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Please help, I can't boot.

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Zephos

Member
Joined
Feb 2, 2013
A few weeks ago, I broke my old CPU, so my PC was out of commission until last night. In that time, a new PSU and and a Corsair H60 were delivered.

When I try to boot up, my CPU LED blinks then the system shuts down. If I quickly hit the MemOK button on my motherboard upon power up, POST gets past the CPU and the RAM. It quickly passes the VGA, and then gets stuck on the BOOT_DEVICE LED. I've tried unplugging them all and every combination of drives. I've swapped RAM. Nothing can get past this. I would go into BIOS, but my screen registers no input.

All this is very strange, because I actually got the whole thing to boot up fine last night. Turned it off and can't get it to work again. This is the third forum I'm going for, because no one has helped me on Anandtech or EggXpert. I'll try anything. Thanks.

Asus Sabertooth 9909FX R2.0
Phenom II x4 965 BE w/ H60 Liquid Cooler
XFX Pro 850 PSU
EVGA 460 2win
Crucial V4 32GB + 2 x WD 1TB RE4 HDD
All in NZXT Phantom Full Tower
 
If you hold down the mem ok button during boot until it restarts can you get into the bios that way and then select you're boot deceive from there. If you're CMOS clear is not working, I would power off, remove the power supply plug from the mains, remove the mobo battery for 15 mins, then replace the battery and try to boot again.
 
Is that the same as clearing the RTC? I've done that a few times already.

Tried holding MemOK, same result. Gives a beep like it passed POST, but then it just keeps BOOT_DEVICE lit.

Also I should point out that if I don't hit MemOK, the CPU light blinks and shuts the system down. Every time.
 
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Clearing the CMOS is turning the power off and shorting the two jumpers (prongs) on the mobo that have usually got clrcmos or letters like them beneath the jumpers, you can do this by putting a screwdriver over both jumpers to make a circuit between them..... The other method of removing the battery from the board is like a last resort if the clrcmos jumpers don't work.
 
My board actually has a jumper and the manual just said to move the jumper from pins 1+2 to 2+3 for a few seconds. This has been done with no luck. It's CLRTC on this board. Should I try it with my old PSU?
 
I broke my old CPU = So what fixed the cpu? You say it is broken and in the meantime you order more parts and tell us about them but when you get ready to boot after a broken cpu, then no boot. Something is missing in the dialogue.
 
I bought some parts right after Christmas: H60, XFX PSU, PCI wifi card, fans. The H60 came first, and I broke my CPU during that installation. While it was down I installed the other components.

I got a job and just overnighted a new CPU Thursday. All pins are perfectly straight.

Physically, everything looks to be in perfect shape. That's why I'm so confused. I might upload a video of it to youtube just so I can show it.

I bought Battlefield in anticipation of it working, but it obviously isn't.
 
If it were me I would remove all new stuff except for the cpu (still need cooler on it) and see if it will boot. If not the board is probably history.
 
Alright Ill first try my old Corsair TX650. It was barely cutting it so I bought more wattage

I actually just got it to boot up to BIOS, and everything looked like it was correct. Saved and reset and the CPU light blinked and everything shut off...nothing.
 
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You need to eliminate variables at this point. You have replaced PSU and CPU. Could be mobo or ram that is causing instability now. You could try one stick of ram at a time, see if that makes a difference. Otherwise you may need to do something else like get other parts to find what's broken.

you might try putting the parts together outside the case to ensure it isn't a short in the case causing the problem.

It is not abnormal to boot once every so often, but otherwise have problems. When things aren't working right, it can be screwy.

Also. If you can get back to bios, you should use the set system defaults option just to make sure everything is right there. Sometimes people have trouble clearing CMOS and have problems as a result.
 
Ok, nevermind I realized my pump was plugged into an incorrect set of mobo pins. It was shorting the board. After I fixed that it all booted right up. Sorry guys
 
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