PC not starting up.

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finalfighter

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In advance, I'm sorry for not being able to give accurate descriptions about my hardware.

Since I'm not able to start up my PC, I'm not able to get 100% accurate hardware descriptions but this is the PC that I'm having the problems with.

Usually my computer runs fine, but lately I have been getting random shutdowns. They happen when I am surfing the 'net, playing a game, or even when the computer is just sitting at my desktop. After these shutdowns, my pc is no longer able to start up. When I attempt to power-up, all of the fans start up. These include my case fan, my cpu fan, and my graphics card fan. My monitor only displays "NO SIGNAL" while this is going on. The fans will continue to run until I unplug the power from the wall.

I have read that this may be a problem with the motherboard, graphics card, RAM sticks, power supply, or even hard drive. I have tried disconnecting all of my RAM, my sound card, and my graphics card to see if any of those are the problem but no luck. The same thing continues to happen. What's really weird is that this problem can itself.

Sometimes, I will not even do anything to fix this. I will just let my computer sit there for a few hours and the next time I press the power button, my PC boots up normally. Sometimes, the problem is resolved when I disconnect and reconnect my graphics card.

I have had this problem for the last 5 months and my PC is only 7 months old (from the date I bought it new).
The only hardware in my PC that didn't come standard is my video card, but I installed it as soon as I bought the PC and the problems started happening months after that.

My graphics card is this.

I would appreciate any help that could be given.
 
I had a similar problem a few months back. It sounds like an overheating issue, specially with the CPU. I could well be wrong but I had the same problem, had to leave my PC off for a few hours before turning it on again. The odd thing was, it worked a whole lot better when I took the CPU fan off and unclogged all the dust from the CPU's heat sink. Also make sure your PC gets enough air circulation, specially at the back where the hot air is expelled.

I dont know if thats the problem, someone else may be able to help you better. Worth a try though :)

Athlon.
 
I cleaned out my CPU's fan and heatsink, but there was virtually no dirt on there to begin with. Looking at the specs on my video card, it says it requires 350w of power on my power supply so I went ahead and bought a 55w PSU. This one.

After installing this, I got something different to happen. When I turn on my power, there is an orange flash where there usually would be a green flash next to my power button. IE, whenever my PC would be processing something this light would be flashing green but now flashes orange once when I hit the power on my PC.

Also, now when I plug in my pc to the wall, the fans do not immediately start up. All of the fans now turn on after pressing the power button on my PC. If I hold down the power button, the case fan and the CPU fan will turn off. However, my GFX card fan will continue to run.

I've recently tried disconnecting my optical drive and using that cable to connect my hard drive to my motherboard but it doesn't have any effect.

Any suggestions would be of great help.
 
This might be a shot in the dark but did you check to see if your psu can output enough amperage to give your gpu enough power to run? It most likely should, but you woudl be suprised on the power consumption of some cards. Try dl'ing some temperature monitoring programs to see your internal temps. For example go on google and get coretemp or speed fan which are both freeware. My cpu runs a constant 38C and the gpu in the 40-50C range. If you are going way over this amount, you need better cooling. The motherboard will shut your computer down randomly if it knows it is about to overheat. Don't be alarmed though if the gpu is even higher than 50C. My old one ran in the high 60's, but all the heat isn't good for the overall system...
 
I would like to try, but I can't even get my rig to start up.
All I get is the sounds of fans running and all I see is "NO SIGNAL" on my monitor.

I've just now tried each of my 4 RAM sticks individually to see if any of them may be the problem, but there's no change with any of the RAM setups I've tried.
 
Do you have the system speaker connected so you can hear the beeps? Also try resetting your CMOS if you haven't already.
 
I have my speakers connected but I hear no beeps when it is starting up.

I've managed to find my specific motherboard HERE.
Now, to reset my CMOS by moving the jumpers, do i slide them from left to right to get it from pins 1-2 to pins 2-3? Or do I physically lift them off then place them on the pins they need to be connected to?

I've tried both sliding and lifting, not very hard though, and I'm not really sure as to what I'm supposed to do because they seem to be set in there very sturdily.
 
After several restarts and listening for any beeps, I've noticed that my hard drive makes a click noise once every three seconds (roughly). I've only got the one hard drive. Would my hard drive being dead explain everything that's happening?

The most recent time my PC was working, it randomly restart. Everything was booting up fine. It switched screens, I don't remember which screen exactly. It was a screen right after the screen that told me my video card information and before the Windows Vista logo ever came up. When it got to this screen, everything just froze and I shut down my PC. That's how I came to be in the situation I'm in right now.
 
You can just take the battery out of the motherboard to clear the CMOS if you are unsure how to do it

Clicking hard drive usually means that it has failed so I would get that replaced as that would be your problem
 
I don't mean your computer speakers. I mean there is a small speaker on the motherboard that if connected correctly will beep every time your computer starts up. There are certain beep codes depending on your systems BIOS that will tell you what is wrong while it's going through it's POST (Power On Self Test).

First remove the small silver battery from the motherboard and leave it out for 15 minutes. Put it back in and see if that helps.
 
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