SOLVED MOBO Won't Boot up (lights are on)

Hello,

First of i'd like to say that this place has a great community and i respect the people and i like how they are able to help each other.
Now to my issue. The issue i'm having is that i recently built my pc (first build), around December. I had no problems then everything was working until today when my PC would not start up-no POST nothing. But recently from my psu i've been hearing 'coil whine' as well so i don't know if that has anything to do with it, anyway the Lights on the Start and Restart button are on but whenever i press it nothing happened. I've tried a few steps such as removing ram using 1 stick etc, the psu does turn on with the alleged 'paper clip' trick but that doesn't account for any problems it may have, my specs are as follows:

PSU: 850W Antec Current Pro Modular PSU
MOBO: Asus Rampage IV Extreme
RAM: RipzJawz 1600mhz 4x8GB 1600mhz CL10
CPU: Intel Core i7 3930k
Storage: 240gb Sandisk SSD (windows 7 Ultimate) - 2tb Seagate Barracuda
GPU: Asus HD 7970 Matrix
Case: Cooler Master Storm Trooper w/ window

This build was for me to learn how to off course build my first pc as well as learning to overclock.
It was working fine until it just wouldn't turn on today. Thanks in advance for reading and any help is appreciated.
I've also gone through this: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-perform-steps-posting-post-boot-video-problems

But i can't get another PSU high enough rating to power the system, nor can i make sure the Mobo isn't the problem.

to OCF!

Did you try to OC your system? What were your settings/ voltages/ timings?

Did you try to reset CMOS? Unplug your video card and let only one stick of RAM, unplug the SSD, HDD, etc...
You should only have your CPU and a stick of RAM plugged.
Reset the BIOS with the adequate jumper or button (as specified in your MOBO manual)

Try to boot. You should get to POST.

If it fails, remove the battery (a circular piece of metal on the board), unplug the PSU from the wall, press start button during 30 sec or so. Plug the PSU, insert the battery, try to boot: it will remove any static electricity.

If it still fails, unscrew the MOBO from the stand-offs as the PSU. Put everything away from the case to avoid shortcuts and try to boot.

Antec usually do really good PSU, it would surprise me if it has died. If you have a low wattage PSU (like 300W or even less), you can try to switch with the Antec for testing since the system will have the CPU and the RAM connected (~150W max).

fornoob said:

to OCF!

Did you try to OC your system? What were your settings/ voltages/ timings?

Did you try to reset CMOS? Unplug your video card and let only one stick of RAM, unplug the SSD, HDD, etc...
You should only have your CPU and a stick of RAM plugged.
Reset the BIOS with the adequate jumper or button (as specified in your MOBO manual)

Try to boot. You should get to POST.

If it fails, remove the battery (a circular piece of metal on the board), unplug the PSU from the wall, press start button during 30 sec or so. Plug the PSU, insert the battery, try to boot: it will remove any static electricity.

If it still fails, unscrew the MOBO from the stand-offs as the PSU. Put everything away from the case to avoid shortcuts and try to boot.

Antec usually do really good PSU, it would surprise me if it has died. If you have a low wattage PSU (like 300W or even less), you can try to switch with the Antec for testing since the system will have the CPU and the RAM connected (~150W max).

Click to expand...

I tried to plug a different psu but it didn't have one of the specific CPU cables..

At the moment the computer 'turned on' after i put the power supply back in but it was weird what happened? Just randomly i left it on tried resetting CMOS, tried other psu. So i plugged it back in tried again, nope. So i left it all plugged in and what happens turns itself on!
Not as of yet i wanted to wait till i learn overclocking properly and don't worry i'm not that stupid with mobos just not good with troubleshooting

I was going to attempt the standoffs one, but i'd have to remove the H100i and that was a pain getting in so i was going to to it later tomorrow (Australia here)

I was going to attempt to test with a 700w thermaltake one from my other pc but one of the pins weren't correct and it was not modular.
The antec one though when i first got it, when i plugged everything in the only thing i had to do was put screws on and one of the screws fell inside and i had to well remove it which it was, but like i said it has 'coil whine'. I was going to go with a Corsair one but i did not have the money on me.

