Desktop will not boot

[Dalin]

MY HP Elite Desk 800 G1 SFF will not boot. Pushing the power button, it illuminates (green) there´s a short spin of the CD drive, the CPU and graphic card start and continue spinning, four second after pushing the power button there´s a beep. The screen remain dark (no signal). It had a boot problem before (BIOS was not been accessible upon upstart, it just skipped the BIOS (Boot sequence part no matter what I did)  however, it booted WIN 10 correctly.  In order to rectify this skipping BIOS)   I was adviced to remove the CMOS battery, wait about 10 minutes and put it back. After that, the computer will not boot at all. Maybe a faulty mainboard (or bad CMOS battery?) is is there possibility of checking if the MB is at  fault,? If ithere is the only solution is to replace It . However, it is almost impossible to get hold of a new (used or refurbished) MB in my country and buying it on eBay or Amazon brings a lot of problems (customs duties, VAT tax, astronomical customs clearance charges), so if possible, I´d like to chek if it really is the MB that is broken down and really needs to be replaced. I bought this PC (used) recently, it had been uppgraded with 16GB memory, a llarger HDD and a new graphic card, there is a new DVD drive,  so I do not feel like scrapping it, even thought it was manufactured 7 years ago

[ub6424]

Hello @Dalin 

Sorry to hear that you are having problems ... and I would like to help you.

First try to think simply 😊

Step (1)

- Install only 1 RAM in slot 1 (check copper contacts and ram slot for dirt/dust)

- disconnect all drives

- Check all cable connections to mainboard

- Reinstall graphics card

- Start the computer, can you enter BIOS ?

- Check CPU and fan

Step (2)

- Repeat (1) with 1 RAM in slot 2

If it fails, the RAM or the slot is defective

Step (3)

- Repeat (1) with 2 RAM in both slots

If it fails, the RAM or the slot is defective

Step (4)

-  Start to connect drives...

[Dalin]

Unfortunately it does not solve the non boot problem, tried it three times before I gave up. I cannot disconnect the Graphic Card (Ge Force GT130 2G) as it seems to be firmly attashed to the case chassis.This worries me in case I´d decide to rerplace the motherboard, because unless I can remove the graphic card , no way to replace the MB.  The non booti  probably is a MB fault. Before removing the CMOS battery, I turned off the computer thru Windows, pulled out the power cord and then removed the battery. However, an acquinta nce´s acquintance said that I  had made a bad mistake not draining the power residual of the MB by pushing the power button until the tiny green light on the MB goes off and thus I may have "burnt" (slang here meaning bad damage) the motherboard. Although the desktop could boot WIN10 before, there probably was something wrong with the MB (impossible to get BIOS) and the sale (bought it second  usedf about 3 weeks ago  from a young guy) was a bit "fishy" so I supsect he had known of the problem and sold me a aprtially defect computer. Of course I had tested it before buying it, but had not noticed tha absence of BIOS screen, for me then it was all right when the desktop booted properly and WIN10 seemed to function. I´ll now be looking for a replacement MB, which is not easy, no used or refurbished MB´s available in my land and purchases on eBay or Amazon  in the USA or GB, where there are plenty of MB´s on offer, carry with them hassle , customs  duty , VAT , and customs clearance duties with them. 

[ub6424]

Hello @Dalin 

it is no problem to clear CMOS and load bios setup defaults, please replace the battery CR2032 ( 3V [Voltage] ) and try again.

[Dalin]

Unfortunately I tried it, but is still does not help. My suspition that the motherboard is bad is growing stronger.

[ub6424]

Can you borrow a suitable power supply from a friend / computer store ? It may be that the motherboard is defective. But to exclude this you have to do the test with the other power supply. Imagine your engine does not start, you replace the car engine, but the problem was that there was no gasoline in the tank ... got it ?

[Dalin]

You have a point there. I had a power unit failure on my older desktop 17 yeras ago, but in that case, there was no power at all. This time it´s different in that when the power button is pushed, there´s a short CD drive spin and the fans continue running, so there is some power, the question is if it is enough. The possibility of trying out another power unit is out of reach in my case,  for various reasons (one being that the computer parts shop in my city closed down three years ago). However, I have a quite sensitive voltage and current meter, so I´ll try to find out on the web the power details of the powevr unit and the motherboard (can take some time) and then do some measurements to see whether the power part is at fault or not. By the way, I have found a way to remove the graphic card, it´s a bit complicated, but can be done, so in cae there is no other remedy but to repace the motherboard, I could do it. 

[ub6424]

Most graphics cards are locked to the slot with a lever. You may not have seen this directly.

Test your psu please:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU18uPlETCM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr70VyoACPg

[Dalin]

Thanks for the advice on checking the Power Supply, I only did the paper clip method as measuring according to the link you kindly provided is quite complicated, but the power supply seems to be o. k. Thank you also about the advice re removing the video card, it is much easier and much less risky than the method I had thought about.

According to an acquintance there is a small possibility that the video card may be faulty, but he means that the motherboard is "very  probably" ar fault, so the onl solution is to replace the motherboard. I+ ll try to get hold (of a "reasonably good" used one , probably on eBay. 

[ub6424]

Try to borrow another suitable graphics card from a friend/computer store. This way you can test if your graphics card is defective or the motherboard.