Case study: An in-depth exploration of one particular case (situation or subject) for the purpose of gaining depth of understanding into the issues being investigated.

Not a study of computer cases sry

Okay, I've recently installed RAID on my system. However, this isn't about installing RAID.

I laid my computer on its side to install the HDDs, transfer files, etc, and had my computer running everything, with Windows installed, etc. I then shut down the computer, closed up the case, and proceeded to put the case upright and boot up.

However, once up, the computer won't boot at all. It gets on a restart loop, before even getting into BIOS. Nothing appears on screen, fans come on, HDDs come on, DVD drives start reading.... and after 2-3 seconds, it all powers down.

What does someone do after that? Not sure, but I undid the HDDs, and got everything connected except the HDDs. Same problem.

Took out everything, and got only the m/b, CPU, RAM and PSU connected. Same problem.

Tested the PSU on another computer. No problem.

Took another PSU to put on this computer. No problem.

Decided that the motherboard is stuffed. Proceeded to remove everything to get an RMA.

Just before actually putting the motherboard into the box, with everything else, I decided to power JUST the motherboard, and see if the fans will just stay powered. It did. So then I plugged in the bare minimum, and it posted, like nothing happened.

So I proceeded to get my computer back to the original condition, when I had everything connected, same heatsinks, same everything. And it was fine.

WTF HAPPENED?!??

Any ideas?

When you removed the motherboard to test it with the CPU RAM and PSU I assume you left either (or both) the CPU and RAM attached. Considering the fact that both of these play crucial roles in the pre-OS boot phases, I assume one or the other wasn't making full contact or something along those lines after you lifted the case up.

Then, obviously when you went to repackage your motherboard up, you must of removed the RAM and CPU, which means you had to of reseated them after testing your system with just the motherboard/fans etc. Reseating the components probably cured whatever contact issues they were having previously.

In my mind that is the most logical conclusion to draw based on the events outlined above.

same views.... i think you might have some kind of loose connection or one ram stick might be faulty and halting the boot process

Thanks for those replies.

However, I must point out that: even in that scenario, there should have been diagnositc beeps.

Even if there weren't, I didn't mention but I did reseat the RAM (not CPU).

I did try for loose power connections and such.

This leaves only a possible CPU contact problem, but really, is that likely at all? Given that this system was running perfectly, even with all the tinkering I did with it over the last year, a simple uprighting of the case would shake it loose?



I did think I might have shorted something with a loose screw. Also, I didn't mention it but I did try to clear the BIOS, which didn't help.

...You might as well come to terms with the fact that you'll never know for sure. The best that you can do is conclude based on logical assumptions that one thing or another occurred.

Do not try and rationalize based on odds/probability as it doesn't matter what the cause was; bottom line it is an outrageously rare occurrence.

That being the case, yes, I do feel that it is likely your CPU was the issue. Not so much that it was "loose" just making a funky contact of sorts.

True, I suppose it would be a rare occurance.

Just wondering if there would be any other possible problems, just in case something like this ever happens again (could be to anyone). I wouldn't want to be taking everything apart every time I run into a problem, if other simple measures could be taken.