Thanks for the help i'll keep this alive just in case to see what the problem could be, because it could happen again.

rtncko said:

The antec one though when i first got it, when i plugged everything in the only thing i had to do was put screws on and one of the screws fell inside and i had to well remove it which it was, but like i said it has 'coil whine'.

Click to expand...

Wait, what do you mean by "inside"? Inside the PSU? How did you manage to let a screw fall inside it?

Coil noise often comes from poorly damped coil or when the resonance frequency of the coil is too close from the resonance frequency of the circuit.
Most of the times, it is a poorly damped coil (mediocre solder, etc.).

I am no expert in it, it is just a "smart guess", but maybe the ground of your PSU was affected by a screw not tightened enough, which has been fixed by switching the PSU... I don't know

Glad it works now

fornoob said:

Wait, what do you mean by "inside"? Inside the PSU? How did you manage to let a screw fall inside it?

Coil noise often comes from poorly damped coil or when the resonance frequency of the coil is too close from the resonance frequency of the circuit.
Most of the times, it is a poorly damped coil (mediocre solder, etc.).

I am no expert in it, it is just a "smart guess", but maybe the ground of your PSU was affected by a screw not tightened enough, which has been fixed by switching the PSU... I don't know

Glad it works now

Click to expand...

Wellllllllllllllllll i was adjusting all the screws again and when i was adjusting the one to the corsair h100i my screwdriver wasn't magnetic enough to hold such a big 'screw' so it fell inside, but i managed to get it out luckily.

I tried switching PSU's but the older one didn't have the right connectors sadly! but what i did i plugged back in the Antec one and just left it in and pressed the start button last time to see if it would work and it didn't so i left it there to take a look at again, as i went on my laptop just out of nowhere i hear it start up and now it works perfectly again

(i think it's resonance frequency as one of the capacitors might have gone loose)
But yea thanks for the quick reply!

rtncko said:

but what i did i plugged back in the Antec one and just left it in and pressed the start button last time to see if it would work and it didn't so i left it there to take a look at again, as i went on my laptop just out of nowhere i hear it start up and now it works perfectly again

Click to expand...

Sounds like the power stage of your mobo is having an issue. Faulty capacitor?

Since everything seems to work fine once you past the POST, it shouldn't be the PSU.
During the POST, every part is tested. The CPU seems to work fine as the RAM past this step.

So I would conclude it is the MOBO... is it still under warranty?

fornoob said:

Sounds like the power stage of your mobo is having an issue. Faulty capacitor?

Since everything seems to work fine once you past the POST, it shouldn't be the PSU.
During the POST, every part is tested. The CPU seems to work fine as the RAM past this step.

So I would conclude it is the MOBO... is it still under warranty?

Click to expand...

The rampage IV extreme? it's brand new (bought it in december last year) made sure nothing was wrong with it! Even when i put the computer together i wore a wrist wrap because i was that afraid with messing things up. But it's working fine now i'm not sure? All the LEDS work, the slots work, all the ram is readable. PCI E seems fine. I double checked the screws and the screws aren't even tight they are slightly loose as i tightened them with my finger as people recommended. I'm not entirely sure it must have been something, but i was going through a pretty bad storm when it happened but i made sure i was plugged into a good powerboard (surge protected from lightning etc) must have been a weird anomaly

If a capacitor tends to leak or is somewhat crappy, it takes a while to charge. Since it takes way too much time, POST appears very late.
Once it is charged, there shouldn't be anymore issues: everything has to work fine. The power stage of the MOBO doesn't affect the PCIe.
It happens to receive a board with such an issue or a weak capacitor which will eventually fail sooner or later. You're not necessarly the faulty one

The fact that the Rampage IV extreme is over expansive with tons of features is not a guarantee of immunity against those kind of fails

fornoob said:

