I'm really sick of my PC and I'd love to throw it off the 5th floor but unfortunately I don't have this luxury right now.
The issues started when I moved to a new house about 2 months ago. I didn't have this problem before.
Case: Arctic Cooling Silentium T1 with embedded Fusion 550 Eco 80 PSU.
M/B: ASRock A790GMH/128M
Gfx: ATI Radeon HD 5770
Here's what's happening almost on a daily basis:
I wake up in the morning, switch on the PC and all the fans start spinning. 9/10 the graphics fan stays on 100% and I know it won't post. If I'm lucky, ATI's fan stays on full power for a second, then goes back to normal and I get a normal post but that doesn't happen often.
No, instead it's just drives me crazy. When I get no POST I'm trying a lot of different things and what bothers me the most is that they all work. But not always. No... That way I could find out what the hell is going on and we don't want that.. right?
So, sometimes it manages to POST if I:
- remove the keyboard
- remove the power cable for a few minutes
- remove the graphics card
- remove the HDD cables
- do nothing, just turn it on and off a few times
Sometimes it doesn't POST even if I do all of the above. And I end up removing all power cables from the M/B, and connecting all the stuff one by one. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't and I just have to pray and wait.
What is that? The only solution is to leave it on 24/7 but I don't want to do that. It should be able to turn on and off when I press the power button. I'm not asking much.
I'm starting to think there's some weird electricity/power issue but I really don't understand what it is. There's no logical explanation about it. At least I can't find one.
Any ideas?
UPDATE 1
I left it off for more than 3 hours today and when I switched it back on it wouldn't POST again.
- Moved the power cable to a different plug, switched on, nothing.
- Removed the power cable from the graphics card. Nothing.
- Removed the power cable from the HDD. Nothing.
- Removed the SATA cable from the HDD. POST!
It looks like when I leave the PC off for a few hours it gets 'stuck'. I'm 99% sure I've tried the above steps before with no results but this time it got 'unstuck'. I'll switch it off again for a few hours tonight and see how it goes. At least I'd like to be able to recreate the behavior. That'd be a step closer to a solution.
UPDATE 2 (DAY 2)
Based on yesterday's behavior I expected this morning to do the same and get a POST. But no. That'd be boring and rational. Let's not make any sense for another day.
- Turned on. Nothing
- Removed only HDD SATA from HDD. Turned on. Nothing.
- Removed power cable from PCI-E card. Turned on. Nothing.
- Re-attached power to PCI-E. Turned on. Nothing.
- Switched on/off a couple more times. Nothing.
- Removed SATA cable from m/b. Turned on. Nothing.
- Removed PCI-E graphics card from M/B and moved HDMI cable to onboard card. Turned on. Nothing.
- Removed power cord. 60" wait. Plugged in. Turned on. Nothing. (Yes, I did all previous steps without removing the power cord).
- Removed power cord. Removed CMOS battery for 60". Turned on. Nothing!! (I was hoping this would work!)
- Removed power cord. Moved the 2 DIMMS to the next 2 slots. Turned on. POST !!!!
Took me 9 steps to get a POST today as opposed to 4 yesterday.
I could assume it's something to do with the memory now but yesterday I got it to post without touching the RAM. How do you explain that? I'll leave it off for an hour and I'm 99% sure it won't POST again. And if it does, tomorrow morning I'm 100% sure it won't.
It might be that when I placed the PC on its side to change the DIMMs (because for all previous steps it was just standing) something moved/changed/happened. But what?
UPDATE 3 (DAY 2 - Attempt 2)
An hour later it POSTs ok. Still have it on its side. I'm out for a few more hours. Will try later on.
UPDATE 4 (DAY 2 - Attempt 3)
3.5 hours later. PC still lying on its side. POSTs ok! Next test tomorrow morning.
UPDATE 5 (DAY 3 - Attempt 1)
Good morning everyone. PC still lying on its side (mobo on the bottom facing upwards). POSTS ok! I'm really glad it works, I have no idea why it does. Might be the fact that I switched the RAM for the first time, might be that I moved it on its side. I don't think it's fixed but I'll put the cover back, stand it up and will check again later or tomorrow.
UPDATE 6 (DAY 6)
It's been 3 days now and haven't had a single POST issue. I've put everything back together and placed it back into standing position. I've been switching it off every night and it boots up properly every morning.
I have no idea what happened but I'm glad it works. I don't think it's completely over though.
I'm accepting pjc50's answer since it seems like the most reasonable explanation and after reseating the RAM I haven't had any issues. Thanks for all the suggestions and support.