Computer booting issues

[Englander]

Hi all

a couple of days ago, I rebuilt my pc into my new case and watercooled it - now I'm having trouble booting up! It was actually all running stable up to yesterday evening and there is no sign of water damage (spent hours leak testing and bleeding the loop).

What actually happens is the computer starts booting and then just freezes up. I've noticed that there is a strong correlation between the time the pc is off and the time that th computer will next stay on. A fairly immediate off and on results in not even getting any visual output. After leaving it off at the PSU last night, though, this morning it booted to desktop and I was able to get about as far as logging into Steam.

So far I've unsuccessfully tried running without the graphics cards and without the RAM. I would reset the CMOS but the battery is covered by the second GPU and the GPU is blocked in by the water cooling tube.

My system is over to the left, only addittion is SLI 8800gt which I was gaming with on Thursday evening.

Just ask for any more details.

My current thought is that by process of elimination, either the cpu or mobo is at fault. For the record, I have overclocked before and the rig is pretty close to its second birthday.

Thanks,
Michael

(apologies for any typos - I'm on my phone!)

[switchmode]

Just a thort but if its takes longer to lockup from cold, it sounds like a heat problem. You may have un-stuck some of the thermal compound on a motherboard heatsink, not sure what you have on your board, when you did your rebuild. It might be worth re mounting the other heatsinks. Its just a guess. It could be a power lead warming up and loosening on the pins but not as probable as the heatsinks on the MB.

[Englander]

Just a thort but if its takes longer to lockup from cold, it sounds like a heat problem. You may have un-stuck some of the thermal compound on a motherboard heatsink, not sure what you have on your board, when you did your rebuild. It might be worth re mounting the other heatsinks. Its just a guess. It could be a power lead warming up and loosening on the pins but not as probable as the heatsinks on the MB.

All the heatsinks seem fine on inspection and this morning the mouse light didn't come on at all. It just about managed to get to the big logo screen with press del to enter bios etc.

Any other thoughts, anyone? Or is it time for an upgrade?

EDIT: it may also be worth mentioning that the mobo stopped beeping when turning on a couple of days ago but seemed to function as normal, so I ignored it. However, when troubleshooting, I forget to plug the power back into the graphics card and it did choose to go beeeeeeeeep - so the little speaker is at least working, just not at startup.

[Queelis]

Did you check for any blown capacitors on the mobo? Other than that, I'd agree that it's either the mobo or the PSU, if it can't even get to BIOS.

[Englander]

Checked for blown caps and they all seem fine (checked them on graphics card too when putting water block on)

[switchmode]

It was just an idea as you had been disturbing things with the rebuild. If the MB is older you may have dried up Capacitors as mentioned, failure is not always visible as well. Upgrade, well it's a good excuse

Check out the PSU voltages or better get a new one for the "Upgrade" even better just in case it was the PSU that damaged the Mother Board ( It would be a shame to cook a new board ) Its hard to know if you are getting reliable good power to your system. Then again it could just be a bad Processor / Motherboard / PSU / RAM module and almost anything else its very hard to diagnose.

Good luck.

PS Your PSU looks a bit low power for an overclock and two GPU cards it may have had a hard life and is now causing problems, just another .. thort....

[Fishpan]

All the heatsinks seem fine on inspection and this morning the mouse light didn't come on at all. It just about managed to get to the big logo screen with press del to enter bios etc.

Any other thoughts, anyone? Or is it time for an upgrade?

EDIT: it may also be worth mentioning that the mobo stopped beeping when turning on a couple of days ago but seemed to function as normal, so I ignored it. However, when troubleshooting, I forget to plug the power back into the graphics card and it did choose to go beeeeeeeeep - so the little speaker is at least working, just not at startup.

The speaker is the 8800gt one i think, not the motherboard based buzzer. If you don't plug in the 6 pin power adapter into the card, it'll beep on the card itself. Just thought I might clarify a few things up. (also i think the well baked 2nd 8800gt may have had a slight effect ;P)

[kmac]

I know this is a lot of work, but try revert to your old set-up and test with just the CPU and one stick of RAM, then add components one at a time to eliminate them.