No POST

I hate asking for help in my first post, but this is a fairly dire situation for me.

I was playing a game last night when my system just went dead. I thought "OK, it is the monitor or vid card, that sucks". Rebooted computer, no sounds, monitor light was on, power light lit up on the mobo, nothing else happened. Disconnected everthing that was plugged in and reconnected everything, hoping that would help, it didn't. Opened up case reseated everything, nothing. Took out the RAM, disconnected all drives, removed all cards, the only thing left plugged in was my processor, tried to boot computer. Nothing happened, no screaming beeps, no sound except my CPU fan, which fired up and ran as normal. My case fans all running fine from the PSU. I get no lights at all from my onboard NIC when plugged in

Now I am pretty sure that this is indicating a mobo problem, since I am sure that a CPU failure would still let me post and at least get into the BIOS, and would not affect the NIC. Here are my specs, please help.

ASUS P4P800-E Deluxe
Intel P4 @3.0 GHz
4x512 MB PC3200 Kingston RAM
LeadTek NVidia 6800GT 256 Video Card
SB Audigy 2
80GB Maxtor SATA HDD
LG CD-RW/DVD RAM
LG DVD +/- RW

 

Well, I'm not sure what the problem is but I'll just let you know in advanced that no systems will run unless theres memory in them

 

Oh, I was not expecting it to run, I was trying to make it scream bloody murder at me for pulling the RAM. So I would know it was trying to POST, or do something other than a really good imitation of an expensive, and overly large paperweight

 

do you have a pci LED diagnostic layin around you can install,just one stick dimm 1 for troubleshooting you need it to get into bios as bob said then after few attempts switch to another stick if you have one available,leave your vid card in,no drives or add in cards at all

Reset the cmos jumper or remove the battery for 5 secs and replace with the computer disconnected from the mains and try and fire it up

welcome to the forum,I asked for help with my first post also, as do lots of people no big deal

 

The only thing I didn't do was reset the BIOS. I tried booting with just the one stick of RAM and can't get into the BIOS. My video card BIOS usually boots first, before the Computer BIOS, (I thought it was wierd too, but I have to watch that initialize before anything else happens with the computer), and even that is not showing up. I will give the BIOS reboot a try when I get home tonight.

 

OK here is an update, this just keeps getitng wierder and wierder. I reset the CMOS, and plugged my speakers into the onboard sound card (I have one of those annoying motherboards that talks). Here is the rundown of what happens and what I have done.

Empty motherboard, turn on PC get "No CPU found" ok, that is a good start
Put in CPU turn on PC, get "Bad RAM" message. Things are looking up.
Put one stick of RAM in computer and boot it "VGA not found". Sweet, looks like it might be working.
Place video card in AGP slot and try it again, get the message "CPU test failed". WTF??? How did that happen?
OK take everything out, and start the process over using my fiancee's 1.7 chip. Exact same outcome. Ok, so it is not the CPU, let's try the vid card then.
Go through it all again, this time using her Ti4200, hey look it boots up to Windows. *grumbles* Damn video card and it's stupid not working...
Well let's try it out in her computer to make sure so when Leadtek support asks what I have done to test it, I can tell them the truth.
Pop the video card in her computer, and it boot up perfectly.
So I think "OK, maybe there is just too much power being drawn off the PSU with 6 fans, 2 opticals, and a heavy duty vid card, let's unplug everything but the mobo, and vid card."
So now there is only 3 cables plugged in off the PSU, and I get the same error.

Now call me crazy, but this makes no sense to me. Could the PSU be half blown and just limping along? The ASUS guy told me it is a grounding problem between the CPU and the vid card, but if that was the case wouldn't that issue arise with any vid card in there? Any ideas or help are very welcome.

 

Out of curiosity, you said this was a 6800 GT agp? If so, did you plug in the power connector from your PSU to the video card?

What is the wattage of said PSU?

 

Yes the power was plugged in. It screams bloody murder if you don't Good way to remind you . The PSU is 350W. I have been meanign to upgrade since I go tthe card, but it has ran fine for the last year without issue, until now.

 

A 350w psu p4 3.0 and 6800gt,the minimum generic psu for that system would a 450w I'm guessing your psu is a generic 350w,the psu you need really is a brand name 450w

Its entirely possible the comp has run fine for a year before dying on you,after upgrading my p2 system to a tbird 800 the comp worked for months,I finally upgraded the 220w psu because the burning smell became a little overpowering and found the psu wires were scorched 'I kid you not'

Whichever way you look at it you need a new psu even if it doesnt solve the problem

 

Yeah the PSU is definitely getting replaced on Saturday, so hopefully that will fix the problems. I am looking at an Enermax 500W Modular or an OCZ 520W ModStream.

Me and a friend were trying to figure out how I could go about running 2 PSU's in this box. I was thinking about getting a 200W for the lights and fans. I just don't know how I would mount it outside of building an aluminium "add-on" case, and attaching it somehow.

 

Both excellent choices of power supply,I see you have done your homework ,either of those will happily run your system and all the lights and fans you will ever need,connecting two power supplies together is too much trouble and not worth the effort IMHO opinion,I have never tried it there have been few threads started in the cooling and modding forums,that might be a place to start

 

After talking to the local store I am going to go and pick up the OCZ, it seems better suited for what I need. THe salesguy told me he is running almost the same stuff but with more HDDs and has had no issues with the power. Hopefully this will fix me up. I will post agina tonight with if it worked. Hopefully I can become a contributor now and help others.

 

Hope so m8 you can hang around here and help us persuade people not to buy generic psu's

hope it fixes your problem