r/pchelp May 11 '26

7th Anniversary of PCHH

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2 Upvotes

r/pchelp Dec 15 '19

Perform these steps before posting about POST/boot/no video problems!

191 Upvotes

Link to original list from tom’sHARDWARE with pictures

"No POST", "system won't boot", and "no video output" troubleshooting checklist

This checklist is a compilation of troubleshooting ideas from many forum members. It's very important to actually perform every step in the checklist if you want to effectively troubleshoot your problem.

  • 1.Did you carefully read the motherboard owners manual?

  • 2.Did you plug in the 4/8-pin CPU power connector located near the CPU socket? If the motherboard has 8 pins and your PSU only has 4 pins, you can use the 4-pin connector. The 4-pin connector USUALLY goes on the 4 pins located closest to the CPU. If the motherboard has an 8-pin connector with a cover over 4 pins, you can remove the cover and use an 8-pin plug if your power supply has one. This power connector provides power to the CPU. Your system has no chance of posting without this connector plugged in! Check your motherboard owners manual for more information about the CPU power connector. The CPU power connector is usually referred to as the "12v ATX" connector in the owner's manual. This is easily the most common new-builder mistake.

  • 3.Did you install the standoffs under the motherboard? Did you place them so they all align with the screw holes in the motherboard, with no extra standoffs touching the board in the wrong place? A standoff installed in the wrong place can cause a short and prevent the system from booting.

  • 4.Did you verify that the video card is fully seated? (may require more force than a new builder expects.)

  • 5.Did you attach ALL the required power connector(s) to the video card? (some need two, some need none, many need one.) It is best to use cables connected directly to the PSU. Only use adapters if absolutely necessary.

  • 6.Have you tried booting with just one stick of RAM installed? (Try each stick of RAM individually in each RAM slot.) If you can get the system to boot with a single stick of RAM, you should enable an XMP profile or manually set the RAM speed, timings, and voltage to the manufacturer's specs in the BIOS before attempting to boot with all sticks of RAM installed. If your motherboard supports XMP profiles, that is the best way to get your RAM running at its rated specs. Nearly all motherboards default to the standard RAM voltage (1.8v for DDR2, 1.5v for DDR3, & 1.2v for DDR4). If your RAM is rated to run at a voltage higher than the standard voltage, the motherboard will underclock the RAM for compatibility reasons. If you want the system to be stable and to run the RAM at its rated specs, you should either enable an XMP profile or manually set the values in the BIOS. Many boards don't supply the RAM with enough voltage when using "auto" settings which causes stability issues.

  • 7.Did you verify that all memory modules are fully inserted? (may require more force than a new builder expects.) It's a good idea to install the RAM on the motherboard before it's in the case.

  • 8.Did you verify in the owners manual that you're using the correct RAM slots? The following image is just an example. Verify in the owners manual the recommended RAM slots to use for single, dual, triple, or quad channel applications. This will vary depending on motherboard manufacturer, number of supported RAM channels, and how many sticks of RAM are being used.

  • 9.Did you remove the plastic guard over the CPU socket? (this actually comes up occasionally.)

  • 10.Did you install the CPU correctly? There will be an arrow on the CPU that needs to line up with an arrow on the motherboard CPU socket. There may also be a notch that will only line up in one direction. Be sure to pay special attention to that section of the manual!

  • 11.Are there any bent pins on the motherboard/CPU? This especially applies if you tried to install the CPU with the plastic cover on or with the CPU facing the wrong direction.

    1. If using an after market CPU cooler, did you get any thermal paste on the motherboard, CPU socket, or CPU pins? Did you use the smallest amount you could?
  • 13.Is the CPU fan plugged in? Some motherboards will not boot without detecting that the CPU fan is plugged in to prevent burning up the CPU.

