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PC dead: everything but CPU fan spins up, won't POST
midgetspy
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hey all,
Background: I'm pretty hardware savvy, I've been putting together and troubleshooting my own PCs for the last ~15 years. I put together the PC in question almost exactly 1 year ago and haven't had any problems with it until now. It's an ASUS mobo, Athlon X2 6000+, 8800GT, 2G RAM, OS on RAID 1+0 through mobo (nVidia) RAID (heh HD's are almost free, why not).
I never turn my PC off. A few times lately (the last monthish) I've come home and my PC has been turned off. The only explanation for that is that if the power went off, but that couldn't be the case since other PCs in the house were still running. I simply turned it back on and it booted/worked correctly.
Then, twice, the PC turned off while I was using it. It was like I turned off the power bar or something (I didn't), it just died. The second time this happened I couldn't get it to turn back on. When I'd push the power button the case fans would turn on, the hard drives would spin up, optical drives would reset the lenses, etc. but the CPU fan wouldn't spin up and the computer didn't boot at all. No Post, absolutely nothing, as though the monitor(s) weren't even plugged in to anything. I tried double-checking the CPU fan connection, it was plugged in securely. The blades spun freely if I pushed them.
Since I was playing a game when it happened and the CPU fan was apparently not spinning I thought maybe it'd overheated and turned itself off, and maybe wouldn't start until it cooled. I left it sit for a few hours. When I came back it fired right up, CPU fan spinning, no problems. I rebooted a few times and everything was just fine.
So now we're up to today: I woke up this morning and my PC was turned off again. Same thing, it won't start. Same as before, everything except the CPU fan spins up and the computer doesn't beep or POST or anything. I didn't have a chance to fiddle with it cause I had to go to work, but it definitely didn't overheat this time and that definitely isn't the reason it's not turning on. I did double-check the fan connection and it's definitely connected securely.
At this point I've got to assume the motherboard is just screwed, I don't know what else could cause behavior like this. I'm going to try checking the fan pins with a voltmeter tonight, but that'd just confirm the "motherboard is screwed" hypothesis. Google suggested the 5V rail in the PSU could be dead, I'll test that tonight, but aren't my case fans 5V?
Has anybody heard of a problem like this before? Any idea what could cause this other than a totally screwed motherboard?
Does anybody know what kind of issues I'm going to run into trying to boot my nvidia RAID 0+1 array if I buy a new motherboard?
tl;dr: My PC turned itself off while running and won't start again. All fans/drives spin up except CPU fan, the computer won't POST or anything when I turn it on.
Background: I'm pretty hardware savvy, I've been putting together and troubleshooting my own PCs for the last ~15 years. I put together the PC in question almost exactly 1 year ago and haven't had any problems with it until now. It's an ASUS mobo, Athlon X2 6000+, 8800GT, 2G RAM, OS on RAID 1+0 through mobo (nVidia) RAID (heh HD's are almost free, why not).
I never turn my PC off. A few times lately (the last monthish) I've come home and my PC has been turned off. The only explanation for that is that if the power went off, but that couldn't be the case since other PCs in the house were still running. I simply turned it back on and it booted/worked correctly.
Then, twice, the PC turned off while I was using it. It was like I turned off the power bar or something (I didn't), it just died. The second time this happened I couldn't get it to turn back on. When I'd push the power button the case fans would turn on, the hard drives would spin up, optical drives would reset the lenses, etc. but the CPU fan wouldn't spin up and the computer didn't boot at all. No Post, absolutely nothing, as though the monitor(s) weren't even plugged in to anything. I tried double-checking the CPU fan connection, it was plugged in securely. The blades spun freely if I pushed them.
Since I was playing a game when it happened and the CPU fan was apparently not spinning I thought maybe it'd overheated and turned itself off, and maybe wouldn't start until it cooled. I left it sit for a few hours. When I came back it fired right up, CPU fan spinning, no problems. I rebooted a few times and everything was just fine.
So now we're up to today: I woke up this morning and my PC was turned off again. Same thing, it won't start. Same as before, everything except the CPU fan spins up and the computer doesn't beep or POST or anything. I didn't have a chance to fiddle with it cause I had to go to work, but it definitely didn't overheat this time and that definitely isn't the reason it's not turning on. I did double-check the fan connection and it's definitely connected securely.
At this point I've got to assume the motherboard is just screwed, I don't know what else could cause behavior like this. I'm going to try checking the fan pins with a voltmeter tonight, but that'd just confirm the "motherboard is screwed" hypothesis. Google suggested the 5V rail in the PSU could be dead, I'll test that tonight, but aren't my case fans 5V?
Has anybody heard of a problem like this before? Any idea what could cause this other than a totally screwed motherboard?
Does anybody know what kind of issues I'm going to run into trying to boot my nvidia RAID 0+1 array if I buy a new motherboard?
tl;dr: My PC turned itself off while running and won't start again. All fans/drives spin up except CPU fan, the computer won't POST or anything when I turn it on.
midgetspy on
0
Posts
0+1 is mirrored and striped.
This is the first thing you should check.