Solved PowerSpec G420 won't boot properly

[e31011]

I have a PowerSpec G420 that my mom gave to me because it wouldn't boot and she didn't want to mess with it anymore. From what she told me it simply stopped turning on one day, and that lasted for an extended period, then they had a power outage and the computer turned back on when the power came back and worked until it had to be restarted, at which point it again failed to boot. I'm not entirely sure what she means when she says "failed to boot." Since then she has replaced the power supply with a Corsair CX750M, and everything else is the same as when she bought it.

She brought it to me with an extra monitor so I don't have to swap mine back and forth, and I started by testing that monitor with my working tower, and the broken tower with my working monitor. Either way, what I experience is that the PowerSpec's lights come on, the fans for the power supply and the tower come on, the optical drive will open and close if I press the eject button, and I can feel the HDD spinning, but there is no picture on the monitor regardless of whether I use mine (which I know works) or the one my mom brought (which I also know works, having tested it with my own tower). If I unplug the HDMI cable the monitor will switch to an error message that no device is being detected, but when the cable is properly plugged in the monitor is black and goes almost immediately into power saving mode. I reseated all the cables and the RAM to ensure they are properly connected, and that changed exactly nothing, and unfortunately I'm not knowledgeable enough to even begin to know what to consider.

Any help that can be offered would be greatly appreciated.

 

[veeg]

Hello

Have you tried a hard start with this pc,assuming it has a power switch in the back of the pc? Just curious if the pc will power up like it is suppose to..
Hopefully some more of our members will chime in soon.

@phillpower2 @Twitch6000 @Evan Omo @georgeks

 

[e31011]

Yeah, there's a power switch on the back, and a button on the front. Even if you flip the back switch you still have to press the button on the front to make it power on. Holding the front power button will make it restart, and the restart button on the front also restarts the tower, inasmuch as all the things that were working stop and then come on again, but the picture issue is unaffected. It was brought from my mom's house to mine, and I've unplugged and replugged it a few times since I hooked it up here (my mom forgot to plug in the optical drive and HDD so it was unplugged to fix those, and then again when I reseated everything). Obviously flipping the back switch just turns it off and it doesn't matter what you do with the front buttons until that's flipped back to on.

 

[plodr]

Look in Control Panel then Power Settings. Post what is showing there.

 

[e31011]

I can't because nothing displays on the monitor.

 

[Evan Omo]

Hi e31011, Welcome to PCHF!

Have you tried plugging your monitor into your motherboards integrated video chip using the VGA or DVI port on the motherboard to see if the computer boots up correctly? Since the computer has two video cards installed, have you tried plugging your monitor into either card to see if you get any picture on the monitor as well?

Does the computer make any beeps at all? Does the computer have a motherboard speaker installed?

 

[e31011]

I've only tried the HDMI ports. I don't think I even have VGA or DVI cables, but my mom tried Displayport and it didn't work either. I've also tried taking out each graphics card one at a time and running the tower first with only one and then only the other, trying both the port for the video card and then the port on the motherboard each time, and met the same results. We got a cheap video card from the store and plugged that in and same thing, and we tried with no video card, and again, the same black screen then power save mode for the monitor. We even tried no video card and no hard drives, and still nada, but unplugging the hdmi cable still results in the "no device detected" message.

According the the mfg page it has this for sound: Integrated Purity Sound™ - Realtek® Audio ALC1150 High Definition CODEC, but I don't believe it has a speaker, and it hasn't been making any sort of sound aside from the fans and drives spinning up.

 

[phillpower2]

trying both the port for the video card and then the port on the motherboard each time, and met the same results.

Just to clarify, when you tried the MBs HDMI port you did only try the HDMI Output port (see attachment below) and not the HDMI Input port and did you first remove the add on video card/s.

Your specs say there is 16GB of RAM, if this is two Xs 8GB sticks, try using only one stick at a time and testing each of the four slots on the MB starting with slot A1 which is the one nearest the CPU.

If still no joy, the MB has a Dr. Debug LED on it, what is the error code number showing on it.

