System Wont Start

Hi I am having a problem wih my computer. It was working fine on saturday when i turned it off but the next morning when i went to turn it on, it started giving me problems.

as soon as i turn on the computer (where it usually counts the memory and shows like the device info, it only displays the cpu) it hangs at this Power On Self Test screen for about 10 minutes. neither del or any of the keyboard functions for entering into boot devices etc work either until 10 minutes later. After 10 minutes it finally quickly displays all the other devices like cd rom etc and then it proceeds to startup in windows. i have cleared cmos and nothing, and checked all connections and swaped processors and video cards. still nothing. some side notes is that it was the first really hot day on saturday night, however i have 7 case fans cooling my computer.

does anyone know what is causing this?

this is a photo i found of the screen i am referring to. I think its called Power On Self Test





computer specs - not overclocked.

pentium D 3.0ghz
OCZ 2 gigs ram
XFX nforce 680i sli lt mobo
xfx nforce geforce 8600gt
hardrive 220gb
hardrive 80gb
yltra 600 watt psu
cm690 case with 7 cse fans

i had a computer do that to me once and it was because the hard drive was going bad

Welcome to the Forum! http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=491697 crazydragon
I'm going to guess it's badcaps. Seeing how old your bios is. Here's a link.
http://www.badcaps.net/

To rule out the HD, disconnect it and start the comp. Then see how long it takes to post. If it does it normally then you found your problem.

I've had a faulting printer, plugged in through the USB, make my comp hang at the post screen as well.

I would disconnect everything but the vid card, ram and processor and see if it would post. If it posts then add things piece by piece until you discover the faulty part.

It could also be bad caps.

Just for clarification(for me)..
Are we referring to the computer in your sig or the computer that that pic of the bios belongs to??

I;m going to guess that with a 680i MB it more likely is not bad caps. Although, that very thought came to me too. HDD sounds like a good culprit seeing that you swapped out the CPU and video. Swap the RAM too if you can. If not, try one stick at a time or no sticks and see if the MB beeps to tell you that the RAM is missing.

Also remove USB storage devices as well. One of my older PC would just hang at POST if I had any thumb drive plugged in even though the mobo didn't support booting from USB drive.

So unplug everything but the keyboard and mouse and see if that works.

Why is the processor name not showing? Hmmm, like others have said it could be a faulty motherboard or a bad hard drive.

Since it happened overnight, I'm guessing a voltage spike and the power supply got damaged. One power supply I owned would take ages to power up and usually wouldn't make it to Windows, it wasn't supplying enough power to the hard drives to spin them up properly! My guess is a cheap/old power supply is causing the problems.

it turned out to be one of the usb cables from the printer that was causing the problems.

thanks everyone!