[PC not powering up after reformat]

OK, I've been having spyware issues for the past few days so I decided to boot in safe mode and to run Spybot S&D. I did so, if found some, fixed it. Then I formatted one of my secondary drives. I used the power pbuton to restart the computer, now it won't come on at all. I have read similair posts on some forums, including this one with no resolution. My specs are as follows:
ASUS A8N-SLI Delux mobo
Athlon 64 X2 4800+
3 gigs od OCZ DDR RAM
2 Internal Western Digital drives, one is EIDE the other is SATA
1 External Seagate HD
Radeon 512meg X1800 video card
Soundblaster Audigy X-Fi Platinum sound card
WindowsXP Home SP2

Here is what I've tried:
I re-seated all RAM and PCI cards (no luck)
I unplugged all the cards ,RAM, and harddrives one by one (no luck)
Reset CMOS by removing the battery (no luck)
Shorted the power switch jumper (no luck)
The only thing working is the green LED near the CMOS battery. It stays on unless I unplug the power supply. This system is less than 6 months old, so I am tearing my hair out!!! Any help would be VERY appreciated! TIA

 

Hey Nook

Welcome to the best The Windows BBS. I'm a poet and don't know it!

Did you mean to say it will not POWER on??

OK we need more info than that.

Does the CPU (fan sounds etc) sound normal?

When it is off and then turned on do you see anything on the monitor?

Hear any beeps?

Let us know what you hear and see.

Are there floppy disks or CD's in any drives?

Hope you meant that when you used the button to turn it off, that power managment was set to do a normal system shutdown.

That you just didn't power off??????

With all the reseating shorting etc you mention you sound then like you are experienced, but your description above with no specifics indicate no.

On the back of the computer at the power supply fan is a second power switch make sure it is on. Also a voltage selector that should be on 115/120 make sure.

Another thing is sometimes the power or reset button will stick in causing it to not power on.

You can test this sometimes by push in the buttons quickly and let them pop out. Hope you know what I mean.

Get back to us with more details.

Mike

 

Yeah Nook

What about this formating?

You said secondary drives.

Did you mean a second physical drive or a partition on a single drive?

Mike

 

Seems that it does not do anything apart from the mobo LED.

Check the power. You have a lot of power hungry accessories. Disconnect any items you don't need for startup. Can you borrow a (powerful) PSU to try? [I've been having similar problems when I used a PSU from one machine to test another, when I replaced it back to the original machine there was no start. I had connected the power of the floppy drive off by one set of pins.]

There are not many things you can do if the fans won't start apart from going back to basic items. Look in the motherboard manual for how to clear the CMOS (note if it says to disconnect all power). If the method is to remove the battery, leave it out for several hours.

Matt

 

Nook

The first thing that seems a bit odd is your 3 gigs of memory. Since you have a dual channel Mobo, I would ask how you have populated your memory slots and what kind of memory you have put in each? I like OCZ, what are the timings on each of your sticks? We may want to make some changes here before heading to the next paragraph but I'll spell it all out anyway.

Secondly, I would like you to disconnect any external devices or peripherals including the external drive you referenced. Now, as to clearing your BIOS, first pull the power plug from your machine. Then one can disconnect the 20 or 24 pin power connector at the motherboard and remove the CMOS Jumper from 1&2, placing it on 2&3 for 10-15 seconds and then rejumpering back to 1&2 followed by reconnecting the ATX power header. When you fire back up, head into the BIOS (tap the del Key constantly) and after setting your clock, set the BIOS to default settings and F10 out. Now what happens?

 

OK, I replaced the PSU and it's posting, but now it's saying "Error Loading OS" I have no problem with formatting if thats what I need to do. I DID flash the CMOS by removing the battery, so is there maybe something I need to reset in the BIOS? Or will I have to reformat? Thanks for all the responses, you guys rule!!! As far as the formatting goes, it was a secondary partition on my primary drive.

 

No don't jump the gun yet and reformat. You may have already done that any ways.

All we are going to do is determine if you have an available drive and if a windows installation is on it.

Carefully: Do this and stop exactly where I say and report back.

Boot from the windows install cd.

It will offer to let you repair by using "Repair console" . Select that.

It will then show you an existing windows installation to log into.

Select that.

It will want the Administrator password. Enter it!

You will end up at a prompt. This could be the CD drive letter if so

Type c: and hit enter.

then type cd\windows and hit enter

If you arrive at this location you have confirmed that you do in fact have a C: drive and that it does have an existing windows installation.

But I belive you formated the wrong drive. So it won't be there.

If it is there then just power off the system, let us know what happend and if it was there, we will walk you thru a overlay/repair install that will keep all you system and data.

Now if on the other hand if you can not get to Repair Console or or you do, and there is no C: then turn it off also here and get back to us.

Mike

 

Nook

Follow what Mike has posted first and lets see where this goes. Just report back with the best information you can provide when you get around to it.

As to your question re: the BIOS - generally speaking, anytime one clears CMOS (flash was your terminology and you didn't flash the BIOS), one will need to reset their BIOS. Some boards will not boot until this is done, some require the first reset is "optimal" - (DFI), and others aren't to finicky. Your board has to be reset to properly configure boot drives (among several other things) as the default is IDE 0, drive 0. Said differently, thats primary master. You can follow your motherboard manual for basic BIOS settings but follow Mike's instructions first.

I'll continue to follow this thread.

 

well, I was going to format anyhoo, that is what I was getting my computer ready for anyways. So I did so and it's running fine now. I really appreciate all the help you guys gave me. I will DEFINITELY come to this forum with any further questions. Over the years I've visited a good many PC help forums and this is BY FAR the best I've ever visited! Thanks!!!!

 

Great if you are happy we are happy.

And yes you came to the best "The WindowsBBS "!

Mike