Two other quick checks, try pulling the CMOS battery for a few minutes and then replace it, this in case of any possible bad MB settings, and odd as it may seem a keyboard error can prevent a computer from booting, if you are using a USB keyboard try using alternative ports or better still if you have or can borrow a wired PS/2 type keyboard try that.

 

[e31011]

I only used the HDMI out, yes, and I tried it with both video cards in with and without the SLI ribbon, each video card one at a time in both slots each, and with neither video card.

I also tried both sticks of ram in each slot individually (although they were installed from the mfg in slots A2 and B2, for what it's worth).

I tried the CMOS reset as well as a battery pull, and also swapping the bios chips between BIOS A and BIOS B last night after doing some more google searching. There is a red light by the BIOS A chipslot I hadn't noticed before (which doesn't mean it wasn't on). The initial Dr. Debug code I got was 15, 4F, 62, 9C, 64, d7, which partially resolved by plugging in a USB mouse and a USB keyboard. Swapping the chips resulted in 15, 03, 4F, and then swapping again ended with 15, 40, 4F, 03 in a loop. Many of the codes seem to be related to memory and chipset errors, but 4F and 9C don't appear on the list at all. Googling the 4F error code is what led me to try switching the BIOS chips.

With the original chip placement neither the mobo power or reset buttons appeared to do anything, but after swapping them they appeared to function as intended. The CMOS reset button may or may not be functioning, as pressing it seems to have no bearing on the error codes regardless of whether prefaced or followed by a battery pull or not.

Currently the tower is sitting disconnected from power and my next thought is to attempt to reseat the CPU, but that's mildly terrifying and also means I need to go buy some heatsink paste. I've also sent an email to Asrock to see if perhaps they can offer replacement BIOS chips in case that's where the problem lies. These are all merely shots in the dark, however, so any more knowledgeable advice would be deeply appreciated.

 

[phillpower2]

Going back over your thread I noticed the following;

, what I experience is that the PowerSpec's lights come on, the fans for the power supply and the tower come on,

You do not mention if the CPU cooling fan also runs, before commenting on your reply #9 please clarify whether or not the CPU cooling fan has been working throughout your testing.

 

[e31011]

Yep, that one also runs.

 

[phillpower2]

Thanks for clarifying that the CPU fan also turns, it will become apparent why it needed confirming below, used quotes to outline certain points.

. From what she told me it simply stopped turning on one day, and that lasted for an extended period, then they had a power outage and the computer turned back on when the power came back and worked until it had to be restarted,

Since then she has replaced the power supply with a Corsair CX750M

what I experience is that the PowerSpec's lights come on, the fans for the power supply and the tower come on, the optical drive will open and close if I press the eject button, and I can feel the HDD spinning, but there is no picture on the monitor

my next thought is to attempt to reseat the CPU,

If the computer powered up after the power outage it may have been because the PSU had reset, problem is that it may have damaged the MB in the process (spiked) have you inspected the MB for any bulging or burst caps, see examples here

Was the Corsair CX750M out of the box new.

MB and CPU both potential causes of no signal to the monitor when connected to onboard graphics when the add on video card/s are removed and of the two a MB has a higher failure rate.

To summarise, if the CX 750M is out of the box new, hooked up correctly + powering up ok, the CPU cooling fan has been running throughout and the heatsink is securely mounted there is no reason to suspect the CPU at all and if it is the cause reseating it will not help as the only damage CPUs tend to suffer is being fried by a bad overclock, power spike or CPU fan failure.

 

[e31011]

The caps all look fine and I don't see anything that looks like damage to the motherboard, but I've taken pictures as well in case I'm missing something. I took everything out so I could see all the capacitors clearly (and cleaned the paste off the cpu since I'll have to put a new layer on to put the heatsink+fan back anyway, but there was a thin layer between it and the heatsink).

As for the PSU, that was brand new and installed by the technicians while the tower was still under warranty, so I can only assume it was done properly.

