PC won't boot

Older Homemade System:
Case: Cool Master with Thermaltake 600W PSU
MB: Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3
RAM: Ballistix 2GB x 2
HD: Hitachi 82GB SATA

My system isn't booting...no BIOS boot beeps...nothing. The fans (case, cpu, and power supply) turn on and spin for a second or less than stop; this cycle will continue until I turn off or disconnect all power.

Can't see or check the BIOS since nothing appears on monitor's screen.

Is my motherboard dead?

 

Considering the age of the board, it's possible it has gone to the "Great Silicon Gig in the Sky". Have you tried disconnecting the power, and removing the CMOS battery (CR2032) to reset the BIOS to default?

 

Thanks Mekanic. Your fix to pull CMOS battery and remove AC power did result in system booting. I measured battery voltage without a load and it registered 2.7v; regardless, I will replace it. Did low battery voltage caused this?

Although the system did boot completely that first time, it did not shutdown properly and hung with message "Windows is shutting down". I ultimately opted to turn off power. Luckily, that action did not result in hindering subsequent tries to reboot.

I agree the useful life of the MB maybe rapidly coming to an end as there appears to be numerous issues/problems/symptoms, such as system frequently halting/hanging and returning several times while on. I am in the process of migrating to a new computer, ASUS M11AD with Win 8.1. But, I still need this old system which is running Win XP Pro (another dinosaur) since it has available slots for a Maxtor ULTRA100 card. I have data on several IDE drives, mainly wife's photos, which I need to copy to DVDs.

I will keep you apprised and continue to tap your expertise as issues arise. Again, thank you for helping.

 

I also can't stress enough that a clean PC, is a happy PC. I've seen too many older machines which would not have failing components if they were maintained.

As far as copying data, it may be safer to purchase something like an Apricorn DriveWire device so you can connect the old drives to the new PC via USB. Connecting them as such instead of booting them is far less stressful on the drive. Also, cloud storage is an option as well.

 

What is an Apricorn DriveWire? I am not familiar with that device.

I have tried to connect the old (running XP) and new (running WIN 8.1) using a Belkin Easy Transfer Cable but have not been able to find an XP driver due to MS non-support.

Still working the issue. Thanks

 

Apricorn DriveWire tool:


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812161002

 

All:

I finally got around to following up on the issue of transferring data from my wife's old hard drive. While on a trip to Los Angeles, I stopped in at Fry's Electronics. Since I was not sure of the name/brand of the adapters, I asked their tech guys who recommended a Vantec SATA/IDE to USB 2.0 Adapter for under $20. Hope it works. If not, I will surely follow up with getting one of the suggested devices.

I also decided to not take any more chances with my old Gigabyte motherboard and got a replacement MSI Z97 Guard-Pro which was on sale.

Again, thanks for all the assistance.