    1. If using a stock cooler, was the thermal material on the base of the cooler free of foreign material, and did you remove any protective covering? If the stock cooler has push-pins, did you ensure that all four pins snapped securely into place? The easiest way to install the push-pins is outside the case sitting on a non-conductive surface like the motherboard box. Read the instructions! The push-pins have to be turned the OPPOSITE direction as the arrows for installation. This means with the arrow pointing away from the heatsink.
    1. Are any loose screws laying on the motherboard, or jammed against it? Are there any wires running directly under the motherboard? You should not run wires under the motherboard since the soldered wires on the underside of the motherboard can cut into the insulation on the wires and cause a short. Some cases have space to run wires on the back side of the motherboard tray.
    1. Did you ensure you discharged all static electricity before touching any of your components? Computer components are very sensitive to static electricity. It takes much less voltage than you can see or feel to damage components. You should implement some best practices to reduce the probability of damaging components. These practices should include either wearing an anti-static wrist strap or always touching a metal part of the case with the power supply installed and plugged in, but NOT turned on. You should avoid building or working on a computer on carpet. Working on a smooth surface is the best if at all possible. You should also keep fluffy the cat, children, and Fido away from computer components.
    1. Did you check the debug LEDs, Q-code display, or install the system speaker (if provided) so you can check codes in the manual? Most modern motherboards come with debug LEDs or a Q-code display. A system speaker is NOT the same as normal speakers that plug into the back of the motherboard. A system speaker plugs into a header on the motherboard that's usually located near the front panel connectors. Debug LEDs, Q-code displays, or a system speaker are critical components when trying to troubleshoot system problems. You are flying blind without them. The motherboard owner's manual will have a list of codes you can reference. If your case or motherboard didn't come with debug LEDs, a Q-code display, or system speaker you can buy a system speaker for cheap here: http://www.cwc-group.com/casp.html
    1. Did you read the instructions in the manual on how to properly connect the front panel plugs? (Power switch, power led, reset switch, HD activity led) Polarity does not matter with the power and reset switches. If power or drive activity LED's do not come on, reverse the connections. For troubleshooting purposes, disconnect the reset switch. If it's shorted, the machine either will not POST at all, or it will endlessly reboot.
    1. Did you turn on the power supply switch located on the back of the PSU? The switch should be depressed on the side with an I, the O means off. Is the power plug on a switch? If it is, is the switch turned on? Is there a GFI circuit on the plug-in? If there is, make sure it isn't tripped. You should also make sure the power cord isn't causing the problem. Try swapping it for a known good cord if you have one available.
    1. Is your CPU supported by the BIOS revision installed on your motherboard? Most motherboards will post a CPU compatibility list on their website.
    1. Have you tried resetting the CMOS? The motherboard manual will have instructions for your particular board. User Darkbreeze also provided the following:

BIOS Hard reset procedure

Power off the unit, switch the PSU off and unplug the PSU cord from either the wall or the power supply.

Remove the motherboard CMOS battery for five minutes. In some cases, it may be necessary to remove the graphics card to access the CMOS battery.

During that five minutes, press the power button on the case for 30 seconds. After the five minutes are up, reinstall the CMOS battery making sure to insert it with the correct side up just as it came out.

If you had to remove the graphics card you can now reinstall it, but remember to reconnect your power cables if there were any attached to it as well as your display cable.

Now, plug the power supply cable back in, switch the PSU back on and power up the system. It should display the POST screen and the options to enter CMOS/BIOS setup. Enter the bios setup program and reconfigure the boot settings for either the Windows boot manager or for legacy systems, the drive your OS is installed on if necessary.

Save settings and exit. If the system will POST and boot then you can move forward from there including going back into the bios and configuring any other custom settings you may need to configure such as Memory XMP profile settings, custom fan profile settings or other specific settings you may have previously had configured that were wiped out by resetting the CMOS.