I only thought of reseating the CPU because most of the error codes from the Dr. Debug indicated "Problem related to memory. Please re-install the CPU and memory then clear CMOS. If the problem still exists, please install only one memory module or try using other memory modules." and I've attempted to start the computer with both drives unhooked and both sticks of RAM removed, so reseating the CPU seemed to be the only thing I hadn't done yet short of buying new parts. I still have no idea what the 4F code indicates though, aside from various forums that say it's possibly a problem with the BIOS chips (in the bottom right part of the mobo, with white stickers on them, just above where the buttoncell battery would go). Is it likely that replacing those could remedy the mobo problem in the absence of damage to the caps?

 

[phillpower2]

Since then she has replaced the power supply with a Corsair CX750M

As for the PSU, that was brand new and installed by the technicians while the tower was still under warranty, so I can only assume it was done properly.

Bit confused by the above as your OP suggests that the PSU was swapped out after the power outage but it did not resolve the problem, are you saying that the computer has worked ok since the CX750M was swapped in and that this problem has occurred a while after the CX750M was swapped in.

Is the computer still covered by any warranty.

I tried the CMOS reset as well as a battery pull, and also swapping the bios chips between BIOS A and BIOS B last night after doing some more google searching. There is a red light by the BIOS A chipslot I hadn't noticed before (which doesn't mean it wasn't on).

The switch should normally be in the A position and should only be temporarily switched to the B position if the A BIOS becomes corrupt and needs to be repaired.

Got to ask, is there anything that you have tried or done previously that could have damaged the MB, overclocking or flashing the BIOS as two examples, 4F can mean either CPU or bad RAM and unfortunately bad RAM includes the memory slots on the MB having failed.

Motherboard repairs are a delicate and often a cosly job and so much so that a new MB often works out less expensive.

Have you still got the heatsink off the top of the processor.

 

[e31011]

The power outage happened and they thought the problem may have been related to the PSU, so that was replaced while the computer was under warranty, but it only started the once randomly, and worked until a windows update restarted the computer, at which point it went back to not displaying a picture. The warranty has since expired, which is why I'm trying to figure out the problem instead of just taking it in to be serviced.

We haven't overclocked or flashed the BIOS, and the jumper is still in the position it was originally- it hasn't been touched at all.

The heatsink is indeed still off the processor, and the system has been unplugged from the wall with the button cell battery removed since before I did that.

 

[phillpower2]

The power outage happened and they thought the problem may have been related to the PSU, so that was replaced while the computer was under warranty, but it only started the once randomly,

Too late now by the sound of it but if the computer only started the once after the PSU was replaced it would have been best to get the computer sorted while still under warranty.

and worked until a windows update restarted the computer,

If this had of been caused by a Windows update you would at least still get a BIOS screen so I do not feel that this is Windows related.

The heatsink is indeed still off the processor, and the system has been unplugged from the wall with the button cell battery removed since before I did that.

The CMOS battery must be in place at all times.

If the heatsink is still off the processor, you need to do the following very quickly so a second pair of hands may help, ground yourself by touching a bare metal part of the chassis or PSU, quickly power up and shut down the computer, remove the power cord from the wall socket then feel the top of the processor to see if it is hot, let us know the outcome.

 

[e31011]

Once the computer powered on it took a few seconds (5-10) for the cpu to become warm, but once it started warming up I turned the tower off.

Unfortunately the warranty expired right after the PSU was replaced, so we weren't able to get any other service on it before that point.

 

[phillpower2]

Once the computer powered on it took a few seconds (5-10) for the cpu to become warm,

That suggests that the CPU may be ok and that it is not getting adequate voltage or the MBs thermal sensor is working and keeping the power down, in the past the CPU would have become too hot to touch within a nano second and doing so if working properly would have taken a layer or two of skin off

Would suggest that you invest in a MB BIOS speaker (see attachment) get the RAM tested or see if you can borrow some compatible RAM for testing purposes.

 

[georgeks]

That's your system? http://powerspec.com/systems/system_specs.phtml?selection=G420
Even without a CPU a system will start its fans.
Did you use the O/B graphics or add-on cards? -Evan Omo suggested that already.

If the BIOS has been corrupted-and if you cannot use the system, try the reset jumper for the CMOS.

 

[veeg]

Any updates for us?