Fix A Computer That Wont Turn On 

I would always advise removing and reseating the RAM (one at a time) before the Processor, as it does seem to be a more common issue but other than that, these steps should work for the majority of cases. Also for users, uncomfortable in shorting the power pins with a screwdriver, you can very cheaply buy a pre-wired button for that purpose, which you slot onto the power pins. I use them on my test bench for ease.

Reseating the memory is usually the first thing I try, 80% of the time that’s it! Great video

I know it's for full tutorial, but personally recommand check memory before CPU, because the probability of memory not installed properly is greater than CPU.

While I agree with most of what you say here there are a couple of things missing. 1. ESD can damage things and a should not be taken for granted. I saw no mention of this in the entire video. Its the tech's responsibility to not cause more damage and is sloppy work to disregard. 2. I always check the PSU 1st and verify you have good power before anything else. Everything starts at the PSU. PSU testers are cheap and easy to use. 3. Re-seat RAM before the CPU. If you have a bad RAM module why break the thermal compound. 4. Plug in a cheap motherboard speaker on the speaker header for beep codes. These codes can tell you what to look for. Other than that I thought this was a great video!

I am a 70 year old lady and an amateur troubleshooter. I have always loved figuring out how things work. My 7-year-old computer would start but would not continue booting. I experimented a lot, but I never felt comfortable tampering with the computer's internal components. So I finally gave up and bought a new computer. I hate it doing that. I learned a lot from this video, so thank you for sharing. I am stubborn, and I hate giving up when I am troubleshooting. Chances are that I am going to happen the computer and fiddle with it again. So thank you.

Don't forget to get those 10 for $1 button speakers so you can HEAR the post beep signals.

I completely agree 100% on how you did it. To many people, pro's & beginners rush through building their computer, I always test every component, even if I know it is good.. your tip on powering off (or/an unplugging) then purge the system of possible stored power in the capacitors, is something I have done and highly recommend you always do, when you have to service your system or just check for issues.. Being that we both repair & build computers for clients, we should have a test rig or two, to test any suspicious parts (or Hardware) Also a tip, always purge your system when reaching inside or touching anything, that can short out and damage the system, I try to always wear gloves when touching anything inside a customers system... Thank you for sharing..

WOW! You are actually covering hardware and not just Windows?!?!?!? I dig it!!!!

Great video. Can you do a video on troubleshooting a PC that randomly shuts down? I have had this issue for over six months, and I am not able to figure out why.

I'm not a tech, but every time I've had one not boot after running was because of a bad power supply. Swapped out the power supply and it booted. Thanks for the clip.

Thanks for this, albeit an hour too late 🤣 I just finished helping a friend build his new PC, it posted and booted into Windows 1st try (Used HDD from old PC). Restarted it and went into BIOS to turn on XMP profile, saved and exited, no post 😭 Look on a few forums for error code and everyone was saying flash BIOS, flash BIOS, and pull CPU cooler off and take CPU out and check the pins, and pull RAM out and put them in 1 at a time and try again. Instead I went for the quickest and easiest possible fix that anyone of any level can do, popping CMOS battery for 30 seconds ish, put it back in and it fired right up. Went into BIOS turned off XMP and booted back into Windows no problem. I think the biggest problem with forums is, people forget not everyone is at the same level as them. They use abbreviations, don't give complete information, they don't tell people what they'll see and what to expect, they start with some of the hardest fixes first, instead of the simple ones (Like popping CMOS battery out), then they get frustrated when the OP doesn't understand them and they get condescending and belittle the person. If the OP was at an advanced level they wouldn't be on the forum asking questions in the 1st place.

One thing I would recommend starting with: have a PC speaker plugged in. See if you get any beep codes. I had a coworker once, just built a new PC, but couldn't get it to post. They had a speaker so I had them plug it in and try to boot the computer again. It gave a single beep. That usually indicates a successful post, so I started checking how all the cables were plugged into the computer. Turns out they had hooked the monitor up to the motherboard but the CPU had no integrated graphics, so they would never have gotten a picture that way. Plugged into the graphics card and it works just fine. Also I'm gonna agree from the Gamers Nexus rant from last year about motherboards should all have 7 segment displays for error checking. It shouldn't just be a high end feature.

