I installed some new hardware: PSU and a harddrive, so I had removed my video card while doing this. I put everything back together and the computer booted and worked fine for about 1 - 2 hours before I turned it off for the night.
In the morning my computer powered on, but the monitor was all black and the power light on the monitor was just blinking. The BIOS POST was long-short-short (video card issue). I looked in the case and one of the wires was blocking one of the two fans on the GPU. I tied this wire out of the way and the same symptoms occurred.
Next I tried to turn it on and the red overclock light and all blue LEDs on the motherboard turn on along with all the fans and the motors in the hard drives. There is no POST however and the monitor light only blinks. There is no sound of windows starting up. I cannot power down with the power button or reset using the reset button.
After reseating everything and trying alternate cords, monitors, keyboard, mouse, CMOS battery, video card, and memory I have determined it must be the motherboard (most likely), case, or CPU(least likely). I even testbenched it by taking everything out of the case and putting it on boxes. So it doesn't appear that there are any shorts from the motherboard to the case.
I have also figured out a way to get the computer on after many hours of trial and error. I followed these exact steps:
1. power down with PSU switch
2. hold power button for 30 seconds
3. remove battery
4. hold power button for 30 seconds
5. remove power cord
6. hold power button for 30 seconds
7a. put battery back in
7b. put power cord back in
8. flip PSU switch back on
9. turn computer on
10. Wait upto 5 minutes and then computer will boot 90% of the time, but not give POST beep
This worked for a couple weeks, but everytime I unplugged the computer (or maybe when switching off the PSU switch) or it was shut down improperly the same symptoms would come back. However, lately I have these symptoms every time I shut down the computer properly plus now my system clock is running slow. I tried an older CMOS battery but I get the same results.
I'm thinking either the current and old CMOS battery are both bad, or there is a problem with the motherboard (compatibility issue maybe?). Is there anything else I can try before I spend money to RMA this board? Should I try a BIOS update or does the system clock point to hardware failure? Note that I initially only had problems when starting up the computer and recently the system clock runs slow and the system tray is a little bit screwed up (it doesn't show all my normal icons running in the background, but it has white space for where they should be and I cannot click on the 2 or 3 that are showing up properly).
One last thing to note is that I had a similar problem with my last build which used the same case, speakers, keyboard, mouse, and monitor until I bought a new motherboard, then never had the problem again. RMA'ing that motherboard multiple times never solved it.
Motherboard: MSI 870A-G54
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 6850
Power Supply: upgraded to Antec Truepower 650W from Enermax Noisetaker 420W
CPU: AMD Phenom II X2 555
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws PC3-10666 2X2GB
CASE: Coolermaster CAC-T05 Centurion 5 Aluminum
In the morning my computer powered on, but the monitor was all black and the power light on the monitor was just blinking. The BIOS POST was long-short-short (video card issue). I looked in the case and one of the wires was blocking one of the two fans on the GPU. I tied this wire out of the way and the same symptoms occurred.
Next I tried to turn it on and the red overclock light and all blue LEDs on the motherboard turn on along with all the fans and the motors in the hard drives. There is no POST however and the monitor light only blinks. There is no sound of windows starting up. I cannot power down with the power button or reset using the reset button.
After reseating everything and trying alternate cords, monitors, keyboard, mouse, CMOS battery, video card, and memory I have determined it must be the motherboard (most likely), case, or CPU(least likely). I even testbenched it by taking everything out of the case and putting it on boxes. So it doesn't appear that there are any shorts from the motherboard to the case.
I have also figured out a way to get the computer on after many hours of trial and error. I followed these exact steps:
1. power down with PSU switch
2. hold power button for 30 seconds
3. remove battery
4. hold power button for 30 seconds
5. remove power cord
6. hold power button for 30 seconds
7a. put battery back in
7b. put power cord back in
8. flip PSU switch back on
9. turn computer on
10. Wait upto 5 minutes and then computer will boot 90% of the time, but not give POST beep
This worked for a couple weeks, but everytime I unplugged the computer (or maybe when switching off the PSU switch) or it was shut down improperly the same symptoms would come back. However, lately I have these symptoms every time I shut down the computer properly plus now my system clock is running slow. I tried an older CMOS battery but I get the same results.
I'm thinking either the current and old CMOS battery are both bad, or there is a problem with the motherboard (compatibility issue maybe?). Is there anything else I can try before I spend money to RMA this board? Should I try a BIOS update or does the system clock point to hardware failure? Note that I initially only had problems when starting up the computer and recently the system clock runs slow and the system tray is a little bit screwed up (it doesn't show all my normal icons running in the background, but it has white space for where they should be and I cannot click on the 2 or 3 that are showing up properly).
One last thing to note is that I had a similar problem with my last build which used the same case, speakers, keyboard, mouse, and monitor until I bought a new motherboard, then never had the problem again. RMA'ing that motherboard multiple times never solved it.
Motherboard: MSI 870A-G54
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 6850
Power Supply: upgraded to Antec Truepower 650W from Enermax Noisetaker 420W
CPU: AMD Phenom II X2 555
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws PC3-10666 2X2GB
CASE: Coolermaster CAC-T05 Centurion 5 Aluminum
