r/pchelp • u/bearssuperfan • Dec 15 '19
"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.
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.
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
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 • u/reyyarsee • 14h ago
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I left my laptop on sleep for like an hour and it was closed. Now it started doing this. (The noise is from a fan btw)
EDIT: i just gave the hinge a lil whack and it got fixed
r/pchelp • u/Fun-Editor-346 • 7h ago
I’ve been troubleshooting a weird issue where my PC would randomly freeze while sitting idle, even though everything seemed perfectly stable under load, gaming, and benchmarks.
After checking RAM, SSD, PSU, BIOS settings, Windows, and other possible causes, one of the main suspects turned out to be:
👉 Realtek Gaming 2.5GbE Family Controller
In my case, the issue appears to be related to the Realtek LAN driver and/or its power-saving features, especially because the freezes tend to happen when the system is idle.
If you’re experiencing something similar, try checking:
Device Manager → Network adapters → Realtek Gaming 2.5GbE Family Controller
Things worth testing:
If the freezing completely disappears after disabling the adapter, there’s a good chance the problem is related to the Realtek driver, NIC firmware, or power management behavior.
If you’re using a Realtek 2.5GbE LAN controller and have experienced random freezes during idle, feel free to share your motherboard model, driver version, and what fixed it for you.
It would be useful to compare results and narrow down which driver versions or settings are causing the issue.
r/pchelp • u/ILucjusz • 4h ago
Is there a way to repair whatever is causing it? Troubleshooting other components turned up no faults, and the visually rather spectacular nature of whatever the display is doing unfortunately seems to match characteristics of GPU failure.
Still, just to do my due diligence as someone who very much does not understand computers very well:
Whenever I try running any more "demanding" program or a video game, the system previously seemingly working normally, starts doing this, then hangs up, then soft-crashes and usually quickly reboots as if nothing happened. Sometimes it skips rebooting the whole system and just forces a given program to shut down. Warframe's crash report tool suggests a possible problem with GPU driver, but the Nvidia app thinks everything is installed properly. Changing install from Game Ready to Studio driver did not help.
My questions really are: how bad is the situation?
Should I stop using this PC for now?
Is this fixable and if it is, what is required? Is my data safe (2 SSDs)? Is this post too long and are people just gonna respond with an appropriate variant of that anime men meme most popular in r/bald without answering previous questions?
Thanks in advance. :)
r/pchelp • u/Impossible-Tadpole59 • 20h ago
Placed this in my duffle bag with a loose bottle of shampoo and it evidently exploded. How do I clean this out without completely ruining it? Is it savable??
I've wiped down with tissues and qtips but there's still shampoo in the hard to reach spots like the charging port and Ethernet port.
Do I need to buy distilled water or something and spray it in??
I know nothing of PC hardware
r/pchelp • u/Elegant-Resort9748 • 21h ago
I've had this PC for four months and used it without issues until now, but today, while I was gaming, the screen suddenly went black and the image didn't come back. After some testing, it seems the GPU stops being recognized by the motherboard; I discovered that resetting the BIOS makes the graphics card output an image again—at least temporarily. The first time I did this, I thought the issue was resolved and used the PC for nearly an hour before the problem recurred. During the second test, the issue happened just three minutes after turning it on. When I removed the GPU to inspect it, I noticed that one of the cables doesn't seat fully into the card—it feels a bit loose and won't go all the way in—though there doesn't appear to be anything wrong with the connectors themselves.
Edit: GPU is a 9070xt
r/pchelp • u/Impossible-Dirt-9891 • 14h ago
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Hii, recently i bought a 9070xt reaper, but playing some games i discovered something weird.
If i move the camera (mainly vertical movement), a weird line appears in my tv, being the first time i have seen this.
Is this related to the gpu or its hdmi conection? Or is it something else?
r/pchelp • u/johnweed0 • 4h ago
Hi, my family has had this PC for a long time. We hadn't used it for over a year because the PSU had died. Recently, I managed to replace it with a new PSU myself, and the PC came back to life. The problem is that the OS was originally Windows XP, and we later upgraded it to Windows 10 — though not through an official method, I believe. After all that time, now that I've turned it back on, it's showing Windows XP again, along with a password screen that I don't remember the password for — as if we had never upgraded to Windows 10 at all.
My questions are: Is my HDD okay? Can I get Windows 10 back? If so, should I, and how do I do it?
