Compaq Elite 8300 booting/motherboard error.

[ketotech]

Ok, well this is interesting. I have been using a HP Compaq Elite 8300 for some time now, it’s lasted me about 3 years. Computer was getting slow so I decided to change the HDD to an SSD, after cloning all the data, it wasn’t bootable to put it simply. 

After some time of messing around in the BIOS, I saved some changes and restarted my PC. This time the computer turned on, but no display, nothing. All the fans were spinning, I heard the CD drive startup, nothing. After about 30 seconds the PC fans start ramping up to max speed and didn’t turn off unless you held the power button or remove power. I did some research and came to conclusion it was a motherboard problem.

Instead of ordering a new motherboard, I ordered a new refurbished 8300, same model. Only this time after re-doing the clone, I changed some SATA cables. Then boom, first day of owning the new refurbished 8300 with clean working parts and the same error occurred. I’m confused on how the exact same error happened on this PC, I didn’t even enter BIOS, I just moved some SATA cables.

Even after moving the cables to their orignal position it had made no difference. I’ve tried everything: 

- Reseating the RAM

- Replacing the RAM

- Cleaning the RAM and RAM slots

- Clicking the CMOS button/taking out the battery and replacing after 120 seconds of holding the power button and an extra 20 minutes of standby

- Taking out the PSU and replacing all the cables/trying other PSUs

- Taking out the CPU, trying other CPUs

- Using different Hard Drives and SSDs

- Using a USB stick to try and boot even though none of the USB ports seem to work or provide power

Now I don’t want to spend any more money on this product than I already have, so please if anyone can help me with this error because I have 2 dead computers, due to the same problem.

Steps:

- Clicking power button

- Nothing, no display, no keyboard lights

- After about 30 seconds fans start ramping upto max speed

- No output or input on the USB slots