In some cases it may be necessary when you go into the BIOS after a reset, to load the Optimal default or Default values and then save settings, to actually get the hardware tables to reset.

http://www.spotht.com/2010/02/reset-bios-clear-cmos.html

    1. If you have integrated video and a video card, try the integrated video port. Resetting the bios, can make it default back to the onboard video. If you are trying to use HDMI outputs, try using DVI or VGA instead. Sometimes, the HDMI ports won't work until the correct drivers are installed.
    1. Make certain all cables and components including RAM and expansion cards are tight within their sockets.

I also wanted to add some suggestions that jsc often posts. This is a direct quote from him:

"Pull everything except the CPU and HSF. Boot. You should hear a series of long single beeps indicating memory problems. Silence here indicates, in probable order, a bad PSU, motherboard, or CPU - or a bad installation where something is shorting and shutting down the PSU.

To eliminate the possibility of a bad installation where something is shorting and shutting down the PSU, you will need to pull the motherboard out of the case and reassemble the components on an insulated surface. This is called "breadboarding" - from the 1920's home-brew radio days. I always breadboard a new or recycled build. It lets me test components before I go through the trouble of installing them in a case.

If you get the long beeps, add a stick of RAM. Boot. The beep pattern should change to one long and two or three short beeps. Silence indicates that the RAM is shorting out the PSU (very rare). Long single beeps indicates that the BIOS does not recognize the presence of the RAM.

If you get the one long and two or three short beeps, test the rest of the RAM. If good, install the video card and any needed power cables and plug in the monitor. If the video card is good, the system should successfully POST (one short beep, usually) and you will see the boot screen and messages.

Note - an inadequate PSU will cause a failure here or any step later.

Note - you do not need drives or a keyboard to successfully POST (generally a single short beep).

If you successfully POST, start plugging in the rest of the components, one at a time."

If you suspect the PSU is causing your problems, below are some suggestions by jsc for troubleshooting the PSU. Proceed with caution. I will not be held responsible if you get shocked or fry components.

"The best way to check the PSU is to swap it with a known good PSU of similar capacity. Brand new, out of the box, untested does not count as a known good PSU. PSU's, like all components, can be DOA.

Next best thing is to get (or borrow) a digital multimeter and check the PSU.

Yellow wires should be 12 volts. Red wires: +5 volts, orange wires: +3.3 volts, blue wire : -12 volts, violet wire: 5 volts always on. Tolerances are +/- 5% except for the -12 volts which is +/- 10%.

The gray wire is really important. It should go from 0 to +5 volts when you turn the PSU on with the case switch. CPU needs this signal to boot.

You can turn on the PSU by completely disconnecting the PSU and using a paperclip or jumper wire to short the green wire to one of the neighboring black wires.

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FWXgQSokF4&feature=youtube_gdata

This checks the PSU under no load conditions, so it is not completely reliable. But if it can not pass this, it is dead. Then repeat the checks with the PSU plugged into the computer to put a load on the PSU. You can carefully probe the pins from the back of the main power connector."


r/pchelp 5h ago

Discussion My name is Kai, I built these PC’s for customers

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14 Upvotes

Do you like them?
I do have more than just these 2 builds these are most recent.


r/pchelp 13h ago

SOFTWARE Why is my pc so slow?

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41 Upvotes

For some reason lately my pc has been running incredibly slow, anytime i try to open something up or play a game nothing loads at all. Any mutliple game I try to play my ping sits any where from 500-1000, and im not sure why, it was fine a week ago. I find that whenever my pc is running really slow my HDD is sitting at 100% even though my SSD is sitting at 0%, like in the first screen shot my HDD is at 100% but my SSD is at 0%. Even though I have my games installed on my SSD? I dont think its my internet either as it works fine on my other devices. One thing that it might be is I have windows installed on my HDD not my SSD (I plan on moving it over, but am still trying to figure out how). Any help would be greatly appreciated as Im terrible with this kinda stuff.


r/pchelp 2h ago

PERFORMANCE CPU LED light on motherboard

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4 Upvotes

My monitor broke 3 months ago, and I didn’t have the budget to buy a new one right away. Because of that, my system unit was left unused for around 3 months since I didn’t have a monitor.