Your order of operations is wrong. The correct order is bios reset -> memory modules -> video card. Lastly you could reseat the CPU but I've never had it work, and for those that did you likely installed it wrong to begin with. Once it's clamped down it's not going to be moving around so it's pointless to try that.

Great info. My video card is fried. Thanks for helping me go through everything one by one.

Last week one of my computers just stopped while I was using it. When restarting the fans and disks started but no post.I did basically what you did, removed all ram and put each stick in one at a time, no post. Then fitted a different video card, still no go. Replaced PSU, no go. Reset BIOS, still no go. Sent the motherboard to the recyling bin. It was old but I have never had a computer fail while in use before. Thanks for your videos I have learnt a lot from them and now use Snappy Driver regularly as I currently maintain 4 laptops and 7 other systems for my business and family life.

I turned the power off with the switch in the back; waited a couple of minutes and turned it back on. When I used the front power button it came on as normal. Thank you so much!!

Subscribed! I've been tinkering with Linux for several years now and have been taking a deep dive for over a month- plus on the modern hardware, etc and learning all sorts of cool stuff, like what you have on your channel. I'm about to make a home server with Ubuntu Server distro with an olde Dell desktop I have along with, the learning curve of a recent purchase of a box that has an i7 4770 with a Nvidia RTX 2060 Super and Win 10 as a basic gaming computer. After being away from IT since the bubble burst in 2001... I now got the bug again, thanks to my son and grandkids and all of us starting to play Everquest (Evercrack from back in the day). I'm going to be tuning up my son's Alienware with Win 10 (circa 2009) soon. I forgot about how cumbersome and cantankerous Windows can be. The tools you portrayed in your videos will be most helpful! I've been actually thinking about an A+ Cert recently and see what happens from there. Perhaps hang a shingle (sign) in my rural community one day. I may be long in the tooth and a semi retired/ beat up olde combat vet turned part time farmer, but I'm far from done yet! Geek Out!

Great tips. I will never replace a CMOS battery again without first draining the power to the computer. 😀

A great video, Thanks! One extra point - when checking the memory and starting with a single stick in the first slot and it didn't work, at that point you can't be sure if the memory stick is bad, or if the slot itself is bad. Clearly when another stick worked in the same slot you can see that the first stick is bad. BUT if the second stick does NOT work, there's always the possibility that the memory slot itself is bad. I suppose you could put this in the category of 'bad motherboard', but it's another step to check if you have a difficult repair to diagnose.

I have (not assembled anymore) two (old) motherboards that will not post; I realise I haven't tried everything in this video, which may be worth a try. Always good to see how others do it.

Great video as always, however I think you should have tested the memory before the cpu because this is a much more likely culprit than a bad cpu.

It's amazing how console owners don't go throughthis but us pc lovers have to go through so many motherboards in a few years.

Nice video. On new builds getting the cables seated completely can be a problem in itself. Did I miss you mentioning a bad PS? Thanks for posting this.

Awesome tutorial Rich (as usual) 👍

Had No idea about the easy way for windows 10 product keys, thank you just purchased one from your link !

I thought that Mobos had beep codes that could help you pin down the problem, did you disable the speakers? Good video tutorial though, but i would agree to check the memory before CPU, you addressed this in the comments, but...

I have a motherboard that two of the four memory slots went bad. Computer worked fine then all of a sudden it blue screened and wouldn't boot up anymore. Two slots went bad. Did a lot of memory swapping. Had to use the computer with the two remaining slots for a few years then those two finally died and the motherboard was now toast.

I’ve seen a CPU fan failure preventing a POST. Great video.

