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Why Did It DIE?... PC Tech - Part 30... Trying to Revive a Dead PC. (1 of 2) by techmojo

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Why Did It DIE?... PC Tech - Part 30... Trying to Revive a Dead PC. (1 of 2)
# When your PC suddenly dies, it can be the most frustrating thing to deal with.
![Screenshot_1-3-800x618.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQme6yoScgXy9c8QNVXuMvXX7sqG7sihEcXL17CXnHTgsrR/Screenshot_1-3-800x618.jpg)
##### Today a good friend of mine brought his PC to me as he was having some very unusual problems with it. Originally he thought that the secondary hard drive he uses specifically for storage was causing the PC to not boot into the OS (Operating System) drive, and unable to turn his computer on with the storage drive plugged in, he brought the computer to me to have a look at.

##### He also went on to mention that the PC did not like to be rebooted as this would cause the PC to not POST. Ignoring this problem for the time being I concentrated on getting his storage drive to get it to boot along side the SSD and be recognized by the OS. 
##### The 2TB HDD drive was taken out of a previous computer and itself contained an OS that had been removed. Upon inspecting the drive, I found that there was remanence of an old windows 7 instillation on there, complete with the system reserve partition. So I set to work troubleshotting.

![tech mojo logo large steemit.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmat59VH6ycg6kvbMBE3QExrS9TvkyPSCyTksZr6BKyiRq/tech%20mojo%20logo%20large%20steemit.jpg)

## Back Everything UP!
- I can not stress enough to anyone how important it is to back up your data. I removed the HDD from his PC and placed it into the hot swap on mine. 
Before I started messing about on the drive, I backed everything up that he needed to keep, by copying it to my 10TB backup drive on my personal computer. This was so no matter what was done to his drive, there would always be a copy of his data.
I opened up the **''Command Prompt''** by typing ''CMD'' into the search bar, right clicking it and opening it as admin. This will enable me to do more than if I didn't have admin rights.
First I ran ''CHKDSK /r X:'' and let the program thoroughly check the drive and repair any problems. The results came up clean with no issues. I then went on to delete the windows 7 OS files left behind, System, windows, program files, users and so on inside the CMD program as it was more thorough. 
Opening up a file, I right clicked on ''My PC'' and selected ''Manage''. Selecting the Storage Tab, I could see the partitions, file system and other basic info on the drive. I started by deleting the 'System Reserve' partition that was associated with the old win 7 OS and expanded the drive so it was only one partition in use.
Yet still, when plugged back into his PC, the same problem accrued. When I entered the Bios on the Asus Rampage Extreme III board, it locked up and would not do anything... next problem.

![tech mojo logo large steemit.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmat59VH6ycg6kvbMBE3QExrS9TvkyPSCyTksZr6BKyiRq/tech%20mojo%20logo%20large%20steemit.jpg)



## Why Won't You Work?
- Thinking there is a much bigger problem here I started to troubleshoot all the hardware in his PC.
Even though his computer is fairly old, it should still be OK and run fine. But then I was informed that he indeed had bought the computer used from a friend who is notorious for over clocking his hardware. So suspected something had died, or at least on its way out.
Lets have a quick look at the specs in this PC and see exactly what I am dealing with...
____________
| Part                   | Brand - Model                            |
| ---------------------- | ---------------------------------------- |
| CPU                    | Intel i7 956 - 1366                      |
| Motherboard            | Asus Rampage Extreme III LGA 1366        |
| Memory                 | Hyper X Fury DDR3 1333Mhz 12Gb (3x4Gb Tri Channel) |
| GPU                    | 2 x Gigabyte  GeForce GTX 580 in SLI.    |
| CPU Cooling            | Cooler Master MasterLiquid Lite AiO      |
| Case Cooling           | 3 x 120mm GameMax Fans                   |
| Power Supply           | EVGA 850G 850 Watt Fully Modular         |
| Other Expansion Cards. | Asus Osmidia Sound Card                  |
| Case                   | InWin 301 Midi Tower Case                |
|                        |                                          |
__________

- So we can see there is some high end gear in this system, well.... high end for about 5-6 years ago, but still good non the less and can still perform well today. But what is making the PC to both not boot with more than one drive plugged in and will not let you enter the bios?

![tech mojo logo large steemit.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmat59VH6ycg6kvbMBE3QExrS9TvkyPSCyTksZr6BKyiRq/tech%20mojo%20logo%20large%20steemit.jpg)

## Trouble Shooting.....
- To begin troubleshooting any hardware, I always look to the power supply, this is because there can either be an electrical fault when too much power is pushed through it or, if its modular like this one, it could well be as simple as a loose plug. 
So I checked all the plugs/cables by unplugging them and then back in to make sure they were all secure in the sockets. Boot up again, still the same.
Now I remove the power to everything but the GPU's and motherboard and tested to see if I could enter the Bios. Still the same. The PSU is fairly new, only a couple of months old and it is silver rated, so I am confident that it isn't a power problem, but to be 100%, I used a second PSU that I have spare, and still no joy. So the power supply is fine.

