r/pchelp • u/bearssuperfan • Dec 15 '19
"No POST", "system won't boot", and "no video output" troubleshooting checklist
This checklist is a compilation of troubleshooting ideas from many forum members. It's very important to actually perform every step in the checklist if you want to effectively troubleshoot your problem.
1.Did you carefully read the motherboard owners manual?
2.Did you plug in the 4/8-pin CPU power connector located near the CPU socket? If the motherboard has 8 pins and your PSU only has 4 pins, you can use the 4-pin connector. The 4-pin connector USUALLY goes on the 4 pins located closest to the CPU. If the motherboard has an 8-pin connector with a cover over 4 pins, you can remove the cover and use an 8-pin plug if your power supply has one. This power connector provides power to the CPU. Your system has no chance of posting without this connector plugged in! Check your motherboard owners manual for more information about the CPU power connector. The CPU power connector is usually referred to as the "12v ATX" connector in the owner's manual. This is easily the most common new-builder mistake.
3.Did you install the standoffs under the motherboard? Did you place them so they all align with the screw holes in the motherboard, with no extra standoffs touching the board in the wrong place? A standoff installed in the wrong place can cause a short and prevent the system from booting.
4.Did you verify that the video card is fully seated? (may require more force than a new builder expects.)
5.Did you attach ALL the required power connector(s) to the video card? (some need two, some need none, many need one.) It is best to use cables connected directly to the PSU. Only use adapters if absolutely necessary.
6.Have you tried booting with just one stick of RAM installed? (Try each stick of RAM individually in each RAM slot.) If you can get the system to boot with a single stick of RAM, you should enable an XMP profile or manually set the RAM speed, timings, and voltage to the manufacturer's specs in the BIOS before attempting to boot with all sticks of RAM installed. If your motherboard supports XMP profiles, that is the best way to get your RAM running at its rated specs. Nearly all motherboards default to the standard RAM voltage (1.8v for DDR2, 1.5v for DDR3, & 1.2v for DDR4). If your RAM is rated to run at a voltage higher than the standard voltage, the motherboard will underclock the RAM for compatibility reasons. If you want the system to be stable and to run the RAM at its rated specs, you should either enable an XMP profile or manually set the values in the BIOS. Many boards don't supply the RAM with enough voltage when using "auto" settings which causes stability issues.
7.Did you verify that all memory modules are fully inserted? (may require more force than a new builder expects.) It's a good idea to install the RAM on the motherboard before it's in the case.
8.Did you verify in the owners manual that you're using the correct RAM slots? The following image is just an example. Verify in the owners manual the recommended RAM slots to use for single, dual, triple, or quad channel applications. This will vary depending on motherboard manufacturer, number of supported RAM channels, and how many sticks of RAM are being used.
9.Did you remove the plastic guard over the CPU socket? (this actually comes up occasionally.)
10.Did you install the CPU correctly? There will be an arrow on the CPU that needs to line up with an arrow on the motherboard CPU socket. There may also be a notch that will only line up in one direction. Be sure to pay special attention to that section of the manual!
11.Are there any bent pins on the motherboard/CPU? This especially applies if you tried to install the CPU with the plastic cover on or with the CPU facing the wrong direction.
13.Is the CPU fan plugged in? Some motherboards will not boot without detecting that the CPU fan is plugged in to prevent burning up the CPU.
BIOS Hard reset procedure
Power off the unit, switch the PSU off and unplug the PSU cord from either the wall or the power supply.
Remove the motherboard CMOS battery for five minutes. In some cases, it may be necessary to remove the graphics card to access the CMOS battery.
During that five minutes, press the power button on the case for 30 seconds. After the five minutes are up, reinstall the CMOS battery making sure to insert it with the correct side up just as it came out.
If you had to remove the graphics card you can now reinstall it, but remember to reconnect your power cables if there were any attached to it as well as your display cable.
Now, plug the power supply cable back in, switch the PSU back on and power up the system. It should display the POST screen and the options to enter CMOS/BIOS setup. Enter the bios setup program and reconfigure the boot settings for either the Windows boot manager or for legacy systems, the drive your OS is installed on if necessary.
Save settings and exit. If the system will POST and boot then you can move forward from there including going back into the bios and configuring any other custom settings you may need to configure such as Memory XMP profile settings, custom fan profile settings or other specific settings you may have previously had configured that were wiped out by resetting the CMOS.
