I built a new PC with an ASUS barebones package that contained an ASUS P5LD2 MoBo, it ran fine for about a week, i didn't even install anything other that the video/sound/LAN drivers off the bundled CD. I stored it in its box for about a week and today I took it out to put it together with my new monitor, when i turn it on it showed the ASUS logo splash screen and then it went blank, no bios, no post, no windows, just fan noises. I rebooted by switching off the PSU (the hold-the-power-switch thing doesnt work), after that time it wont show the splash screen again, it just stays idle without beeping or HDD activity at startup.

Im running the latest bios from the ASUS support site.
P4 3.2GHz
1Gb DDR2 677 ram
160Gb Maxtor SATAII
Sony DVDRW

Any ideas?

I kinda screwed myself with the warranty cus this was a special order item

I'd try, in this order:

1. Test the power supply and/or swap the power supply.

2. Reset the CMOS (see the mb manual).

3. Reseat the RAM, pci cards, power/peripheral/backplane/disk/front panel connectors, etc.

4. If you know how to and it won't void your warranty: carefully disassemble and reassemble the CPU fan, heatsink, heatsink paste and CPU stack. You might need to clean/reapply paste. Remember to plug the fan back in.

If the thermal paste was missing/badly applied, the heatsink was not tight or the CPU fan not working, the CPU might have burned out.

-brendan

See the general instructions at support.intel.com:
Computer Does Not Boot - Has Lights/Fans – Nothing Displayed on the Monitor
Computer Does Not Boot - No Lights or Fans – Nothing Displayed on the Monitor
Good luck!

@ bhoar:

1) Done, same results. Power supply is not the problem.
2) Done, same results.
3) PC only has RAM (no other PCI or other peripherials), reseated on all slots with same results. Also tried other DIMM, same results. RAM is not the problem.
4) Removed CPU, paste was neat and heatsink/fan was tight, reassembled correctly, same results.

I have not put any stress on the CPU, it's all brand new, ive only installed windows and drivers.

@ Egor:

Thanks for the links.

What i find weird is that it all worked fine last week, windows installation ran smoothly and i updated bios and drivers, and now all of a sudden it just stopped working. I found some post on other forums about the same problem and nobody has found a solution, but nobody else has had the PC run fine and then stop working like mine did.

Any loose components on (or below) the board, shorting things out (or causing an open connection)? Does the power supply fan run when you hit the power button?

It may be the case that the board or cpu just died.

-brendan

As trivial as it may sound, but did you test it with the old monitor?

Okay, I tried the old monitor and it did the same thing, just fan noises and the dvd drive spinning up (the light on the dvdrw stays on forever and I can't open the tray), the monitors don't detect any signal.

I also diconnected the power supply and removed the mobo, everything was correctly installed so i just put everything back together as it was. And yes, the power supply fan runs fine when turned on. I turned it back on and the same thing happened, just fan noises and the dvd drive spinning.

Huh? Did you try troubleshooting tips from intel site?

Edit. It may be useful if you try ALL the steps even if you think some of them are silly or redundant.

You should have tested your system without IDE drives, i.e. optical drive should be disconnected to warrant that the problem isn't in IDE cable or the drive itself.

Yes, I tried most of them. But having seen the PC running before (and not changing anything scince) and having read the specs for the hardware, I know that everything is compatible. Maybe something did happen to the CPU or mobo during the weird startup yesterday, it showed the ASUS splash screen with the "hit DEL for BIOS" message, and after that it just stopped and did what it does now, just fan noises and no beeps or HDD activity.


Okay, I'll try that again.

EDIT: I swapped the CPU and i got the same results again, I've also done almost all of the troubleshooting tips from the intel site and gotten nowhere.

This morning I disassembled the whole thing (even removing the mobo from the chassis) and put it back together while turning it on with various combinations of hardware, but got nowhere, same results as before. I spent maybe half an hour looking at the mobo searching for blown caps or any visible damage but found none. I did the CMOS reset various times with no results either.

I found some posts on fixya.com about similar problems with similar mobos, but they are all related to PCI hardware (video cards) or faulty PSUs, but my machine has no PCI peripherals installed nor a faulty power supply. And situaltions similar to mine are dead ends with no useful replies

One thing I've been curious about for a long time, why are original intel heatsink/fans so hard to install? they always bend the board a noticable amount and I somtimes worry that there is too much pressure on the board.

Since you've swapped CPU... I fear that the MoBo is cracked... that is if your CPU runs well on other compatible MoBo...

Yes the CPU runs on other computers. Would such damage to the mobo be visible?

EDIT: When I swapped the CPU, I also turned it on without the heatsink/fan to remove the pressure on the board but no results either.

No.

That's very risky ! An AthlonXP fries itself within 10 seconds (as tested by TomsHardware)... although they say that later versions of AMD CPUs (and possibly Intel's) have better -- and faster-reacting -- thermal breakers.

Yeah, I've toasted two of the earlier ones that way. Live and learn.

-brendan

Okay, the PC went back to ASUS. The tech guy at the store I got it from checked it out and yes, the MoBo was dead, as was the PSU (that was news to me). Anyways I should expect a repair/replacement in 2-4 weeks. I'm seriously considering never buying ASUS again.

Those kinda knee-jerk reactions aren't helping much. You can get bad parts from any brand, major or minor. If i would never buy anything from a brand i once had problems with, i could only buy noname-parts by now...

Well if it helps any (but it probably won't) I just read "cannnot read block xxx" "cannot read block xxx+1".... when I tried to figure out why my second disc on my photography system was so slow.

Good thing it's backed up.

This morning it's unplugged (the disc). I haven't a lot of hope for it.

No, it's not a dead MoBo, but I've had that, too. It's odd that both the PSU and the MoBo died. Was the PSU perhaps overvoltaging something?

Did the local voltage change between the time it was boxed up and unboxed?

-brendan

I'm almost sure it did, the electric company here sucks.

Heh, I meant 110 vs. 220, etc.

-brendan