Something that I don't get is how long a BIOS battery can and will last. Personally I have had them last 12 years plus and still working well. I have talked to others with the same experiences. I realize that they are Lithium batteries. But still, 12 years plus? All in all if this battery did give up the ghost chaos would surely follow. Any ideas on this as I simply not understand this? Thanks

You’re awesome cause before reading the comments I was watching your video. Ive been trying everything to test my brothernlaws computer before assume something with the mother board. Luckily I started with the ram first since that was the easiest to deal with. Love and behold the first one i pulled out the pc came on! I inserted it back in and it still worked. His brother sent him the desktop working then when he got it in the mail he never has been able to use it which it’s been sitting around in a box for a while now. He need a loan so he gave me the desktop to hold onto and I can’t wait to tell him it’s working 😏 hopefully I’ll see that cash back orrrr get a 2nd pc for cheap that isn’t junk ❤️ you the mannnnnnnn stannnnnnn

A couple of months ago my computer would not POST or beep, about four or five seconds after pressing the power button the motherboard would turn off the power supply again. It turns out that an Intel Enterprise Class SATA SSD drive had failed and was preventing the system from booting. The problem was with the data signals coming or going to the drive because the computer booted up fine if I disconnected power from the SSD leaving the data cable connected or if I disconnected the SATA data cable leaving the drive powered. That damaged SATA SSD also caused the computer's BIOS and operating system to not detect any of the USB-SATA enclosures I have, not even as an "unrecognized device" in Windows like other faulty USB hardware, but apparently it didn't cause them any harm either.

great video so how to test if say its either the CPU or the Motherboard that has an issue

Another usefull video as always..Just to know...there is a chance on newer laptops the disk drive causing black screen issues, so is good to take a look also there..Happy new year all guys..

Never underestimate a blown fuse in the PSU or plug of the PSU.

This reminds me of the days when they had two Bios on a motherboard when they had those bios virus. We learned the old trick of stripping the Mobo down to a memory card, CPU, Fan and monitor. It was always some loose cable or bad memory that caused the problem. Nowadays, it seems like same old issues .

the first thing I have always done when a pc wont boot, is remove all of the memory and fire it up. you should get a bios beep code. that verifies that the CPU and the mobo are good. then add a stick of memory, one stick at a time and boot between each stick.

Trust me, brother. The case of bad cpu is high with AM4. I faced a case. The CPU has only one working memory channel. i took 10 days to understand the problem. i was suspicious about the motherboard at 1st but after a long time of testing, the 3700x was the problem later when i google. Many people had the same problem.

While assembling a pc i hate when someone picks a new Motherboard from the Box and puts it on a wooden table and then proceeds assembling. It is good to see that you add some styrofoam under it.

you deserve way more subs man. fantastic video

More videos like this please ty

I had this problem recently and after moving the jumper and then removing and reseating the CMOS battery it still didn't post. I was about to throw in the towel but thought I should reseat the Ram modules. After doing this I got that beep I was hanging out for. I must have loosened a ram module while cleaning dust out of the case. Cheers.

My standard troubleshooting steps 1: disconnect everything except what is essential to display an image on a screen (includes all usb, sata, m.2, fans etc) ie: 24 pin power/cpu power , 1 ram stick, cpu and cooler fan, if no onboard graphics, a graphics card (remove for onboard graphics) 2: if it posts reconnect each item 1 at a time until issue is found, starting with ram, then graphics card. If still no post, swap the ram, try it in a different slot, then the graphics card (if you must have one to post). If it posts then the ram/graphics card is bad; if no post the motherboard is most likely bad. If the cpu fan does not spin up up try a different power supply. I once had a usb hub that was bad, and it would draw excess power on boot , which triggered the motherboard to not post (self protection). Ive also seen bad ram, bad psu, bad graphics cards, motherboards, power supplies, power /reset switch, and even a cpu do this ; a ryzen 5950x booted 3 times in a new board), then died, was in a box where the psu died in a spectacular way taking out most of the components including a m.2 ssd and a 8TB hard drive.