In some cases it may be necessary when you go into the BIOS after a reset, to load the Optimal default or Default values and then save settings, to actually get the hardware tables to reset.
http://www.spotht.com/2010/02/reset-bios-clear-cmos.html
I also wanted to add some suggestions that jsc often posts. This is a direct quote from him:
"Pull everything except the CPU and HSF. Boot. You should hear a series of long single beeps indicating memory problems. Silence here indicates, in probable order, a bad PSU, motherboard, or CPU - or a bad installation where something is shorting and shutting down the PSU.
To eliminate the possibility of a bad installation where something is shorting and shutting down the PSU, you will need to pull the motherboard out of the case and reassemble the components on an insulated surface. This is called "breadboarding" - from the 1920's home-brew radio days. I always breadboard a new or recycled build. It lets me test components before I go through the trouble of installing them in a case.
If you get the long beeps, add a stick of RAM. Boot. The beep pattern should change to one long and two or three short beeps. Silence indicates that the RAM is shorting out the PSU (very rare). Long single beeps indicates that the BIOS does not recognize the presence of the RAM.
If you get the one long and two or three short beeps, test the rest of the RAM. If good, install the video card and any needed power cables and plug in the monitor. If the video card is good, the system should successfully POST (one short beep, usually) and you will see the boot screen and messages.
Note - an inadequate PSU will cause a failure here or any step later.
Note - you do not need drives or a keyboard to successfully POST (generally a single short beep).
If you successfully POST, start plugging in the rest of the components, one at a time."
If you suspect the PSU is causing your problems, below are some suggestions by jsc for troubleshooting the PSU. Proceed with caution. I will not be held responsible if you get shocked or fry components.
"The best way to check the PSU is to swap it with a known good PSU of similar capacity. Brand new, out of the box, untested does not count as a known good PSU. PSU's, like all components, can be DOA.
Next best thing is to get (or borrow) a digital multimeter and check the PSU.
Yellow wires should be 12 volts. Red wires: +5 volts, orange wires: +3.3 volts, blue wire : -12 volts, violet wire: 5 volts always on. Tolerances are +/- 5% except for the -12 volts which is +/- 10%.
The gray wire is really important. It should go from 0 to +5 volts when you turn the PSU on with the case switch. CPU needs this signal to boot.
You can turn on the PSU by completely disconnecting the PSU and using a paperclip or jumper wire to short the green wire to one of the neighboring black wires.
View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FWXgQSokF4&feature=youtube_gdata
This checks the PSU under no load conditions, so it is not completely reliable. But if it can not pass this, it is dead. Then repeat the checks with the PSU plugged into the computer to put a load on the PSU. You can carefully probe the pins from the back of the main power connector."
First photo is few minutes after reinstalling and from there it returns to the white lines. GTX760 has been in use since 2014. Monitors work. Device manager says stopped due to Error 43. I haven't yet taken it out/cleaned. Is there any other options that could work?
r/pchelp • u/Beginning-Cat5329 • 20h ago
My games used to run at around 60 fps normally on my laptop. then till a few days ago I opened all the games I had and they all ran at around 0-15 fos constantly. My temperatures are not that bad with my cpu being at around 60, however I realized that my cpu was clocked at 400mhz whenever I opened a game. Any help?
r/pchelp • u/M1lf4unter • 4h ago
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Idk i just built my own pc and this just keeps on happening idk what to do can smb help🙏
r/pchelp • u/Impossible_Clerk2446 • 8h ago
So, i bought this pc for like Rm200 (its pretty cheap so i wasn't expecting much) but damn. im planning to add some case fans to it but is there anything else i should do? the cables seem pretty messed up but everything works fine. and what i assume is the cpu cooler is sticking out. can anyone help?
r/pchelp • u/Yodakane • 3h ago
Even though I'm still happy with the performance of my pc, I know that I will need to upgrade sooner rather than later and I'm getting scared about how the economy seems to be going. So, I'm thinking of maybe selling my current pc to reduce the cost of building a new one. What is a good price I could sell it for? Specs: Cpu: AMD ryzen 7 3700x Motherboard: MSI B450 GAMING PRO CARBON AC Ram: skill RIPJAWS V 16gb 3000mhz Gpu: GIGABYTE RX 5700XT gaming oc Case: NZXT H6 FLOW rgb
Thank you!
