Whelp, something is broken

NagelFire

So after putting in my new graphics card and everything working well for a week or so, when I restarted my comp nothing happened.  I had shut up off after putting the card in, and played games and tested it all week.

 

However now when the comp restarts, the screen just remains black.  If I swap the video card with a new one and plug it in, it remains black, and if I remove the monitor and test it on another computer the monitor works.  

Does this mean the motherboard is broken?  The screen just remains black and sometimes the comp will restart automatically.  If I plug the monitor directly into the motherboard, the screen still doesnt change from black either.

Clearing the CMOS doesnt do anything, and I dont have any beeps from a successful post or error message.

Any ideas / agreement that its the motherboard?

tom_gore

If the fans come on it's most definitely the motherboard. Most of them today have some kind of diagnostic leds. Any of them light up?

You could also try to remove the battery for a minute to make sure the CMOS really clears. In some similar cases I've had not even throwing the CMOS clear jumper helped, but removing the battery did.

vonryan123

Do you hear any Post beeps....One beep or two beeps. You can google what they mean. Also I didnt notice what your power supply was. If the new card is rated for more then your power supply can handle you computer will go into a "priority" shut down of "non-essential" parts starting with your video card. It is possible the motherboard is shot if you didn't "ground" yourself to the case when installing a new component you can release static that will and can cause damage to the motherboard. It is also possible that the PCI-E slot is bad or dirty. Since you were up and running with the new card I would guess power supply or motherboard.

 

 If you haven't yet check the power rating for the CPU and video card, you want 100W or more over what you need when looking at a gaming PC to account for the influx in system resources.

 If all else fails try a new motherboard 1st as it will be the least costly. If you do find out your using to much power with not enough supply look into a new one as well. If you use a ton of USB slots or have a few PCI slots being used it will add to the over all power used.

 

 Good luck hope it helps

Grunty

Pull all of the RAM out. Turn the system on. If you still get no error code beeps then the motherboard is bad.

NagelFire

Yeah I cleared the CMOS and it didnt fix it.

 

The Power supply I am usign is a Corsair 750W power supply.  I built the system myself so power isnt an issue.

 

However, fans do Spin, and no beeps occur no matter what things I take out.  No video card = no beeps, no ram = no beeps.

 

So I guess its the motherboard, which is really fucking annoying because its less than a month old, and I don't feel like waiting 2 weeks for asus to send it back.

 

Thanks a bunch for confirming my original suspicion.

jdkskip

Is that power supply new? I had a Corsair HX750 that only lasted 8 months before it died. I suspected the motherboard went also, until I plugged in another PSU I had laying around. The 750's with the silent cooling seem to be failing after a few months because most systems don't pull watts from the PSU hard enough to make the fan come on. Just my experience and I was glad I didn't have to replace the motherboard.

NagelFire

No, its about 2 years old.  Is there another way to check if the power supply is good besides plugging in everything?  Like a shortcut?

Quizzical

Exactly what hardware do you have?

Hardware failures aren't necessarily purely binary.  If a USB port or a SATA port is dead, you can work around it.  If a PCI Express slot is broken, you might be able to use another.

I'd try using integrated graphics if you have it, and see if you can at least get the monitor to turn on.  I'd also try putting the video card into a different PCI Express slot if the motherboard has more than one.

Slapshot1188

Is it possible that one of your power cables has become disconnected after you swapped the video card?  Sounds to me like either the board is bad OR that it's not getting power everywhere.  Some MB have multiple power inputs.  I would disconnect and then reconnect them all.

 

jdnewell

I would go back into the box and make sure all power connectors, wires, ect are in place and seated well. Leave anything non essential  unplugged and see if you can get to a bios screen. Use a low power gpu if you have one, minimal amount of Ram, ect.

If you have the option try to get to bios with integrated graphics.

If non of that works and you get no post then probably the motherboard.

Ridelynn

First off you have to make sure you have a case speaker plugged into the motherboard for the BIOS beeps to come through. They are usually built into the case, or shipped loose with the motherboard. No speaker = no beeps even if everything is working right, it won't play through your sound card or normal PC Speakers.

Second, if you have the speaker in, and there are no beeps - it's either RAM, PSU, or motherboard (or some combination of the 3).

You can sorta kinda test the RAM; the motherboard should beep if it's booted up even without RAM, so if you get beep codes with all the RAM pulled, and none with RAM installed, that may be your problem.

Also, RAM is extremely sensitive - it may very well be your motherboard, and based on lack of beep codes, you go to replace it, only to find out the RAM is bad too - it's not uncommon for PSU or motherboard faults to blow the RAM with it because it's so sensitive. There are RAM testers, but it's easy to check if you have access to a second computer that uses the same type RAM. You can do the same thing with the video card just to make sure it isn't the video card; they aren't as sensitive as RAM is, but a bad PSU or motherboard fault can often pop VRM's on video cards (which essentially kills them).

Unfortunately, there is no good way to test a power supply other than "stuff turns on" or it doesn't. If the fans come on, the power supply is at least providing power (that doesn't mean it isn't bad and didn't provide bad power, just that it's not outright broken to the point of not turning on). Unfortunately, the best way of testing for a power supply that is providing bad power is that your new motherboard/RAM/whatever that fixes this problem also blows up within a few weeks.... not reassuring, but you have a decent PSU so the odds of that are low.

NagelFire

Originally posted by jdnewell

I would go back into the box and make sure all power connectors, wires, ect are in place and seated well. Leave anything non essential  unplugged and see if you can get to a bios screen. Use a low power gpu if you have one, minimal amount of Ram, ect.

If you have the option try to get to bios with integrated graphics.

If non of that works and you get no post then probably the motherboard.

Originally posted by Quizzical

Exactly what hardware do you have?

Hardware failures aren't necessarily purely binary.  If a USB port or a SATA port is dead, you can work around it.  If a PCI Express slot is broken, you might be able to use another.

I'd try using integrated graphics if you have it, and see if you can at least get the monitor to turn on.  I'd also try putting the video card into a different PCI Express slot if the motherboard has more than one.

Yeah, my processor has integrated graphics, and nothing appears when I unplug all of the video cards.  If I switch the PCI slot it still does nothing, and unplugging all ram causes no error beeps in the little mobo speaker.

 

Ill check the connectors again I guess.