# Sticky  How to troubleshoot your system



## crjdriver

I wanted to codify some basic troubleshooting concepts so that you might be able to test a non-functioning system.
*Note if you are not comfortable working inside the case, then the very best advice would be to take your system to a shop and have them diagnose it for you. By shop, I mean just that a real shop and NOT a chain store.*

First set of instructions.

Does your system not POST? POST= Power ON Self Test. If so, follow the first set of instructions. If your system reboots, freezes, shuts down, then follow the second set of instructions.

System was working and now will not POST.

1 System OFF and pw cord removed from the system

2 Open the side cover and pull the power connectors from ALL drives; both hard disk and optical. If you have a M.2 type drive, remove it

3 Remove any add-in cards ie real sound card, raid controller, etc. If you have a processor with onchip video, remove your video card. Connect the monitor to the onboard port on the motherboard. Most [however not all] intels have onchip video. You really need to know exactly what processor you have installed. Just because you see onboard video ports on the motherboard, does NOT mean you have onchip video. If you have an intel "F" series processor OR most Ryzen processors, you can connect a monitor to an onboard port until the cows come home. Never going to get video. Before removing the video card, be sure of what processor you are running. Note there is a latch you must depress to remove the card. Do not just yank the card out; you will break something

4 Reseat [that means remove and reinstall] both ATX and Aux/cpu pw connectors on the motherboard. Be sure they are fully seated

5 Remove ALL ram. Blow the slots out with a can of air. Reinstall a single ram chip in whatever slot your motherboard manual says to populate with a single chip. Read your manual

6 Remove any usb device ie printer, hub, etc. Leave the keyboard connected

7 Clear cmos with the clear pins. Again, read your manual for detailed instructions

8 Replace pw cord and attempt to power ON. Do you get a display? Are you able to enter the bios? If you can, then you know the system is now completing POST. Shutdown and start connecting devices one at a time. Testing each time until you find the failed component. You may find that all parts work and you simply had a poor connection OR you may find one of your parts is preventing the system from POST

9 If you still do not get a display, then you are going to have to start swapping parts. The best place to start is with the power supply. You do not even have to fully install a test power supply. You can just connect atx, aux/cpu pw and video pw [if necessary] Hit the ON button and see if the system will POST. If it does, you know you have a failed power supply. If it still will not POST, you will need to swap motherboard, ram, and cpu to find the failed part

Now for a little advice. If your system is 5~7yr old or older, it is not really cost effective to repair hardware of that age. Purchasing a new power supply is about the only thing I would do since a new power supply can be used in a new build. Trying to find obsolete motherboards, cpus, etc can be very costly AND you still have an old system.

System will POST however the system is unstable, reboots, freezes, etc.

1 Check your temps and voltages. Most motherboard mfg have purpose designed monitoring software available for download on the support page for your motherboard. This is MUCH better than attempting to use a third-party monitoring program. If you have a dell, hp, etc, then you are out of luck with purpose designed monitoring software and you will have to use something HWMonitor64 to monitor temps and voltages

2 The voltages we are interested in are as follows; 12V, 5V, and 3.3V rails. Monitor these for a while and see if any of the three vary ie go up and down. These voltages should not vary. The only voltage that should vary is cpu voltage or vcore

3 Each cpu has a "Normal" temp range however under a no load condition, temps really should not exceed 45~50C

4 If all looks good, we can run a stress test and again monitor temp/voltage. You can use just about any stress test program ie Realbench, OCCT, Prime95, etc. I like to use prime95. Run the stress test AND have your monitoring software running. See if the voltages fall under a load. See what temp your processor is running under a load. Let the stress test run for at least 2min to stabilize temps/voltages

5 If all of the above checks out OK, then we can move on to testing memory. Use memtest to test your memory Memtest86+ | The Open-Source Memory Testing Tool This runs from bootable media and removes the operating system as a source of instability. Let memtest run for at least 1hr [longer is better] If there are no errors, then your memory is most likely fine. Note you do not have to use the memory tester linked above, you can use passmark or even the windows memory diagnostic. The important thing is to test the memory

6 If you have a mech or spin drive, you need to test the drive. The drive mfg has a diagnostic for testing their drives. You download this from whomever mfg the drive ie Seagate, WD, whatever. IF there is no diagnostic for your drive, then use the Seagate utility called seatools. This will test just about any drive. Do both the long and short tests. If the drive passes ALL tests, then it is probably OK

7 If you do not have at the very least 10~15% free space on your system drive, you will induce instability in you system.

8 If you still have not found a problem, then get a bright light. Give the motherboard a VERY close inspection. Look for any capacitors that are leaking, bulging, or deformed. Look for any burn mark on or near pw regulators

9 If after doing ALL of the above, and you still cannot locate a problem, boot the system with a linux live usb. Do whatever causes your problem ie watch a video, watch utube, etc. If the system works fine running the live usb, then you know your hardware is OK and the problem is a windows and or driver problem


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