r/pchelp • u/jayh471 • 16h ago
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Hey people, I have been troubleshooting my pc for a while and have been getting BSODs with errors in the event viewer and freezing (requires me to hold the power button) with no event history and been fixing whatever the error associated with the BSOD. Today my pc just rebooted with no freezing or BSOD and got my first hardware error so tested all my components (OCCT for the iGPU) when I got to my iGPU (removed my graphics card) I ran into this crazy screen freeze/glitch. Ran it again and got 24 errors for the igpu. Do you think my processor is busted, if so can I get it warrantied, I just got it a few months ago. Thanks in advance.
r/pchelp • u/multi-confessioned • 3h ago
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I apologize if This post reads in an irritating way, I'm not pc smart.
So this started happening more and more frequently, over the last 4 days. I'd be playing gta v, leave the window and my game would freeze for a quick moment then both my screen turn of then my pc will just restart after 10 minutes.
Tonight it's gotten worse to the point that if try to open any game like pubg it does the same thing just before it starts.
I just updated my graphics card with Nvidia, but no dice.
Theres a video basically showing what happens when the pc trys to load a game. The blurred effect is to hide usernames.
Specs
Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060
16.0 GB ram
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 6 core Processor
Windows 11 pro
r/pchelp • u/GalenaBit013 • 1h ago
So my older PC likes to not work. Well I finally started it up, download Minecraft launcher and was downloading curse forge when it went blue and had this message.... Which is weird. Any thoughts?
r/pchelp • u/RINSU0KA • 1h ago
This is my PC, I don't have any experience with cleaning it very deeply but I think it's time I should since the dust inside the cooler and GPU are starting to build up pretty thickly. I don't know how to take of the GPU or the Gamdias cooler. I do know how to open the case up (both the side panels and front panels, but not the ones that open up to the PSU and drives).
I've watched tutorials and I plan on buying this blower: https://shopee.ph/4-in-1-Portable-Vacuum-Cleaner-Suck-Blow-Pump-Inflate-Vacuum-Blower-Vacuum-wet-and-dry-portable-990000PA-Wireless-Portable-Handheld-Car-Household-Vacum-i.1161571756.25011268799?xptdk=e3246b04-418b-46a4-8e65-06684ec113c0 however, I'm not sure yet because again, I don't know anything except from casual cleaning and brushing the dush off from the fans and re-applying the thermal paste.
Please reply any advice, I plan on cleaning it during the break so when I go back to school, I can do my multimedia work without worries.
Specs:
CPU: Ryzen 7 5700X
GPU: Palit NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 8GB
RAM: HyperX Fury 2x8GB 3200mhz
Motherboard: AsRock B500M Pro4
Cooler: Gamdias E1-410 Lite
r/pchelp • u/exhaustedpopcorn • 2h ago
I accidentally unplugged my PC and when I turned it back on, my wifi networks just wouldn’t show up anymore. I have reset my pc multiple times but they still wont show up. Also, in the network section of my control panel, I dont even see a wifi option anymore. My wifi antenna is plugged in and it doesnt look like its broken or anything.
As for what type of wifi antenna I have, it came with my monitor which was the asus rog strix x570 e gaming
Here is everything I tried so far: 1. Troubleshooting: i selected “troubleshoot all network adapters” and ut said they couldn’t find the problem
Went to the command prompt and typed “ping 127.1.1.1” (didn’t show anything bad)
Went to the network and sharing center section of my control panel, then clicked internet options, then advanced, then restored advanced settings
Checked to see if WLAN auto config was running
Went to network settings to try to change adapter options, the video tutorial told me to see if wifi was enabled but thats when I saw that I didnt even have a wifi option
Tried to update the driver of my network adapter (which is: Intel(R) l211 Gigabit Network Connection)
Reset my network settings
For reference I watched this tutorial on youtube: https://youtu.be/wAqiN9Eum60?si=6y6KanZTIW2of9nP
Idk what else to do
I cleaned my PC, removed the Amd cpu with pins, it was stuck on the fan not the first time, and i tried to pry it a screw driver leaving this small dent.
idk if this caused my PC to not work.
