Help! My PC won't boot!

[Howard Alan Treesong]

So I was firing up WoW last night when my computer froze. I CTRL-ALT-DEL'd into Task Manager, which came up, but then also froze. I powered my PC off and turned it back on.

When I turned it back on, the PC failed to boot, the POST codes went all wonky into something not in the book (AWARD bios on an ABIT KV8 PRO), and a two-tone police siren played out of the PC speaker. Online research suggests this is "generally caused by overheating or out of specification voltages." All fans are running properly on bootup (to my eyes).

When I tried again this morning, I got into CMOS failsafe mode and could at least display/enter the BIOS, but couldn't get out of that at all; i.e., it went into failsafe mode everytime I rebooted.

I am trying to avoid rebuying a machine until Intel's price cuts later this year (not sure exactly when). I have a laptop I can at least use for email in the meantime, sucky as it is.

My questions are:

1) What's broken? My PSU, my mobo, my processor, my fans, or some combination of and/or all of the above?
2) Is there any sort of mobo/processor replacement I could get that could let me use my existing RAM/videocard now, and upgrade those in the fall? I'm expecting to have to go Intel, probably dual core.
3) Why me.

[demi]

Karma for bashing the 360, OWNED

[Howard Alan Treesong]

But I didn't make fun of the 360's incredibly shitty build quality at all! Even though I get hell of DREs during games and fully expect to red-ring out during Mass Effect.

[tiesto]

My brother was running into a problem similar to this in his laptop, overheating issues, like, the OS wouldn't activate the fan upon startup, or something like that. One of the recommendations was to get rid of dust in the machine, it didn't work for him but its worth a shot I guess.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

Yeah, I'm good about de-dusting my machine and I re-aired it last night after this. No dice.

[ananus]

i remember having similar problems with an old computer. it ended up having both the motherboard and cpu fried. ;(

however, i managed to get it to boot before that by changing the cpu frequency in the bios. it had 3: the higest was the default, but with that it just wouldn't turn on. with the middle one it'd do it occasionally and with the lowest it always worked.

[The Fake Shemp]

Here's a three step solution.

STEP 1. Open PC box!
STEP 2. REMOVE ALL THE PARTS.
STEP 3. PUT IN NEW ONES!

That's the best way to solve your problems

[bluemax]

Well you still have video, so that is good. Does it try to boot the OS? Or does it only get to the POST screen? Are there any errors on the POST screen? In the BIOS does it show your HDD as being there?

If the HDD is still showing but it doesn't try booting the OS could be a mobo or RAM problem.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

Well you still have video, so that is good. Does it try to boot the OS? Or does it only get to the POST screen? Are there any errors on the POST screen? In the BIOS does it show your HDD as being there?

If the HDD is still showing but it doesn't try booting the OS could be a mobo or RAM problem.

It doesn't go to the OS. Last night it wasn't even making it to the POST screen or displaying video.

The error I got was something like "CMOS fail-safe mode enacted."

BIOS still sees my HDDs. I think the RAM is okay, but I can't run any RAM tests cause it won't go past the POST screen.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

I'm okay with buying new parts, if I have to, but is there anyway to determine if my PSU went bad? I'd hate to buy a brand new machine and fry it inside 6 seconds cause it was my PSU, not my mobo, that's busted.

[Scurvy Stan]

It's jesus telling you to go outside and get some fresh air.

[bluemax]

There probably is a way to tell if the PSU is bad but I don't know any off the top of my head, google?

PSU or mobo are your best bets at this point, everything else sounds ok.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

I found a PSU tester for $19 at Fry's. I got that to test tonight. If the PSU is borked I'll get a new PSU. If the PSU is fine I'll get a new mobo/processor (+ RAM/video card, at this point). Expect another thread if we go down that path.

[TVC15]

The Intel price cuts happen on July 22nd, if it comes down to waiting for that.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

The Intel price cuts happen on July 22nd, if it comes down to waiting for that.

It would suck, but I have all my data and a decent laptop for music/e-mail.

I'd just miss out on all that holly jolly Warcraft...well, I COULD run it on my laptop but zomg 15 fps.

[Van Cruncheon]

PSU or mobo. Or both, given that PSU failure usually predicates mobo failure. :'(

[Howard Alan Treesong]

A hard reset of my CMOS jumper brought me back to the land of the living, at least temporarily. July 22 can't come soon enough!

[CajoleJuice]

The Intel price cuts happen on July 22nd, if it comes down to waiting for that.

*marks date on calendar*

[Scurvy Stan]

OMG HOW WILL I PLAY WOW!!!!!!