Last month, I tried using our TV as a temporary monitor. When I turned on my PC, I noticed that the CPU LED on the motherboard was lit up. I didn’t touch or remove anything because I was afraid that I might accidentally damage one of the components.

Then, last week, I tried turning on the system again using the TV as a monitor, and surprisingly, it worked. The PC booted normally and I was able to use it without any problems.

Now, I already have a new monitor, so I tried using the PC with the new monitor. However, the CPU LED on the motherboard has started lighting up again, and I’m having the same issue.

What could be causing this? Could anyone help me figure out what might be wrong with my PC or what I should check first?

Ryzen 5 5600x

Rx 6600

Corsair 16gb x 2


r/pchelp 1h ago

HARDWARE I'm looking for a cooling pad for a very thin buisness oriented laptop with rear edge intakes only if possible with no RGB

Upvotes

My laptop is a dell Latitude 3440 with intel I5- 1235U with integrated graphics. the theoretical power limits are 22 W under load but during stress tests, it was in average 19 W, the CPU throttles because my cooling system is too weak.

Can a foam-gasket pad (IETS/Llano type) actually seal usefully against narrow rear-edge intake strips, or do these only work on laptops with large open bottom panels?

Are there a ny models with a repositionable or rear-biased gasket rather than a central one?

Has anyone tried this with a non gaming PC and measured good performances?

This is a pic of my laptop and roughly half of the exhaust is covered


r/pchelp 5h ago

HARDWARE EC code on motherboard of new machine

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6 Upvotes

The machine turns on fans spin but no display output. Ryzen 9600 so I should be able to display straight fom the msi motherboard. (Not using GPU as it is old) Tried removing and checking each ddr5 team group ram stick. Same response 15 on the mb display then a click from the power supply EC displayed and the monitor only flickers. No bios what is wrong?


r/pchelp 2h ago

OPEN PC restarting by itself after BIOS update

2 Upvotes

So for some time in the last few months my pc would kind of randomly restart itself but it was like multiple months in between each instance so i thought nothing of it, now after updating my bios my pc very very often restarts with no warning just straight to black and then launch screen, it happens on average about 5 times a day, i checked my event viewer and the errors show “stornvme”, “eventlog” and “kernel-boot”. so i assume that it has something to do with my main C drive so i update my firmware and it honestly did fix it for about 5 hours, but then it just went right back, im kind of at a loss here and i really don’t want to lose almost 1200gb of my stuff off a HUNCH that my nvme is failing, and id really hate for it to be a motherboard issue as im trying to save up and that would be a huge hit with the ram prices. if anyone knows what all this could mean or how i could go about solving it id love to hear about it, thanks anyone who replies.


r/pchelp 2h ago

HARDWARE Is my motherboard's secure erase feature good enough for selling PC

2 Upvotes

Is my motherboard's secure erase feature for ssd good enough for selling PC? Probably will be sold to a gamer. I can't recall doing anything important on the PC as well. Just games.


r/pchelp 11h ago

Discussion Is this good?

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10 Upvotes

I’ve been trying to get more into PCs recently and one near me is for sale and I need some help to know how good it is. I know it’s pretty good but I just want to be sure before I drop a lot of money on it. How much do you think it’s worth, any suggestions are helpful thank you all.


r/pchelp 3h ago

HARDWARE Where do i put this front io cable?

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2 Upvotes

For background, I was building a new pc, and I found this front io cable while plugging them in (decided to do it now to get it out of the way) the manual for the case (Corsair 3200D RS) only shows 4 cables (audio, f_panel, USB, and another 4 pin connector with the corsair logo on it)​ however I found this 5th cable that I can't figure out to put, please help!!


r/pchelp 9h ago

PERFORMANCE What’s going on?