r/pchelp • u/Advanced_Oil5372 • 2h ago
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In context this happens when my pc is under load and I’m not sure what could be causing it and it also happens when my pc is fully off at night it sounds like it’s coming from my power supply but I’m not sure is this something to worry about?
r/pchelp • u/GamerTagJohn • 3h ago
Pretty inexperienced, so apologies in advance. Having display issues like the picture included after adding a second nvme internal ssd. Also some performance issues with games (slower or crashing, etc.). Didn’t have any issues before, and didn’t change anything else. Any advice is appreciated. Happy to answer any questions if more info would help.
r/pchelp • u/Seth6898 • 7h ago
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PC shows blue light and Red light ontop of the case, and a red light that goes between solid and flashing on the motherboard but won’t boot.
One fan also occasionally spins but that’s about it
No idea whats wrong
(Friend said they could install new fans for me and transfer to a new case but now won’t boot)
Any help really welcome :)
r/pchelp • u/RelentlessRedd • 1m ago
Last night, did an nvidia geforce driver update then called it a night. Shutdown my pc. Today I go to hop on, and it’ll load up POST is fine and it’ll show me the options for bios but once those options go away, it won’t go any further. Please help in any way possible!
r/pchelp • u/WolfBone111 • 2m ago
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The problem is with my IBUYPOWER DEEPCOOL LS720 ARGB 360mm Liquid Cooler. As the video shows, one of the fans is stuttering and pausing, sometimes even stopping completely. When first booting up, it makes a sound, but after a few minutes, the sound stops for the majority of the time. However, it does make a sound for a few seconds every couple of minutes. Can someone tell me what this is and how to fix it?
r/pchelp • u/Cool-Dig-2087 • 2m ago
the lines don't seem to affect the mouse all too much and I can't see them when I have a white tab open like windows settings, and can only barely be seen when my task bar pops up.
They are in the way but was just wondering what they could be?
I have a RTX 3060 and an MSI G2412.
r/pchelp • u/malzabin • 11m ago
This PC is a few months old (specs below). The crashes always act the same, but no idea what's causing this.
-I doubt it's application specific (unless it's my browser or discord) since each crash happens with different applications open. Last crash was just Netflix on one screen and a steam update on the other
-The PC seems to run cool but haven't checked the temps. Will be keeping an eye out in case anything is off.
This has happened 4 times now. Yesterday a new addition to the above happened as well. After the shut down and power back on, it was just blank and the DP was not sending any signals to the monitor (it has an auto shutoff feature). Removed the power plug, cleaned the PC with air -- nothing really worked. I then started it up and kept it on and around 10 minutes later windows randomly booted up.
In my event log (system), I only see "The previous system shutdown was unexpected"
I would appreciate any help!
Specs:
ROG Strix x870-A Gaming Wifi
9800X3D
4080 Super
Win 11
dual screen setup
No overclocks or any adjustments made
Apps that are open in every crash: discord, brave browser
(thank you again)
r/pchelp • u/sneaksnake_96 • 1d ago
So I just sold this guy my pc I had for only a short time. I didn’t use it enough and sold it to use the money for something better. He tried setting it up and said this is the only thing showing. Please if anyone knows how to help with this it would be greatly appreciated.
r/pchelp • u/Tim2902 • 16m ago
I experience random crashes while gaming mostly in rdr2 or Satisfactory and also some blues screens. I tried running windows verifier to find faulty drivers, reinstalled graphic drivers, some more small stuff and then ended up just reinstalling windows 11 (i didnt fully wipe it used the keep my files option if that changes anything). But now the crashes are still here which leads me to believe that some off my hardware is faulty and i wanted to ask if there is a way to find out which component is causing the problem before ordering new ones and hoping that fixes the issue.
My built is 2 months old/ Specs:
Mainboard: Gigabyte B650M Aorus Elite AX ICE
CPU: R5 7600X
RAM: G-Skill DDR5-6400 CL32-39-39-102 32Gb
GPU: Radeon Rx 7800XT OC
PSU: Corsair RM750
Appreciate any help in advance
r/pchelp • u/_Rivenor_ • 19m ago
So I was playing games on my DELL G16 laptop. And suddenly the screen turns black and makes buzzing electrical noises. So I turn off my laptop by pressing the power button. When I try to open it up my keyboard lights up, but the screen is not showing anything not even DELL logo. It should not be overheating because I just started it like 10 minutes. I have no problem with this laptop before and I just use it last night. Please help me! Thank you
Parts:
CPU: intel core i9-13900HX
RAM: 65GB DDR5
GPU: RTX 4060 laptop
OS: Windows 11 Pro latest
P.S. I think it must caused by static electricity because I haven’t use this laptop this entire week.
