I cannot figure out what is going on with my PC. I built it in 2008.
Parts:
Asus p5q Mobo
Intel core 2 duo e6850
nvidia geforce 9600 gt
hitachi 160gb sata hd
500 watt PSU
Running windows vista ultimate
I have a little home repair computer business. I have business cards that I hand out and just operate by word of mouth. I've used this machine as basically my personal computer, AND my test machine for swapping parts, so it's definitely had more wear than just a normal desktop machine. I've probably taken it apart and put it back 50 times since I bought the parts, if not more. I've been super swamped lately and I feel like my brain is fried from doing too much repair. Recently, a customers laptop motherboard went bad, so they asked me to get the data off of their hard drive and onto some dvd's. No problem right? Well, I hook their laptop harddrive into the second sata slot on my motherboard, and boot my pc. Well, for some reason it booted straight to his harddrive. Normally when I hook other harddrives up in the secondary slot it still boots to mine. So I turn it off, disconnect his harddrive altogether. When I boot up again, my monitor stays in standby mode. I have an older "office" Dell monitor, one of their older flat screens. The light was staying orange as when the computer is in sleep mode, or standby. I fooled with it for a bit, and nothing worked, so I completely disassembled the computer, and then reassembled it, just to double check all the connections. This time it booted it fine (only my hard drive hooked up). I decided to use an external method and my netbook to get the data from his hard drive to avoid any more problems with mine.
The next time I go to use the machine, it boots up fine. I did some normal stuff, redeemed a Steam Wallet Code, and started downloading Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. It was something like a 5gb file so I turned the monitor off and checked back about an hour later. I went to turn the monitor on, and it's in standby. Restart the machine, standby. 3 days of messing with stuff later, standby.
TL;DR - PC turns on, all parts run, monitor stays in Standby
This is what I've done so far (I have nothing but essential parts in the machine):
Tried different hard drives, sata and ide. No change.
Tried pulling the ram and trying one stick at a time. No change.
Tried new ram all together. No change.
Reset CMOS. No change.
Complete reassembly. No change.
Different Graphics cards. No change.
New VGA/DVI Converter. No change.
Monitor is fine, tried it on my netbook.
I don't have another 20+4 pin PSU, so I tried my PSU in an old Dell with a Pentium 4, and that machine booted up fine.
Like I said above, the computer turns on fine, all the parts power up including my 4 LED fans, the fan and lights on the cpu, the PSU lights and fan, the harddrive spins, the GPU fan spins, the motherboard indicator light turns on. I even booted up for a couple seconds without the cpu fan on and the cpu gets warm just as it should (though I just left it on for under 10 seconds.) I cannot seem to figure out the problem here.
Could the motherboard be bad, even though all the other parts seem to be getting power? I've never had a single problem with my mobo, even with the abuse I've put it through. What else could I try short of buying all new parts and just swapping things out one at a time? I'm pretty strapped for cash so I'm trying to do this as inexpensive as possible. I just feel like I'm missing something, which is why I've come here.
The only thing I can think is maybe some small part on the motherboard has gone bad that's not affecting anything else, or my PSU is screwed up and can't put out enough power for my machine, but works fine on the Dell that's only a 20 pin connection. I don't know.
ANY HELP is GREATLY appreciated.
-Jacob
Parts:
Asus p5q Mobo
Intel core 2 duo e6850
nvidia geforce 9600 gt
hitachi 160gb sata hd
500 watt PSU
Running windows vista ultimate
I have a little home repair computer business. I have business cards that I hand out and just operate by word of mouth. I've used this machine as basically my personal computer, AND my test machine for swapping parts, so it's definitely had more wear than just a normal desktop machine. I've probably taken it apart and put it back 50 times since I bought the parts, if not more. I've been super swamped lately and I feel like my brain is fried from doing too much repair. Recently, a customers laptop motherboard went bad, so they asked me to get the data off of their hard drive and onto some dvd's. No problem right? Well, I hook their laptop harddrive into the second sata slot on my motherboard, and boot my pc. Well, for some reason it booted straight to his harddrive. Normally when I hook other harddrives up in the secondary slot it still boots to mine. So I turn it off, disconnect his harddrive altogether. When I boot up again, my monitor stays in standby mode. I have an older "office" Dell monitor, one of their older flat screens. The light was staying orange as when the computer is in sleep mode, or standby. I fooled with it for a bit, and nothing worked, so I completely disassembled the computer, and then reassembled it, just to double check all the connections. This time it booted it fine (only my hard drive hooked up). I decided to use an external method and my netbook to get the data from his hard drive to avoid any more problems with mine.
The next time I go to use the machine, it boots up fine. I did some normal stuff, redeemed a Steam Wallet Code, and started downloading Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. It was something like a 5gb file so I turned the monitor off and checked back about an hour later. I went to turn the monitor on, and it's in standby. Restart the machine, standby. 3 days of messing with stuff later, standby.
TL;DR - PC turns on, all parts run, monitor stays in Standby
This is what I've done so far (I have nothing but essential parts in the machine):
Tried different hard drives, sata and ide. No change.
Tried pulling the ram and trying one stick at a time. No change.
Tried new ram all together. No change.
Reset CMOS. No change.
Complete reassembly. No change.
Different Graphics cards. No change.
New VGA/DVI Converter. No change.
Monitor is fine, tried it on my netbook.
I don't have another 20+4 pin PSU, so I tried my PSU in an old Dell with a Pentium 4, and that machine booted up fine.
Like I said above, the computer turns on fine, all the parts power up including my 4 LED fans, the fan and lights on the cpu, the PSU lights and fan, the harddrive spins, the GPU fan spins, the motherboard indicator light turns on. I even booted up for a couple seconds without the cpu fan on and the cpu gets warm just as it should (though I just left it on for under 10 seconds.) I cannot seem to figure out the problem here.
Could the motherboard be bad, even though all the other parts seem to be getting power? I've never had a single problem with my mobo, even with the abuse I've put it through. What else could I try short of buying all new parts and just swapping things out one at a time? I'm pretty strapped for cash so I'm trying to do this as inexpensive as possible. I just feel like I'm missing something, which is why I've come here.
The only thing I can think is maybe some small part on the motherboard has gone bad that's not affecting anything else, or my PSU is screwed up and can't put out enough power for my machine, but works fine on the Dell that's only a 20 pin connection. I don't know.
ANY HELP is GREATLY appreciated.
-Jacob