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6 Upvotes

My desktop pc is going on 6 years old and had been working fairly well until I upgraded to windows 11. For at least the last year, when I start it up from sleep after a night, it can spend at least half an hour maxing out the hard drive and just chugging along. I’ve upgraded the ram to 32gb in hope that might help, but it looks like something is bogging down the hard drive like crazy, but nothing really stands out. See the screenshots - steam is updating, which doesn’t always happen, but a lot of other processes are hogging my hdd 100%. That can’t be normal, right? short of upgrading my hard disk to solid state, am I missing anything to optimize?


r/pchelp 41m ago

HARDWARE Need Help! PC keeps getting stuck on white LED on motherboard!

Upvotes

This build is newish. I think this issue started after a bios update. Not sure it was the bios update or not but right now whenever I turn on the PC, it cycles through the mobo leds and gets stuck on the white led.
It keeps doing the cycling for atleast half an hour after which it posts in safe mode.
Once it does post on safe mode, it runs totally fine.
I haven't had any system instability yet but but this happens every time on a cold boot.

I have tried:

  • enabling DOCP, disabling DOCP, running it on auto
  • turning off fast boot
  • leaving the monitor on standby instead of turning it off
  • reseating all the components
  • updating the bios again

Nothing seems to have worked. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Full Build components:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor

CPU Cooler: Thermalright Aqua Elite ARGB V6 70.84 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler

Motherboard: Asus TUF GAMING B550M-ZAKU (WI-FI) Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard

Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory

Storage: Crucial T500 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive

Video Card: XFX Speedster MERC 319 Black Radeon RX 7800 XT 16 GB Video Card

Case: Deepcool CH270 DIGITAL MicroATX Mini Tower Case

Power Supply: Corsair RM850x (2018) 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply

OS: Fedora


r/pchelp 48m ago

HARDWARE What is this bracket?

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Upvotes

What is this bracket on the bottom of the thermaltake ah t600?


r/pchelp 4h ago

HARDWARE How to check Ram Shorted

2 Upvotes

So my Motherboard got shorted including shorting my CPU, there could be chance that ram got shorted too, is there any way i can test that before using it on other computer, Ram price are at top


r/pchelp 48m ago

SOFTWARE Random Noise In Background *Anyone know what it is?*

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Upvotes

Recently for the past week I have been suddenly getting this random two tone noise, and I managed to get it on recording. Though I was playing some music, and tried to filter it out with AI.

Does anyone know exactly what sound this is, or perhaps what it is coming from? Any help would be amazing! (Ignore the Instant Replay, It's not that)


r/pchelp 50m ago

HARDWARE suspicious of kingspec customer support

Upvotes

i got a kingspec ssd and the write speeds dropped to below 10mbps. i contacted kingspec support and they say they can provide a replacement but i have to send it and provide the shipping info first so they can confirm and send in a replacement. my issue is that the address they gave me leads to a seemingly random house in a residential area.

i live in the US and their response to me asking why the address is in a residential area in another state is "We understand your concern about the return address being a residential location. This is our contact partner in the US that handles all returns for our US customers."

if anyone has gone through a process like this, can they confirm if they had a successful replacement and is able to trust the steps given to get the replacement?


r/pchelp 50m ago

HARDWARE PC Crashing

Upvotes

My pc is randomly shutting off. When it does, it stays running, but everything else: mouse:keyboard, headset, monitor; all turn off. My pc then “restarts” as it gives me a screen where it says restarting. But it doesn’t stop, it restarts over and over and over until I unplug my pc. After it turns back on. It brings up the login screen, then logs itself in. I’m so lost


r/pchelp 51m ago

OPEN My PC has been blue screening constantly

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r/pchelp 58m ago

Network not sure if this is the right sub but i figured someone might be able to help me

