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System died.

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zzyzax's Avatar
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Join Date: Aug 2009
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07-Aug-2009, 10:43 PM #1
System died.
My system died, suddenly stopped working. Both of my monitors went black, as if they were getting no signal. System powered up on reboot, all fans working, but no post. The indicator lights on my DVD-ROM, case, and card reader all blink, fast and in unison. Also, I hear no HDD clicks. My monitors work - can pull up their built in menu's

I swapped out the video card and no change.

1. Could the power supply not be producing enough watts to power system?
2. Or do I have a motherboard issue?

Any help would be appreciated.
ruggb's Avatar
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07-Aug-2009, 10:58 PM #2
if u have no POST, IE the keyboard lights don't blink and there is no HD activity. my fist guess is a CPU failure.

It could be power, but if ur lights on ur optical drives are flashing I suspect power is OK.

If u have a meter u can verify them, but as I said, the drives will do their own POST independent of the system as long as there is power. That seems to be happening by what u say. If the CPU is dead nothing else will happen, no POST, no kbd lights, no hard drive activity - except for its initial self test.

if none of the drives do a self test as soon as u power up, then the 12v might be out because the 5v powers the lights on them.

A CPU failure might be caused by a heat sink failure, but it should attempt to start when it is cold if that were the case.

good luck
sickcars's Avatar
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07-Aug-2009, 11:07 PM #3
My first guess would be a Motherboard issue without seeing the system.

What you can try is unplug everything thats not needed ie, hdd/extra ram/pci cards/cd-roms etc and see if it boots if it does then you know its 1 of those parts that are bad and just 1 by one plug them back in until you find the one with the issue.

Also if you have onboard video remove any video card you may have in there. You could also reset the Bios by removing the cmos battery off the MB for 5-10min
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zzyzax's Avatar
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08-Aug-2009, 08:48 PM #4
Problem Found
Thanks for your advice.

I unplugged all peripherals, unplugged and allowed the psu to "reboot," plugged the psu back in and the system posted fine, I then began to plug the peripherals in one at a time and found the problem. One of the HDD in my RAID 0 array had died. I removed it from the system and everything ran fine.

Thanks for your help.
sickcars's Avatar
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08-Aug-2009, 09:12 PM #5
Great news
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