Replies

Well, it was the PSU. I was fooled by the standby power. Won’t happen again!

Thanks for all the suggestions.

PSU. Best bet. Swap a known working one in.

If that is the cause it is still under warranty.

You can do a couple of crap tests: Paperclip test, then if it starts up you can test with a VOM if you have one. But since it is not under load only failure to hit the expected voltages on the lines is a fail.

https://community.newegg.com/eggxpert/computer_hardware/f/135081/t/98567.aspx

Hi FN, Wish I had known about the paper clip test a few weeks ago. Just today I found it on the Corsair site. The PSU did fail the paperclip test and a new one is on the way already. Crossing my fingers that this is the solution. It makes sense.

My thought was there could have been a problem with the original HDD and as you had swapped the other bits, then give the replaced mobo a try with its own HDD/SSD.

Thanks for the thought. I do not think it is the drives as the mobo does not come on enough to even look for any drives, much less access them. Am I misunderstanding something here on the boot up process?

Clarification on the LEDs. After reading my posts it is a little confusing as I said the LED were on and were not coming on. There is a green LED that shows that power is coming to the Mobo. The other LEDs are red and show that the board is doing its start-up proceedure. These red ones do not come on and no other hints of activity are noticable either.

Not being able to access the BIOS/UEFI means either a motherboard issue, or your monitor is dead.
Just because it worked fine previously means little to me. I’ve seen motherboard behaviors where it worked well enough, then would fail to POST.
Take your system back to bare bones and keep trying. You may need to look into resetting the BIOS/UEFI, so look through your documentation.

If you have on the board graphics, remove the card and attempt to POST again. (Remember: Bare bones)

Hi Clint, thanks for your attention. I am fairly familiar with single Windows PC having been using them for at least 40 years, but I am still confused by this. (I used this breakdown as an opportunity to get a new mobo for my main computer. I did install the new mobo, then installed and restored WIN10 on that PC and it was working the first time I closed the case, so I have the basic skills.) For all practical purposes everything which resides on the grandkid’s transplanted motherboard was in verified working condition before installing on the old PC, yet I have the same problem as the old board. The only thing that seems left to do is check the monitor, based on your comments. Can you explain how the monitor would stop the booting up of the mobo from very start. No activity at all is apparent on the mobo, such as the LEDs that show the booting status. (Also. no on-board graphics). It still seems like it is not getting a start signal. Is there anyway to test that? (I changed the CMOS battery before installing on the old computer).

Thanks again.

Can you access the BIOS/UEFI?

No. See above answers as well.

I replaced the Mobo with the processor and DIMMs complete as a unit from a case where they worked fine. The only PCI card is the graphics card which was the one from the older PC. Can a graphics card prevent the board from even starting up to POST or any other signs of life? (No onboard GPU). I don’ have a spare PSU, but as I said it is fairly new and is providing power to the Mobo at some level as the LEDs are glowing on the board. This is why I am so confused.

When you swapped the mobo and CPU did you also use their HDD as well or just leave the original in ?

Same boot SSD was used. Computer does not get to POST much less to the disk.

Hi Guys,

If you are willing to spend a few buck on a photo editor and manager (at a small price compared to Photoshop) I would recommend a less known program.
I purchased Zoner Photo Studio a few years ago. It is on version 18. It is also a photo manager, so it catalogs your photos when you install it and puts all the photos in its catalog. When I decided to eliminate a bunch of photos that were duplicated from several download sources which had not been cleaned out from the last download I tried the duplicate remover. It worked so fast and without any input (after setting the parameters) that I was afraid I had lost a lot of photos. (Of course I had a backup). . It was done perfectly and in chronologic order set up in files based on download date. Truly well done. No I am not a shill for Zoner. I just could not afford all the Photoshop upgrades even though I used it for years. Anybody want a free Version7? (Ha ha).

Hi David,

BD recently released the 2016 version and I think (NO proof or official acknowledgement) the they had so many problems they have simply been overloaded. When I updated to the 2016 version the subscription was not updated correctly and some other minor issues occurred. It took almost three weeks to get my subscription corrected so I could use BD on more than one computer.

Anyway, with the millions of subscribers they have can you image if a majority of them all had a small problem during the roll out? It would overload them like you couldn’t imagine. I have my problems resolved. I personally will give them a few months to regroup their support services as I have had such excellent service from them in the past couple of years.

Bill

Thanks Drew.

Never had it so easy to upgrade. Only did the kids computer so far, but it is an improvement for MS from the past!

Final summary: I upgraded to Win10. It cleaned up everything and I do not have a need at this time to do a clean install!

I do not offer this as an “expert” opinion, but my thought is to upgrade first. I want to make sure that all the serial numbers AND user files are correct for a WIN 10 operation. Then I plan to do a clean install and transfer the WIN 10 user files section to the new install.

What do you think about this?

I am wondering though, I should install my program files first and then transfer the User files or the other way around.

Thanks guys:

Drew: I did the Sage clean thing. It only removed 300 MBs, but the computer seems to boot up quicker! I already am running on a SSD so that was a surprise.

Wavy: Thanks for clearing up the rumor about re-installs.

A last thought: I am a moderately skilled PC user, but I do not understand some of the OS inside operations, especially this kind of “upgrade”. Would it help if I uninstall all my non-critical applications and do a good cleaning before installing 10 and then re-install them afterwords or would that just introduce more residue? In other words, will the upgrade remove most of the old OS files and start new, or just change the ones it needs to change for itself?

Hi Drew,
1. Obviously I don’t want to buy Win 10.
2. Probably the most likely. Installing a new OS may clean out a lot of old garbage in the process of installation anyway. If not I can, hopefully do a custom re-install if MS allows this. I have heard some comments that I would have to buy Win 10 to re-install it, hopefully that is wrong.
3. Would love to clean the junk out of 8.1 before upgrading. How would you recommend I do that. I regularly run CCleaner, I occassionally run the MS disk cleaner with system files included and I have run other third party cleaners. However, they don’t really clean most of the remnants that use up the disk space over time.

Thanks,
Bill