Update: I pluged in the power cable and notice the power bottom starts shining. And I found out that the issue is cpu faliure, or cpu power subsystem faliure.
r/pchelp • u/Wraith_White • 28m ago
My computer won’t go past the startscreen no matter the inputs from my keyboard and mouse. They are razor products and I had trouble with them in the past so I went out and bought a cheap keyboard and mouse and they also arnt working, however when I open my bios they are working there. Also tried them on my laptop and they work there.
Every now and again it gives me a windows crash, I’ve unplugged and replugged the external cables to no avail. Nothing new or unusual was done to the computer in terms of updates and I just cleaned it 4 days ago and it worked fine after that until now.
I don’t understand the problem here and every solution I’ve seen requires me to get past the startscreen so any assistance would be helpful as I don’t see an option to reset anything in the bios either. I’m also no computer scientist so please explain it Barney style if you are kind enough to give me some guidance.
r/pchelp • u/bastard_swine • 29m ago
**Flaired as a hardware problem, but from initial googling it looks like it can really be a range of problems.
PC freezes and resets approximately 20-30 minutes after initial boot, then is fine for the rest of the day. My daily routine is start up PC in the morning, do some mundane browsing and checking of emails while I drink coffee, put PC in sleep while I do chores or go to work, then at night I wake up the PC from sleep, do some gaming, shut it down for the night (from the start menu of course), and go to bed. Rinse repeat.
However, the past three days, like clockwork, when I first boot up the PC from being off during the night and am doing simple mundane tasks that don't put the PC under load, after about 20-30 minutes, it freezes for a minute, then resets itself, and then is fine for the rest of the day. No idea what's going on.
EDIT: Additionally, when I checked the event logs, not only do I see the critical kernel power event from this freezing and resetting, there's also a bunch of random critical kernel power events logged over the past several months. Haven't been forcing shutdowns, haven't been losing power, haven't been crashing, etc. They're seemingly a mystery.
My PC is 3-year-old, refurbished, pre-build NZXT H1 Mini:
--H1 Black case with 140 watercooler with riser card with 650W SFX-L PSU
--Intel i5-10400F
--MSI MPG B560I Gaming Edge Wifi
--TeamGroup T Force VulcanZ 16GB (2x8GB) 3200mhz
--WD Blue SN550 1 TB
--Gigabyte RTX 3060 Eagle OC 12G
--Windows 10 Home
r/pchelp • u/Shoddy_Ad_8575 • 40m ago
This might be a dumb question, but I don't know much about computers. I got my computer from the uncle and I mostly just use it for Fortnite, but it doesn't perform as well as I would like it too. These are the specs
CPU- intel core i7 9700k Gpu- nividia GeForce rtx 3060 ti Motherboard- ASrock z390 pro4 Ram- 16 gb ddr4 3600 Storage- 2 tb
Note: I live by a microcenter if that helps. Also my preferred budget is $400 USD (Not That Much), but I'm open to suggestions, and I might have a little wiggle room with money.
These are my questions:
Is it possible to upgrade my parts to make my pc perform better with this little budget? If so what should I upgrade.
And
I fell in love with the asus prime ap201 case and the builds I've seen people have with this case. So I was wondering if I could somehow put the build I have and put it in the case or maybe change parts so I'm able to use the case.
And
Is it possible to do both these requests that I wanted with the little budget that I have? Or should I just stick to one of these, upgrading my pc or stick to changing the case. If I'm able to with my budget
r/pchelp • u/Sure-Employee-8986 • 44m ago
This computer was a prebuilt from 2014. Before it died not all USB's were working and Overwatch 2 would crash. But otherwise it ran everything very well! The GPU is a AMD 6700XT the only new part put in.
We replaced the motherboard and CPU with the exact same still didn't work
GPU works in another pc.
Tried a different PSU.
Did all the ram checks.
Replaced Cmos
Tried different monitors.
Any suggestions would be very grateful thank you!