Hey man, great videos. Idea for a new video: In my experience, I have seen motherboards with bent pins (even from factory!), especially on intel 1700 socket. I have also seen scratched motherboard traces near the CPU, from an angry screwdriver hitting that zone and making a short, killing the motherboard. It should be good to mention looking at the pins and at the motherboard traces, maybe on a more advanced video on this theme, and then think about getting a new motherboard. In addition, you haven't talked about how good it still is to have a little Speaker laying around that you can plug in to diagnose the error codes that the motherboard returns. It should be a cool video theme discovering different malfunction beeps from different types of motherboards. Cheers to a great channel! I have over 20 years experience with PC's but always finding out new little tricks from your channel. Have a great day~

VERY instructional video!

FYI the Office keys have gone up even with your discount code of 25%. Now $84.18, but still worth it! Love the videos!

I would remind people when dealing with the memory stick, to insure you put them in the prescribed Dimm slots as per MB manual. They are usually color coded and some MB's won't post if you get them in the wrong slots. Speaking of manuals, - they usually have a troubleshooting section and if it has LED lights or a speaker for beep codes that will help in your diagnosis also.

Super! Thank you! I was riveted start to finish. Now on to the 'how you might make some money" video....

You should have a link to Prof Messer's A+ course and study group.

ooo i like this,can you do more vids like this'?

I'm an Intel guy, but I had a few AMD parts and I setup a test bench to see if I would like AMD. My test rig is a Ryzen 5 1600af DDR4-3200 32gb MSI B450M PRO-M2 MAX and a GTX 750 I had lying around. And...it's setting on a cardboard box !!! No issues so far. Works just as well as my Intel daily driver. So... I give it two thumbs up AMD.

Well done sir.

In other cases display setups also matter like if you dont know the history of the computer that was set to multiple monitor. I hope this also help others new on this topic

Could you maybe elaberate of the POST codes?

Another great video!

I’m having problems I’m getting light on for reset switch but I try power it on and nothing

Make sure the battery is not dead too xD

Great video. Many thanks.

Thank you 🙏 for saving my computer 💞

that beard is on the verge of being an electrical hazard. thnx for the refresher

had a no boot issue and nothing I tried worked, unplugged it for a few hours and it fixed the issue.

Could also have GPU disabled. Mine was setup like that. Switching to onboard video, I checked and had other video disabled.

Congratulations sir! Your videos are very educational for me. I don't know how true the information is (I haven't researched it): if you touch some components with your bare hands (on the motherboard, video card, even the RAM memories - for example)... some resistors or something else may burn, the reason being resistance of the human body. PS: as a joke - I get the point, if I want to learn how to fix something... I have to break it first. 😊

The power supply should have been talked about too. It can alsow fail. I had a power supply that gave less than 12 vots (11 volts) and the pc would not boot. A multimeter can test that it's ok or not.

Please can you make a video/tell me how to fix windows 10 not booting (start-up repair didn’t work) but some of the advanced options are missing including reset my pc

When I watched your video, I thought that it would be a good idea to take pictures of the stuff I would remove to test it because my memory isn't that great.

Recently, I had a hdmi switch who prevented my computer from booting. First I thought a memory problem and it took time to find out.

thank you

I would try the ram before the Processor. I still find it amazing how much yet also how little has changed in all years I have been building Rigs.

First thing I would of done was remove the ram and look and look out for error beeps.

On the 21st Dec Had a machine do a NO POST (or any sings of Power). This was a good known system, I did A week ago pulled out a non connected hard drive, put some data on it, and put it back in the case (that was for some recovered data from a submerged hard drive for work later). As you said I needed that machine for a quick job. Nothing would make it post or even do the beeps error codes! Disconnect everything, re connect swap out PSU swap ram and CPU ( I have enough good parts to do this) nothing worked... in the end I jammed it all back in the case. it powered up and there was a bios error, quick reset and it all works as it did before UGGH I hate not knowing what stopped it working in the first place! Memory and Bios reset have always been my go to, first try things this is after unplugging everything unnecessary yea I have had the odd dead fan causing a no boot!

Great video

My pc was making audio buzzing noice when the screen went black and after that it wont post anymore. Is that the GPU being dead?

I don't seem to have a desktop; I have a laptop and it works great no issues.

Nice beginner's guide.