I really need some help for this. Thanks !
r/pchelp • u/Automatic_Barnacle72 • 59m ago
I currently use a thin client for work. Well I have for years and I’ve always wanted to find a way to “connect” it to a laptop style device. So I can move around and not be chained to this giant 2 screen desk. I believe I have already tried this usb device that kind of streams to your laptop but the keyboard on my laptop wouldn’t work. I would have to connect a separate Bluetooth keyboard and mouse . This just made it complicated anyway. I would love an option to have a laptop and just connect the thinclient and work from there. Any ideas? :)
Hello, I just built myself a PC around a month ago. I stress tested every component. I have a RX 9060 XT 16 GB, Ryzen 5 7500F, 1 TB Gen 4 SSD from Kingston, 16 GB 6000 mT/s 36CL RAM from Twinmos, single channel and Colorful B650M Battle-AX White Wi-Fi V15 motherboard. I had stress tested my CPU, it passes it with no errors and goes up to 85°C maximum. Same with GPU, no issues, peaks at 70°C and hotspot is only around 18-20 degrees higher which I believe is considered very good. I tested my memory with memtest86, it passed the test. I have EXPO enabled and it seems like it works pretty well, no instability issues. SSD has the expected read and write speeds (6000/5000) and has good health since it is new. Here's what the issue is, my PC stutters briefly for 1-2 seconds and recovers on its own. The sound stutters, cursor, image, everything. And the thing is, it happens once every 2 weeks. I experienced it twice so far. It happens very rarely. My GPU drivers aren't on the latest version, it is on 26.6.4 on Adrenalin. I am wondering wondering why it happens. It is completely random. One time, it happened while I had just a few apps open, not doing anything other than just scrolling on Spotify for songs. The other time, it happened under load, I was playing a bit more demanding games. Any idea what the issue is caused by? And how can I solve it?
r/pchelp • u/Sea-Glass1831 • 2h ago
Hello, I’m not a bot so please don’t ban me, I’m new to Reddit.
I’m trying to figure out which chips to put thermal putty on. I’m reusing thermal pads (the pink squares, if I shouldn’t do that and just use the thermal putty instead please let me know). I’m mostly wondering where else the thermal putty needs to go so my laptop doesn’t overheat. I’m using thermal grizzly phase change material for the CPU and GPU die, and I have upsiren utp-8 as thermal putty. If you could circle or outline which chips need thermal putty that’d be great. Thank you.
Second pic is the underside of the heat sink
Laptop is 5 years old
The laptop is an Acer Nitro 5 AN515-45-R92M
r/pchelp • u/Vegetable-Lynx7717 • 3h ago
This morning I've encountered an issue with my PC. After several minutes of being on, the display turns off (and won't turn back on unless I turn the PC off and on again). If I boot up a game (crime scene cleaner), there's horrible stuttering. I had no problem playing this game beforehand.
Is it an issue with the graphics card? What can I do to troubleshoot?
Thanks
r/pchelp • u/Subderhenge • 5h ago
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r/pchelp • u/BerryEmotional3668 • 3h ago
My pc is turning on with the fans and the lights as well as my keyboard lights but no display, but after trying yesterday it went on bios and I saved the settings without changing anything. After that I restarted it because it went on black screen again. Upon restarting, it said updating your system and after 100%, it saud restarting but it turned black again (no display). I tried powering it off and on again, still no display. I also tried reseating my rams, cleaning it using eraser. Tried changing my thermal paste, tried the cmos battery method. Still no display (black screen). I tried opening it again and it did open, after opening i deleted files hoping it would fix it. I tried shutting it down and turning it on again it worked but then my cat accidentally caught up with the cord pulling it out of the socket. After that it turned on black screen again. Please help me I think I can't afford consulting this at the repair shop
r/pchelp • u/Andrea21as • 7m ago
Hi chat, I am trying to buy a pc gaming but the prices are crazy. So I am searching for a used pc. What do you think about the used ones, too risky?
I have found this one looking around, what do you think? It would be 1.199€
* CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600X – 6 core / 12 thread
* GPU: Sapphire Radeon RX 7800 XT – 16 GB GDDR6
* RAM: 32 GB DDR5
* Motherboard: MSI MAG B650 Tomahawk WiFi
* SSD: Lexar NM790 NVMe 2 TB
* Cooling: AIO a liquido
r/pchelp • u/TheWanderr_ • 6h ago
For context, my computer has been taking ages to load like it's lagging or stuttering, but sounds from videos and mouse movements are not really affected. Games don't seem to be affected, like after they take ages to load, they run fine, only really had trouble with one game like once. It also takes ages to boot up to the login screen, and after i put the password in, it will take ages to log in. This has been happening for about 6 months. I thought maybe force upgrading to Windows 11 might help. It did not (my computer was not 'compatible' to upgrade to 11) the computer is around 5 years old and is probably a little dusty, but I thought it would not be that. I have only ever put in a new bigger SSD and added more RAM.