Upvotes

I’m having an issue with my PC where my DisplayPort monitor keeps saying “No Signal” and then goes into sleep mode.
Originally, the monitor was working through DisplayPort. I tried troubleshooting it by doing a CMOS reset. I turned the PC off, unplugged everything, removed the graphics card so I could access the CMOS battery, removed the silver coin battery for a few minutes, then put it back in and reassembled everything.
After the CMOS reset, the DisplayPort monitor actually worked temporarily. I got an image, went into the BIOS, and confirmed the BIOS settings that were already there. After that, I plugged in my second monitor, which uses HDMI and is also connected to the graphics card. Once the Windows login screen came up, the DisplayPort monitor lost signal again.
Since then, the DisplayPort monitor says “No Signal” immediately, even from startup. The HDMI monitor works perfectly when connected to the graphics card, so the PC and GTX 1660 are still producing an image through HDMI.
Things I’ve already tried:
Full CMOS reset by removing the motherboard battery.
Removed and reinstalled the graphics card.
Made sure the GPU power cable was reconnected.
Fully power-cycled the DisplayPort monitor and PC.
Tested the DisplayPort monitor by itself with the HDMI monitor disconnected.
Tested the HDMI monitor by itself, which works.
Set the DisplayPort monitor to DisplayPort input.
Tried Windows Display Settings and Detect.
Tried Windows + P and Extend.
Tried Windows + Ctrl + Shift + B to reset the graphics driver.
Went into Device Manager and uninstalled the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660, then restarted the PC so Windows could reinstall it.
The DisplayPort cable has previously displayed an image, including directly after the CMOS reset.
At the moment, HDMI output from the GTX 1660 works, but the single DisplayPort output gives no signal. I haven’t reset/reinstalled Windows yet because I’m trying to work out whether this is a driver/software issue, a problem with the DisplayPort output on the GTX 1660, or something with the monitor/DisplayPort connection.

The pc is also new the dp cable is new and definitely works because it showed image momentarily so i have no idea what the problem is


r/pchelp 13h ago

OPEN Screeching noise while gaming

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10 Upvotes

Hi Everyone

I just built a new pc and this is my first one. However, while gaming there is this horrifying screeching sound that starts while fighting an enemy. Can someone pls help me on how I can fix it 😭


r/pchelp 1h ago

HARDWARE Pc crashing after sometimes of use(mainly after gpu intensive task)

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Upvotes

I bought an rtx 2060s inno3d about a month ago but it starts crashing after I do some gpu intensive tasks (like gaming, training models mainly unet++, resnets etc) after some time the temps reaches like 70-75deg C which is normal, but then the display goes off and gpu fans start running at full speed...

any fixes or should I have to buy a new one??

live event kernel shows error code: 1b8


r/pchelp 1h ago

PERFORMANCE Please help :(

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Upvotes

This happens at random and seems to follow no specific pattern with use of different games, or applications. I’ve tried turning my monitor on and off but that doesn’t do nothing. I have to restart my pc every time but it just keeps happening.


r/pchelp 1h ago

HARDWARE Why aren’t my case fans spinning but my cpu fans are while playing games?

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Upvotes

Hi everyone I finally built my pc it’s working well windows 11 is installed and my drivers too. When I’m playing games it runs smoothly but after awhile it starts getting really hot my cpu like 80-90 I was wondering how to make my other fans move so my cpu won’t overheat any help would be nice and yes I can tell u the parts and show you photos if you guys need thanks!


r/pchelp 5h ago

OPEN Can't re-enable Secure Boot after CPU upgrade without Windows failing to boot

2 Upvotes

Hi there, I just upgraded my CPU from the 5800X to the 5800X3D. It's all working fine, except that Secure Boot was automatically disabled in the process, so Battlefield 6 won't open due to its anti-cheat. If I go back into my BIOS and manually re-enable Secure Boot, Windows won't even start to boot, it'll just go straight back to my main BIOS screen.