Video request: troubleshooting when neither the display port nor the HDMI cable connection works to the monitor - or only does after a few tries

something that i definitatly didnt do was use a broken monitor, don't do that, that would be stupid. Thanks for the video BTW :)

But resetting on first or second attemp was really helpfull

Remove the memory sticks one at a time should be done before reseating the cpu

I think i have a faulty psu. I replaced all of my ram, cleaned it out. Pc will start but shut off randomly or wont cut on when starting it. I will get it checked out

Hi my pc starts with no beep and no display. After I start my pc it starts and have no display. I check my monitor and it is fine. What should I do?

One other thing to check: Some MOBOS have a separate connector for the CPU but it doesn't get plugged in during assembly. Power connectors are always my 1st check.

With the memory modules...you can remove all of the memory and listen for the post beeps the code that tells you memory is missing.

back in the days when I was young, we do owerclocking a lot, and if the Asus board with AMD CPU does not boot up, there were special fixing procedure named Asus fix - You remove completley everything from motherboard, then lift 1Meter up, and drop board flat on floor. but remember, everything must be removed from board, also chipset heatsinks ! and that fixes board without any explanation. as we know, that works only on asus boards with AMD.

In my dealings with fixing computers the order I have seen problems from most to least is 1. bad ram or ram slot, 2. power supply, 3. graphics card and 4. motherboard.

Had a perfect working MSI B760 Gaming Plus WIFI. Updated BIOS and now it's no longer posts, not even the keyboard lights up. And there is no Flashback button or Flashback port.

can you tell me whats wrong with my gpu? my gpu at 40 or 70 when at fortnite but then when i keep playing my monitor turns black but my pc still running

When i give power to my pc then there is little lighte and thats flashes what should i do?

i would have done this in a different order, Clear CMOS, reseat and inspect the RAM, remove or swap the GPU, and then reseat and inspect the CPU and it's socket. These are things you can do before you remove the motherboard from the case.

Another issue is if some idiot (Me) buys a CPU that's the wrong generation

When my self build PC booted for the first time. I looked to see in the bios the bios version installed that surprised me it was one of the newest bersion only a couple of months old. Next I looked at the memory info in bios it told me it has 16 gig 3200 ddr 4 installed but my memory module states that it is 2666 interesting. Installing windows 10 pro to my nvme drive was easy and simple.The computer I built is Ryzen 5 3600 with RX 5500 graphics card. I will add another 16 gig memory of the same brand and type later.

Hello I need some help and would like to know If anybody can fix my issues. After using advast and having it update 17 outdated drivers I can no longer open my Obs studio without it crashing. I also can't update my windows either. I get a windows error code of update error 0x80070643 when trying to update also when I try to trouble shoot my obs studio I get a message saying OBS Failed to find locale/en-us.ini I wanna reinstall obs but I'm afraid of losing my data and it not working in the end.

RETAIL KEY IS ALWAYS BETTER THAN OEM KEY, NOT AS CHEAP AS OEM, BUT RETAIL KEY DOESN'T GIVE A CHIT ABOUT CATASTROPHIC FAILURE

You are taking out the CPU and resetting the BIOS bevore you check the RAM? 😳 I'm not fine with that order....

How do you deal with motherboard doesn't even power on?

There is about 35 errors in this video good job CypberwannabeTech guy

You didn't mention on the memory that you should plug into Slot's 0, not Slot's 1. If a speaker was plugged in, you would have found the problem sooner! After 45 years with working with PC's, I know.

I just need help building one. 7 parts is not rocket science but it's been 30 years since I built one and things have changed.

I was playing games, my computer shut off and now it won’t turn back on, if I shut off the power supply and turn it back on and try to turn on the computer it lights up for a millisecond and turns back off, anyone have an idea? I’m not great with troubleshooting pc problems so idk I might take it to a shop or something

The first thing I try, and I have been repairing and building computers for over 40 years, it is test the Power Supply. You didn't even check if all the rails on the PSU were working. I realize you knew what was wrong, But you didn't even show how to check the power supply. Buying a simple tester is cheap and the testing the power supply is easy.

Best part of the video @12:40/13:45