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PC won't boot - HELP!


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#1
GhostLoad

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I am currently on my phone at the moment while trying to troubleshoot my PC, so please forgive any typos or auto correct failings.

I came home from work today and my computer wouldn't boot. It was shut down when I l left (and there were no storms today) and it worked fine previously.

When I hit the power button the case lights up, my fans spin, and I hear some noise a second later. I can't tell where it's coming from but it's either the hard drive or motherboard, I think.

I have an ASUS P5N-D motherboard and I'm not sure if it has an internal mic or not, so I can't tell if I'm supposed to be hearing a beep code or not.

Also, my keyboard isn't lighting up, nothing is showing up on my monitor at all, and the laser light on the under side of my mouse isn't lit while the tower is powered up.

I tried unplugging and re-plugging all my cables, along with unplugging and reseating my RAM, neither of which had any effect. Please help! Thank you everyone in advance.
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#2
rshaffer61

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Motherboard don't make noise since they are basically a large circuit board so no moving components to make noise.
I would suggest since the system is not booting that you may have a power issue or the motherboard is dead.
When you turn on the power does it stay on or does it go off almost immediately ?
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#3
GhostLoad

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The power stays on until I hit the power button again to turn it off.
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#4
GhostLoad

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I imagine then that the noise is the hard drive spinning up to speed.
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#5
rshaffer61

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I imagine then that the noise is the hard drive spinning up to speed.

Possibly and it confirms what I think it may be the motherboard itself.
Is this a desktop and if so is it a branded system?
Any warranty still active on it?
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#6
GhostLoad

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Yes it's a desktop, no it's not branded (I built it myself) and no I don't think anything still has it's warrantee. Though, I don't know off the tip of my head how old my ASUS motherboard is, nor do I know off the to of my head if it silk has it's factory warrantee.
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#7
rshaffer61

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If I am not mistaken Asus has diagnostic lights on their motherboards. Can you tell if they all show green when you turn the system on? I think there are 4 right in a row.
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#8
GhostLoad

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Do you know where they might be roughly? My tower I'd kinda in a cramped space and it's hard to see if I don't know where I'm looking.
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#9
GhostLoad

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I just went to the ASUS website and it said that (for my motherboard and others) they're covered under a 3 year warrantee. I'll have to look into it more, but maybe I'll be able to just get a replacement from them....
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#10
GhostLoad

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When I power on my PC I cam see only 1 green LED I'm the corner, but nothing else. It's really hard to tell if there are other (not lit up) LED's next to it.
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#11
rshaffer61

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Yeah in those cramped cases it can be hard to see the led's.
I would say lets try a bench test and if still nothing then I believe you have a dead motherboard.

Disconnect everything from the Motherboard except
  • keyboard
  • mouse
  • video output
  • 20+4 powercable
  • 4/8 pin 12v wire both coming from the powersupply,
  • Cpu fan wire
  • power and reset button to the case
  • case speaker
Now you should have NOTHING connected to the motherboard except what was listed above.

The goal here is just to test the mobo:

If the computer still will not boot up the please remove the motherboard from the computer along with the power supply

place the motherboard on a piece of card board larger than the motherboard,

this will eliminate a short from the mobo to the case which could be a possibility

Install the cpu with, 1 stick ram in dimm 1, power supply, case switch and case speaker
Connect ps2 mouse and keyboard along with the monitor
Repeat the above and power on
If the computer now boots into bios you most likely had a case short so make sure when installing the motherboard in the case that you use standoffs,
and they line up with the mounting holes in the motherboard and none of the standoffs touch anything else on the underside of the board.


Thanks to Cbarnard for these instructions
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#12
GhostLoad

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Take out all of the components when doing the initial bench test? I.e. the processor, video card, etc?
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#13
rshaffer61

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The first part is inside the system and the second set of instructions is outside of the system.
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#14
GhostLoad

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The first part is inside the system and the second set of instructions is outside of the system.


Yeah, sorry but now I'm confused. I've never done anything like this before so I'm not really familiar with anything i've got to do.
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#15
rshaffer61

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The instructions are very specific what to do but I understand your confusion. What can I explain better for you to help?
This is what you should start with below:

Disconnect everything from the Motherboard except

keyboard
mouse
video output
20+4 powercable
4/8 pin 12v wire both coming from the powersupply,
Cpu fan wire
power and reset button to the case
case speaker


Now you should have NOTHING connected to the motherboard except what was listed above.

The goal here is just to test the mobo:
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