![28407621_223164471575886_1255409383_o.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmSHjmRS83muofMN5hCiUzQhHUSizhPnno3SCqYdcCKWPG/28407621_223164471575886_1255409383_o.jpg)

![tech mojo logo large steemit.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmat59VH6ycg6kvbMBE3QExrS9TvkyPSCyTksZr6BKyiRq/tech%20mojo%20logo%20large%20steemit.jpg)

- Next I looked at the RAM. There are 3 sticks of DDR3 4Gb, to which I pulled out. And one at a time, plugged into my computer, booting up with each one, and all the ram works fine. No issues here. So I used only one stick and tried all 6 of the Dimm slots on the board to determine if one or more was faulty. But they are all identical and non yielded a successful boot up or bios entry. At this point I started to feel a little frustrated.

![28309091_223164541575879_1335132556_n.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmWnn1VCuBBdXdF7UCiy2w5D1M1YdZTAYyYyp6ymEVCjUZ/28309091_223164541575879_1335132556_n.jpg)

![tech mojo logo large steemit.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmat59VH6ycg6kvbMBE3QExrS9TvkyPSCyTksZr6BKyiRq/tech%20mojo%20logo%20large%20steemit.jpg)

- Now I turn my attention the the GPU's. I did pretty much the same thing I did with the RAM. I first plugged the GPU's into another PC one at a time to determine if one or both was faulty, and they both worked  as they should. Using one, I tried each of the 3 PCIe slots on the board to see if they were the cause of the problem. But still nothing... ARGH!

![28313218_223164568242543_556431494_n.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmeAV2UBGD6oBZj6QrGM816fgNZmCSW376mRaDyMEPT9pr/28313218_223164568242543_556431494_n.jpg)

![tech mojo logo large steemit.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmat59VH6ycg6kvbMBE3QExrS9TvkyPSCyTksZr6BKyiRq/tech%20mojo%20logo%20large%20steemit.jpg)

- Removing the sound card entirely, I tried one last time to boot or bios and nothing changed. Now I turn my attention to the CPU cooling. Perhaps there is a heat problem and the pump is not working, but you can definitely hear the pump working as it should, and using a temperature sensor, the temps are very low. So no heat problem.
Now I turn my attention to the motherboard itself. Thankfully the board is quite good at problems like this as it comes loaded with features for such issues. Dual Bios, PCI lane shut down, start, reset, Q-flash and more, all with accessible switches. 
Now the system is nothing but the bare essentials, with nothing plugged in or powered on that doesn't need to be there in order to access the bios. Power it up, I hit the ''DEL'' button to enter the bios, and still,..... nothing. Damn.

![28461222_223164538242546_1467634430_o.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmQXF5pBQd4NCGeFF9rorzjJf5pU2z5ZamK9S9h8MCbXkp/28461222_223164538242546_1467634430_o.jpg)

![tech mojo logo large steemit.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmat59VH6ycg6kvbMBE3QExrS9TvkyPSCyTksZr6BKyiRq/tech%20mojo%20logo%20large%20steemit.jpg)

That is as far as I am going tonight with this troublesome PC, I have been at it for a few hours and my back is starting to hurt. But I am not yet finished. 
I sent my friend home with a spare AMD 6350 and GTX 750 Ti system I have spare so he has a PC to use while I continue looking into his.

The plan now is to completely take everything apart, clean it all up and set up a test bench to delve deeper into the issues.
I am fairly sure the problem lies with the motherboard. But I want to be sure.

Thanks for reading.


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@c0ff33a ·
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Super story, what a complete mystery why this system won't post when two hard drives are connected! I'm really interested to see what the solution is to this one.
[![c0ff33commentaimage.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmPfQAJ6t12Yvpf2CcMUNWXwZSr7UpNhjZVjR14PJggrL9/c0ff33commentaimage.png)](https://steemit.com/@c0ff33a)
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@josepuerta · 
Muy buena publicaciรณn.
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@techmojo · 
thank you buddy.
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@winstonalden · 
You're a good friend. Troubleshooting like that takes up a ton of hours, and you lent him another computer to use while he waits!

I'm so grateful that when I got my [computers from the dump](https://steemit.com/technology/@winstonalden/walkwithme-dump-treasure-revealed-two-working-computers-plus-unexpected-surprise), the reason they wouldn't boot was... *moisture!* They'd been out in the rain for a couple of days but a few hours over the heating vent brought them right back to life.
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