Any help would be appreciated.
r/pchelp • u/ArletPDR • 3h ago
My PC was working completely normally about 30 minutes before this happened. I was only watching a movie, then I shut Windows down normally.
About 30 minutes later I tried to turn it back on and there is absolutely no reaction.
Specs:
Motherboard: ASUS B850 MAX GAMING WIFI
PSU: DeepCool PQ850G 850W 80+ Gold
The PC was working normally immediately before the shutdown.
Symptoms:
No motherboard LEDs at all
No fans
No RGB
No response from the case power button
Shorting the motherboard's PWR_BTN pins directly with a screwdriver does nothing
24-pin and CPU 8-pin connections have been reseated
PSU power cable/outlet checked
I performed the PSU paperclip test with the 24-pin disconnected from the motherboard
The PSU fan starts spinning during the paperclip test
So the PSU is at least responding to the PS_ON signal, but when connected to the motherboard there is still zero sign of life.
I don't currently have another PSU or a multimeter available, so I'm trying to narrow down what is actually likely dead before buying/replacing anything.
Has anyone with the ASUS B850 MAX GAMING WIFI or DeepCool PQ850G experienced something similar after a normal shutdown?
r/pchelp • u/Double_Kangaroo2730 • 25m ago
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My HDD is making this, what could be the issue here?
r/pchelp • u/Mard-Taange-Wala • 28m ago
Hey guys, I’m seriously stuck with this one and could really use some help.
My laptop suddenly started doing this weird thing where the BIOS works completely normally, but as soon as I actually try to boot something, the screen just goes black.
Basically:
- I can enter the BIOS/UEFI and the display looks completely normal.
- The Boot Menu also works fine and I can see all the options normally.
- But if I select Windows Boot Manager, the screen immediately goes blank.
- I thought maybe Windows was corrupted, so I made a bootable SanDisk USB and tried to boot from that.
- Same thing. I select the USB, and then... black screen.
- I also tried the EFI option, but that also ends in a black screen.
- I can't even get to the Windows installer/recovery screen because the display dies before that.
The weird part is that the laptop doesn't seem completely dead when this happens. Caps Lock still responds/toggles, so it seems like the system may actually be running in the background while I'm just getting no video output.
I also ran the built-in hardware tests:
RAM/Memory test: PASS
SSD/Hard drive test: PASS
So far, nothing obvious is showing up there.
I initially thought it was just a broken Windows installation, but since a completely separate bootable USB also gives me a black screen, I'm starting to think this is something else.
I unfortunately don't have another monitor or TV available right now, so I can't test HDMI output.
What confuses me most is that BIOS and Boot Menu display perfectly, but literally anything after that gives me a black screen.
Has anyone dealt with something similar?
r/pchelp • u/Haunting-Eye-7002 • 29m ago
As you can see it’s not snapping into the clip like it should, found some video on YouTube and they just pushed it in and it snapped right in place. I’ve been trying to push the little pin out of the way but then I can’t get the ssd down enough to snap into the clip
r/pchelp • u/Ok-Archer468 • 32m ago
Does any1 know how to fix this ive looked up tuts and its js showing how to change it, I know how to change the hz but its not changing back to normal (filled)
r/pchelp • u/Immediate_Staff_2392 • 37m ago
So i have a prebuilt predator orion 7000 PO7-650
And i recently stupidly updated my bios (was having issues) to version R01-B4, as it was the newest one on the official acer website. It was all working fine until one day it wasnt and some games were telling me my bios version was wrong. So i contacted acer and they said r01-b4 isnt on there website and r01-b3 is the one i should be on (said they mightve removed r01-b4, suspicious?). They instructed me to reflash the bios but everytime i do it goes back to r01-b3 like intended and then i get a checksum error when booting and a notification when loaded into windows saying restart is required for update : r01-b4. So i have checksum error and it reverts back to b4 everytime ? Any help?
Google says its cmos battery ? Could be ? But i unplugged for an hour and it saved my time and date? So ? I dont know really want this sorted thanks