If a capacitor tends to leak or is somewhat crappy, it takes a while to charge. Since it takes way too much time, POST appears very late.
Once it is charged, there shouldn't be anymore issues: everything has to work fine. The power stage of the MOBO doesn't affect the PCIe.
It happens to receive a board with such an issue or a weak capacitor which will eventually fail sooner or later. You're not necessarly the faulty one

The fact that the Rampage IV extreme is over expansive with tons of features is not a guarantee of immunity against those kind of fails

Click to expand...

i know i know but i assume they would take extra care of it since it is such a higher price, hopefully testing things before they sell it as well.
True but they have a plug for the Mobo itself to help for 'overclocking' and that's why i assumed it might be connected in a way. I'll just see what happens but if anything i'll just replace the PSU later on since i might be getting another 7970 matrix and it might require more power than 850w just to be on the safe side!
Thanks for the replies by the way really helps

rtncko said:

i know i know but i assume they would take extra care of it since it is such a higher price, hopefully testing things before they sell it as well.
True but they have a plug for the Mobo itself to help for 'overclocking' and that's why i assumed it might be connected in a way. I'll just see what happens but if anything i'll just replace the PSU later on since i might be getting another 7970 matrix and it might require more power than 850w just to be on the safe side!
Thanks for the replies by the way really helps

Click to expand...

It is almost impossible to detect weak parts who hasn't already fail: it is like trying to foresee what will happen in months

While not being a fan of ASUS, I would like to discharge them shock from it: it really can happen to anyone ( MSI, gigabyte, Asrock, etc.) and you can't do anything against it outside accepting the RMA and give a new board to the customer.

Regarding the PSU:

The TDP of a HD7970 is about 250W
The TDP of your CPU is 130W.
The rest of your system is around 40W.

So with an additionnal matrix: 250*2+130+40=670W
You can still OC the CPU still high: you will still be safe

No need to change the PSU.

fornoob said:

It is almost impossible to detect weak parts who hasn't already fail: it is like trying to foresee what will happen in months

While not being a fan of ASUS, I would like to discharge them shock from it: it really can happen to anyone ( MSI, gigabyte, Asrock, etc.) and you can't do anything against it outside accepting the RMA and give a new board to the customer.

Regarding the PSU:

The TDP of a HD7970 is about 250W
The TDP of your CPU is 130W.
The rest of your system is around 40W.

So with an additionnal matrix: 250*2+130+40=670W
You can still OC the CPU still high: you will still be safe

No need to change the PSU.

Click to expand...

Yeah :s Thanks for all the help it's just weird trying to accept such highly priced parts would break quick, but of course anyone can be proven wrong and i'd rather listen to someone with more experience

Ahh sweet! I never knew how it worked because on 'pcpartpicker' for Aus it said that 2 7970's with an 850w psu said it wouldn't be enough. I should just calculate it like you. for me xD

rtncko said:

Yeah :s Thanks for all the help it's just weird trying to accept such highly priced parts would break quick

Click to expand...

A friend of mine told me once during his PhD in microelectronics: "Electronics is great till the moment when it breaks"

That's so true

I am working on a 17 million dollars machine and I can swear you that it knows failure!! (even a little too many)

Ironically, almost all the troubles I've ever had with MOBO was with 180+$ one's: never had anything to complain about ~120$ one's

i'd rather listen to someone with more experience

Click to expand...

That's why you came to OCF, didn't you?

Ahh sweet! I never knew how it worked because on 'pcpartpicker' for Aus it said that 2 7970's with an 850w psu said it wouldn't be enough. I should just calculate it like you. for me xD

Click to expand...

Just make sure that your PSU can be used for crossfire and it will do it. For the calculation, you only have to keep in mind that the TDP given by the manufacturer are always overestimated (power consumption when full stressed, which is never the case outside some benchmark). What you will get as a number will always be by far a maximum.

Paperclip test the PSU for starters. Link in my sig.
Then take everything out, clean the contacts on the GPU, CPU (don't even think about touching the contacts in the CPU socket, though), and RAM, then put the thing back together and see what happens.

