On boot PC idles on bios flash screen, no post, no response to key press'

SourceShard

Posts: 8   +1
Hello World! I need your assistance and expertise.

-Short Story-
Computer restarted itself after shutdown, I held the power button in and the system shut down. I flipped the I/O switch on the power supply to thwart any more power on attempts and went to bed. PC now boots, idles on bios flash screen, no post, and no response to key press'.

-Detailed Story-
For about 2 months now my computer has had a mind of its own. It has changed my active window causing me to leave games or movies to look at an idle web browser/program.I have had typing pause during searching or moving in games, when I say "pause" I mean the system itself does not freeze and all key presses will be remembered by the system but none will be carried out until a few seconds pass then they are all carried out in order very quickly. The most annoying and prominent problem is that nine times out of 10 after my computer is shut down it will post and restart itself, even more curious is that it can infrequently have a time delay of minutes before it will restart. I have tried to troubleshoot these problems and have had some success as I have not seen the active window change in quite some time nor has the key-press pausing been apparent.

Which leads me to my new problem, last night instead of waiting for windows to boot to the user login screen where I usually then use the shutdown menu, I decided that I would hold in the power button to shutdown the computer and THEN flip the power supply I/O switch. Now the following day my computer is confusingly broken and I require assistance.

No new hardware has been added to this pc in the last 4-6 months.

CPU: Intel i5 SKU??? -Taken from a Dell consumer PC
Motherboard: Gigabyte H77-DS3H Rev 1.1
RAM: 16GBs 4x4GB Corsair Vengence
PSU: OCZ 80Plus 700W Model#OCZ700MXSP
GPU: EVGA Nvidia GEForce 970 ACX 2.0 *Removed From PC*
SSD: OS-Intel 730?? 240GB
HDDS: 2 WD blue 1 and 1.5 TBs


-Testing so Far-

-Removing all ram causes a post of 15 short beeps, the PC then restarts and loops.(beep,restart)
-Using 1 stick of ram idles on Bios with no post.
-Cleaned out case, no change.
-Reset CMOS, case fans spun too 100% with loud noise, no change.
-Removed GPU, no change.
 
My opinion is not a happy one. I think PSU issues and/or malware finally took out your motherboard - so you have two problems, not just one. I would totally disassemble and then do a basic benchtop build (psu, motherboard/cpu, no ram, no video, no storage) - confirm you get error beeps for what is out and that the beep code goes away as you rebuild one component at a time. Confirm you get POST. If not, then replace known good PSU, then known good RAM, etc) http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000607.htm
 
My opinion is not a happy one. I think PSU issues and/or malware finally took out your motherboard - so you have two problems, not just one. I would totally disassemble and then do a basic benchtop build (psu, motherboard/cpu, no ram, no video, no storage) - confirm you get error beeps for what is out and that the beep code goes away as you rebuild one component at a time. Confirm you get POST. If not, then replace known good PSU, then known good RAM, etc) http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000607.htm

Okies. So earlier today I disconnected everything down to the Ram and Mobo. It Posts! I went in to the bios and restored defaults. Restarted and connected the boot drive, the drive started to boot windows and then returned with INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE. Wonderful, grabbed recovery usb and proceeded to repair or rewrite the OS. Turned on the PC with the usb in and it did not show an image or post, the pc restarted twice. Removed the usb no image, no post, the pc restarted 2 times then booted and showed the same INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE. Decided to head out and get a PSU as I had no other one lying around to test with. I felt sure it was the PSU so I threw it in and routed the cords, just finished and went to turn it on and the thing won't show an image, does not post, and restarts.... Looks like its the darn Mobo. I am very sad. Next time I will test before installing any new hardware.

Whats the off chance the CPU could also be affected and how would I be able to test it, or do I have to just buy a Mobo and pray?
 
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It POSTed properly. You added HDD and it failed. HDD could be the issue.Could you get SMART status from BIOS? Can you boot from DVD with no HDD?

PSU not necessarily a waste - could be several issues.

POST usually means motherboard is 'ok', the RAM installed is ok and the CPU is ok....
 
It POSTed properly. You added HDD and it failed. HDD could be the issue.Could you get SMART status from BIOS? Can you boot from DVD with no HDD?

PSU not necessarily a waste - could be several issues.

POST usually means motherboard is 'ok', the RAM installed is ok and the CPU is ok....

Today to test I disconnected everything from the Mobo leaving just the ram, cpu, and the keyboard. After starting the PC there was no POST or picture, the case fans spun too100% with a large amount of coil whine, and the cpu fan seemed to stop spinning shortly after powering on. The pc repetitively restarted itself with these observations.
 
After pulling the ram I the 15 beeps as earlier stated. I have looked at the beep code list and it does not seem to match up to anything. I have gone ahead and ordered new parts. We will know if the hard drives are a problem when I connect them too the new motherboard. So far though I believe the Mobo is bad as it will not POST or provide beep codes unless ram is removed, and it no longer will show any bios flash screen or bios menu. Will update with results.
 
Turned out to be the Motherboard. I have installed new hardware and the SSD booted into windows. I reinstalled windows to be safe. Downside is now I face a new overheating problem. That topic is for another post though.
 
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