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Im not sure if this is the right forum to post this in so please forgive me if its not.
I recently built a new computer and it had been working perfectly for several weeks until one day when I got home from work it was turned off but was doing something strange. all the fans in it would rev and the mobo lights would come on like it was trying to start up but it wouldnt. Every three seconds the fans would rev up for about one second and then it would die again. and like I said, every three seconds it would do this, like it was trying to turn on.

I have no clue what could be wrong so I was just seeing if anyone on here could point me in the right directions

I had something like this happen to me. I think it was the PSU. Can you try a known good one?

My dad's computer did this for a while and one of the DIMM slots on the motherboard was bad. Luckily he had just bought the thing.

I would recommend testing by removing all but one RAM module.

Boot loop. I would first try resetting the CMOS. Then test RAM

ok thanks, I tested the removed all but one ram but that didnt do anything, im going to reset cmos now and if that doesnt work i have another power supply i can try but my only concern is that the other psu i have isnt high enough wattage. the psu i have now is 550 watts and the other one i have is much lower, im not sure exactly how low though

If you are worried about wattage, boot without any PCI cards.

Edit: power supply swapping is not fun. I'd wait to hear if anyone else has more advice before doing it.

ok, the more ive been reading about it the more i think its a boot loop problem. How would i go about fixing this, and reseting the cmoc etc.?

I reset cmos and that did nothing. i also tested the ram and it is good, any other suggestions?

I will add though, i was messing around with it a minute ago and the weirdest thing happened, i got the mother board to power up and stay powered on, the leds and fans were working etc, but the gpu fan was not spinning and neither was the cpu fan.

Is the motherboard still under manufacturer's warranty?

no, i bought the mobo from gigaparts, they were selling it as "refurbished" but it was practically new and was wrapped in factory plastic, the guy told me someone had returned it but they couldnt sell it as new. its a gigabyte ga-z68xp-ud4 mobo.

is the CPU fan plugged in? power plugged into GPU ? are you getting any beeps ?

everything is plugged in correctly, i triple checked everything, and i am getting no beeps

When you reset the CMOS, did you get a "CMOS reset, press F__ to enter setup or ____ to accept defaults" message? Just checking. That's what you should be greeted with on first startup after resetting the CMOS.

don't you also have to wait like 10 minutes while resetting the CMOS ?

yes i waited. and no, i didnt get a messge. the system wont turn on at all so i wouldnt be able to get a message...

hunterwhitener wrote:

yes i waited. and no, i didnt get a messge. the system wont turn on at all so i wouldnt be able to get a message...

(palm -> face) I feel like an idiot.

I had a similar problem about a year ago with my PC. Got me puzzled for a while because the fans kept kicking in for a brief second or two then seemingly restarting in a loop. I realized that I hadn't plugged either the power cable to the GPU or CPU, can't quite remember which it was. As soon as I fitted that in it booted up perfectly fine.

I'm suspecting PSU, CPU, or mobo as primary. What I would do if I were in your case is reset the CMOS as a few have suggested. Failing that I'd basically disconnect all the cables (both power and data) to the optical drives, spare HDDs (or all in fact), PCI cards, USB peripherals, extra fans, etc. Basically strip it down to a bare system so you can rule out most things. Then try playing with the combination of PSU, mobo, CPU, GPU, KB+Mouse.

Let us know how you go with that.

kikib wrote:

I'm suspecting PSU, CPU, or mobo as primary. What I would do if I were in your case is reset the CMOS as a few have suggested. Failing that I'd basically disconnect all the cables (both power and data) to the optical drives, spare HDDs (or all in fact), PCI cards, USB peripherals, extra fans, etc. Basically strip it down to a bare system so you can rule out most things. Then try playing with the combination of PSU, mobo, CPU, GPU, KB+Mouse.

I would even take that one step further. Remove it from the case and set it on top of the motherboard box. That will help you rule out the possibility that you're grounding out to a mis-placed motherboard mounting post.

Yep, box-top build time.

You could always have the stunning combo I had which was a blown PC speaker (How the hell does one blow a PC speaker?) and a crashed monitor (I had to unplug the monitor from the outlet to fix.) But I doubt it.

My Johnson wrote:

You could always have the stunning combo I had which was a blown PC speaker (How the hell does one blow a PC speaker?)

Plugging the speaker cable into a USB header by mistake might do it. That would put 5VDC directly across the voice coil, which is probably enough to fry a small speaker if left connected for more than a few seconds.

Try different RAM if you have any.

Also, just as an aside, this wouldn't happen to be a Gigabyte board would it?

+1 for the box-top build.
Whip that board out set it on something non-conductive. If it has on-board video, leave the video card out too.
All you want is 1 DIMM, CPU and heatsink with fan plugged in, and a known working PSU with the ATX connector and the 4 pin CPU power plugged in too.
Might sound like a PITA but honestly doesn't take more that 15 minutes or so.

My guess would be a faulty mobo going by my experience and that it's already been returned by someone before.

My p67 gigabyte board id the exact same thing, the boot loop. Remove the cmos battery and power cord from the PSU...then try turning the computer on to discharge the PSU's capaciters..then i put the jumper for clearing the cmos on for 5 minutes.

Then put battery back in remove cmos jumper and connect power cable to psu and give it a shot. It would do this occasionally until i upgraded my bios to f8,
Gluck

My current Gigabyte board still boot loops randomly. The only solution is to switch off my PSU, try to power it on, turn the PSU back on, and cross my fingers.

Repeat until it boots.

Might be a long shot but make sure there is nothing making contact from the motherboard to the case aside from the normal motherboard grounding points. It could be the PSU's protection circuitry kicking in to prevent damage to the motherboard if anything is shorting out.

Phaydren wrote:

Might be a long shot but make sure there is nothing making contact from the motherboard to the case aside from the normal motherboard grounding points. It could be the PSU's protection circuitry kicking in to prevent damage to the motherboard if anything is shorting out.

Hence the recommendation of the box-top build.