A single bad cap won't delay post, there are way more than enough caps for stock operations, you could probably take half out entirely and not have issues.

fornoob said:

A friend of mine told me once during his PhD in microelectronics: "Electronics is great till the moment when it breaks"

That's so true

I am working on a 17 million dollars machine and I can swear you that it knows failure!! (even a little too many)

Ironically, almost all the troubles I've ever had with MOBO was with 180+$ one's: never had anything to complain about ~120$ one's


That's why you came to OCF, didn't you?


Just make sure that your PSU can be used for crossfire and it will do it. For the calculation, you only have to keep in mind that the TDP given by the manufacturer are always overestimated (power consumption when full stressed, which is never the case outside some benchmark). What you will get as a number will always be by far a maximum.

Click to expand...

Wow, a supercomputer? That would be so sweet Yeah i'll give it a month or two and if it repeats i'll rma the mobo since that seems to be the issue, apart from this incident that's the only thing that caused problems.. and the h100i LED but i've heard heaps of people having problems with it.
Yup haha OCF is a good community i just don't post is all. But i most likely will soon if i wish to learn to OC.

Of course, thanks for the heads up i still haven't even put my system through any stress tests yet i might do a prime95 just to test the cpu.

Bobnova said:

Paperclip test the PSU for starters. Link in my sig.
Then take everything out, clean the contacts on the GPU, CPU (don't even think about touching the contacts in the CPU socket, though), and RAM, then put the thing back together and see what happens.

A single bad cap won't delay post, there are way more than enough caps for stock operations, you could probably take half out entirely and not have issues.

Click to expand...

I've paperclip tested it already and it works, but you can't really dictate on just the paper clip test since that just basically 'powers in on' not gives you the correct output of what might have happened?
I cleaned all the contacts as well as re-seatted the cpu,gpu and ram as well (and didn't touch the cpu socket contacts xD) This was before when it wasn't working but like i said in my other posts it just randomly 'turned on' after i put the psu back in and left it on for a bit. Not sure why but it's working 100% again!

If it works, it works!
That makes it nearly impossible to diagnose, really.
I missed the part about it working fine now

Bobnova said:

If it works, it works!
That makes it nearly impossible to diagnose, really.
I missed the part about it working fine now

Click to expand...

Still! wish there was a way, i just need more...stuff i guess. Excuse me if i might sound a bit dull on facts or a bit sloppy. I'm only 18 so yeah!
Don't worry about it, i just try to put as much info in and clutter up my writing by mistake

I might go check out your links in your 'Sig' i think that's what's called. Because i actually want to learn overclocking and hopefully you guys can teach me

rtncko said:

Wow, a supercomputer? That would be so sweet

Click to expand...

No, a 300mm etching chamber

A single bad cap won't delay post, there are way more than enough caps for stock operations

Click to expand...

It depends of which caps are hitten. It is true if only one is dead (several caps for same purpose). But if you are unlucky enough to have all caps dead which serve the same purpose, then you are in trouble (so technically, yes, you could loose half of them without any problem since everything is doubled, but statistics are not with you ).

But you're right when you say it is almost impossible to diagnose: it works then it's fine. It doesn't work then as you can't really check the MOBO, you have to proceed by elimination.
With everything unplugged and the problem still remaining, then we are left with the CPU, MOBO, RAM and PSU only.

Everything seems to work fine when it succeed to boot then the CPU and the RAM may be fine (can still be tested with memtest86+ and lynx or prime95).
So PSU or MOBO.
The PSU has to be tested since even if it is the MOBO which is faulty, the failure may come from a bad PSU (would surprise me but still possible).

If the PSU is proven fine, then the only thing left is the MOBO.
It doesn't seem to be BIOS related since the issue appears during POST.

Based on that (Am I missing something?), if the MOBO is proven guilty, whatever the reason is for MOBO failure (bad caps, etc.), it has to be replaced

But if everything works just fine now, then there is nothing to do but cross fingers and hope it will stay so