PC powers on, doesn't "post"

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Big Boss Man
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PC powers on, doesn't "post"

Post by Big Boss Man »

Weird error I have encountered. Turned the PC on, it said "no signal" on monitor and didn't post. Seems to be no HDD activity at all. Tried it about six times, changed CMOS battery, tried another monitor, keyboard doesn't show any lights (tried another keyboard too, same issue), mouse lights up but again can see no cursor as nothing appears. Not even the command prompt.

Can't get into BIOS either as it doesn't even show up. Unplugged HDD to see if any message would come up on screen, made no difference. It was Windows 7 updated to 10 and worked fine previously. The PC has the power light on so I assume its not the PSU.

Anyone got any ideas/fixes?. Thanks

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melancholy
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Re: PC powers on, doesn't "post"

Post by melancholy »

Try reseating all the RAM sticks. Or take all but one of them out. If that doesn’t work, then it’s probably not good news for the motherboard.

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ian
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Re: PC powers on, doesn't "post"

Post by ian »

Motherboard graphics or discrete GPU?

I’d try a different video card if possible. If no output at all, then try Mels suggestion, be sure to try each single stick you have in each slot, failing that try a different psu. After all that, then you’re looking at serious mobo problems.

What motherboard is it?
Windows 10 updates did some similar shit to my computers (yes, more than one) recently. AMD was an easy fix, I had to power cycle my intel board a few times.
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Big Boss Man
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Re: PC powers on, doesn't "post"

Post by Big Boss Man »

Many thanks Mel and Ian. Tried the CMOS battery again (left the battery out for about 2-3 minutes then put it back in). Did the RAM check, took one RAM stick out first to test, left it out for a minute or so too, put it back in, put everything back together and... it worked!!. Booted to a command prompt type screen saying to go to BIOS and alter settings etc. Changed date and time etc and it booted into Windows 10. Added the other RAM stick back and that worked too so I assume the CMOS battery was the issue. Thanks again for the tips and advice, much appreciated!

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melancholy
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Re: PC powers on, doesn't "post"

Post by melancholy »

If this ever happens again at some point, when you take the CMOS out hold down the power button afterwards. It will drain the residual power out of the board faster.

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Big Boss Man
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Re: PC powers on, doesn't "post"

Post by Big Boss Man »

Thanks Mel. I forgot to mention I also held the power button on the computer in for thirty seconds as I read it drains any power that is within the system. When the PC powered on, the power button lit up on its own too, where usually you have to press the power button in for it to light up and power on. I've no idea what caused the issue(s), but I'm glad its back to normal & working now. Also the HDD health is at 100% so I'm assuming it wasn't a HDD issue.

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