No Booting

[Mr. Lemming]

So around October my system died on me shortly after my dad's did as well. I fixed my dad's system by replacing the PSU, but mine was being a pill of a different sort.

Unplugged everything but the bare essentials (CPU, video card, monitor, RAM) to force a POST and got one right before it died and wouldn't turn on again. Yesterday I replaced the PSU on that one and it's once again turning on, even gave me a clean POST and said it couldn't find anything to boot off of (obvious since none of the HDDs or the DVD burner were plugged in).

I plugged all my junk back in once more (mouse, keyboard, etc), realized I didn't plug the stupid PATA or SATA drives in, and turned it back on expecting to be able to get back to playing on it.

Yeah, no. It turns on again, but there's absolutely no POST at all, it just turns on and sits there. It only happened after plugging in the PATA/SATA stuff, and unplugging them now doesn't yield any different result. I'm a might bit worried it's the CPU, which could be difficult to exchange with AMD since I didn't see an actual Phenom II X4 940 Black Series page until I really dug around on their site.

Ideas?

 

[Bulletsponge]

If it were the processor, it wouldn't have posted or beeped without PATA/SATA connections. Based on what you described, it would seem likely to me that there is a ground short in one of your connectors. Try disconnecting all of them and try them individually on different pieces of equipment. Also, check your system board ground, as well as the ground to your power button. Please report your findings back here.

 

[Modem]

If my cmos gets reset I have to raise my RAM voltage again to get a boot. Make sure your RAM voltage is where it should be.

 

[Mr. Lemming]

Ugh, after finally getting the desire to start working on the system again (having a working system that allows gaming kind of saps the will to work on another system), I tested some things on the computer.

After turning it on this time there was absolutely nothing that happened, it powered on, but no POST or anything. I popped the CMOS battery and cleared that, and upon booting it gave me the POST code for a lack of video (since the stupid battery was below the freaking video card). Put that back in with the monitor and it POSTed that everything was fine.

Then plugged in the primary SATA drive and things dipped. No POST, no nothing again. I heard the drive whir up when the power started, but that's it. But it seems really odd that it'd be a HDD causing it to not boot like this, so possibly something with the SATA connection? Removing the drive's connectors still comes back to the aformentioned problem of no booting or POSTing, just powering on.

 

[Grimmaz]

Your power supply might not be large enough. If it only gives issues after you've added hardware such as a hard drive, I'd definitely take the time to add up the ratings on each device for the required wattage. If you use too small of a power supply you'll run into problems.

 

[Skagnatti]

I'd definitely take the time to add up the ratings on each device for the required wattage.

To add to what Sicko stated, you can go HERE to help you calculate an estimated wattage of your system.

 

[Mr. Lemming]

It's not the wattage, the ONLY things I have plugged in are the video card/monitor, CPU, RAM, and the lone SATA drive, nothing else. It's a 600W PSU, and the site linked said with that setup of what I listed only 281W is needed.

Another friend on another site said the drive itself might be dying, which if true is going to irk me to no end as it's roughly a year old...

 

[Cloakedsphere]

Possibly you could have a bad motherboard. Either that or one/some of your computer parts arent compatible with the other parts.

 

[Grimmaz]

Is there another machine at your home that you can use to plug this potentially problematic hard drive into? If so, pull the hard drive from the problem computer and plug that SATA/IDE drive into the working one as a secondary. Go to computer / my computer and right click on the drive you just plugged in and left click on properties. Once in the properties window click on the tools tab and perform a check disk. Please check both check boxes so it scans and attempts to fix any bad sectors. Post back with results when you get the time.

 

[Mr. Lemming]

It'd appear to be the mobo that's the problem here I guess. Plugged the SATA drive in question into my other system here and absolutely nothing bad occurred, it booted and I can access the data without any problems. The checkdisk took a pretty lengthy time, but it finished with no problem (just, as stated, took a really long time looking at the data for corruptions since it's a big drive).

 

[Grimmaz]

It'd appear to be the mobo that's the problem here I guess. Plugged the SATA drive in question into my other system here and absolutely nothing bad occurred, it booted and I can access the data without any problems. The checkdisk took a pretty lengthy time, but it finished with no problem (just, as stated, took a really long time looking at the data for corruptions since it's a big drive).

I wouldn't jump to conclusions and assume the mobo is bad just yet. Try plugging the hard drive back into your problem computer. If it still has issues, try using another SATA port on the motherboard just to know if the port itself is responsible. Post back with results.

Also you can download this tool and once you install and run it, it tells you if there are any signs of a failing drive. Check it out here: Crystal Disk Info