CPU fan
video card fan spins up
Everything turns off

Few seconds pass
Everything repeats.

Interesting thing is the amount of time untill everything turns off is variable. Sometimes the video card gets its fan spinning sometimes everything dies before that even starts spinning up.

So, power supply or motherboard or other?

I've tried:
cmos clear jumper
cmos battery out
reseat ram, remove one stick of ram at a time
checked cables, removed cables for drives

did these one step at a time and nothing helped. Currently its a 1.5 yr old paperweight.

Comments

  • Tange1Tange1
    edited January 2009
    Interesting thing I just tried: booting with out any RAM and the system doesn't even give any beep code. If I remove the power cable from the video card i get a long tone which corresponds to 'no video card present' according to gigabyte.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited January 2009
    Booting w/o memory rarely gives POST errors now, only when the DIMM channels are populated but not functioning.

    Remove the contents of your computer from your PC case and run it on a piece of wood or cardboard. This will check for grounding faults.
  • Tange1Tange1
    edited January 2009
    Thrax wrote:
    Booting w/o memory rarely gives POST errors now, only when the DIMM channels are populated but not functioning.

    Remove the contents of your computer from your PC case and run it on a piece of wood or cardboard. This will check for grounding faults.

    Hi Thrax - I've removed everything tonight. The results are the same. What part would you recommend I check first?
  • AnnesAnnes Tripped Up by Libidos and Hubris Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    edited January 2009
    OH HAI TANGE. :-D
  • pragtasticpragtastic Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    edited January 2009
    I'd try PS first, what cpu/vid card are you trying to power, and with what PS?


    Also. OH HAI
  • WagsFTWWagsFTW Grand Rapids, MI Icrontian
    edited January 2009
    Make sure all your power plugs are proper. Then, try booting with one stick of ram in different dimms.
  • Tange1Tange1
    edited January 2009
    Hey StainMeNow - got your xmas card! Thanks!

    Corsair has approved replacing my HX520w power supply - I'm mailing that shortly.

    I've checked all my plugs a few times and I played w/ booting with one DIMM and different slots. I do not have another set of DIMMs to test with. As soon as I get my power supply replaced I'll report back. Thanks

    Thanks!
  • Tange1Tange1
    edited February 2009
    It took forever but I have a new power supply (swaped out the old one under warranty) and the PC is the exact same. What is the next best thing to try? The motherboard?
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited February 2009
    Do you have access to spare parts for testing like CPU, RAM and mobo? You could try the RAM in another system. I take it from what I have read that you currently have the board out of the case with just the CPU, RAM and video card installed.
  • Tange1Tange1
    edited February 2009
    Mt_Goat wrote:
    Do you have access to spare parts for testing like CPU, RAM and mobo? You could try the RAM in another system. I take it from what I have read that you currently have the board out of the case with just the CPU, RAM and video card installed.

    Unfortunately I have no spare systems or parts to test in. My RAM has a lifetime warranty but I cant even boot off a CD to run mem test. My graphics card is also still under warranty. I do not believe the CPU is.
  • Tange1Tange1
    edited February 2009
    Can anyone recommend a new motherboard? My old one was:
    GIGABYTE GA-P35-DQ6 LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard
    RAM: Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
    CPU:
    Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 Conroe 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor

    I'd like to find a new motherboard that I can reuse the RAM/processor.
  • DonutDonut Maine New
    edited February 2009
    Do you have anybody you can borrow parts from? Just one stick of ram and maybe an old PCI video card, or they could test your parts for you.

    If you have your heart set on a new board check Gigabyte's P45 based boards. I just bought an EP45-UD3R to replace a dead Abit board, I've read quite a few good reviews on them. A decent OCing board with a good "feel" to it.
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited February 2009
    If you want to stay with a Gigabyte board I would recommend the GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P.

    I can also recomend the board I recently got as it has been very good to me so far. It is the Asus P5Q Pro.

    Both are comparable to what you have feature wise and both are based on the newer P45 chipset. Both are excellent choices.
  • Tange1Tange1
    edited February 2009
    I'm going to pick out a new board this weekend. Newegg seems to have no issues w/ me buying the board to test if that's the dead part. If its the E6850 - that part is no longer sold by newegg. Looks like the Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor is a good replacement - should work, correct?
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited February 2009
    It's an excellent replacement.
  • Tange1Tange1
    edited February 2009
    Thrax wrote:
    It's an excellent replacement.
    Thanks Thrax - I'm still also trying to get gigabyte to approve a replacement of the board I already have.
  • Tange1Tange1
    edited March 2009
    Well the motherboard finally came back from gigabyte today and.....SAME ISSUE. That only leaves CPU, ram and video card that haven't been changed out. So should I try a new board first or a new processor or both?
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited March 2009
    It's highly unlikely there's a physical processor problem. Usually if a processor is bad, the fans won't even spin in the computer case.
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