A guide to troubleshooting your

PC
"Help! My (new/old/whatever) system won't POST!"
There are a number of solutions to this problem. Unfortunately, troubleshooting this seems to
be the most difficult, since there are many things which could be preventing the system from
starting. Here's a list to get you started.
(NB: If your system is completely failing to give any power whatsoever, as in, "absolutely
nothing is spinning up," pay special attention to the power supply and motherboard
troubleshooting steps.)
It is important to remember that parts, more often than not, fail individually. Therefore, once
you find a bum part, you're probably done. However, I strongly encourage you to follow all the
steps of this troubleshooter, just to be on the safe side.
Before we begin, keep in mind that opening the case may void your warranty if you purchased
a prebuilt system. You should only do this if you're comfortable with the idea of opening your
computer and poking around in there. If the idea scares you, don't do it. If you feel like you
have no idea what's going on, but want to learn, go ahead, but, again, be aware that you're
voiding any warranty that came with the computer as a whole.
Most importantly, however, I must disclaim any responsibility for whatever happens to your
computer. This is a detailed guide that had input from many in the Orbiting HQ, but if you
screw up, I, nor anyone else at Ars Technica, can be held responsible. You are the sole person
on the face of our mother Earth who can be responsible for doing anything, be it good or bad,
to your computer.

1. Make sure everything is plugged in correctly

This is a very common mistake. Usually it is the motherboard or the boot drive. Some
motherboards have two connectors: the really big 20-pin one, and a small 4-pin square one. If
your motherboard does not have both of these, it will only have the 20-pin. Make sure that is
secured into place. If that's ok, move on to all the hard drive cables: 4-pin power and 40-pin
data. The data ribbon should trace to the motherboard. Also, the red side of the ribbon should
be on both pins 1 or both pins 40; it cannot be turned around.
A general review of all the wires should be performed. Where do they start and end? Do the
connections make sense? Despite what most people think, the inside of a computer is really
common sense; everything fits only in one slot/hole/whatever, and all the wires go from point
A to point B, with both points relating to each other.

2. Clear the CMOS

This is often the solution, and it's frustrating because it's incredibly simple. All you have to do
is find out from the motherboard manual where the CMOS jumper is. Make sure the system
has no source of power (meaning the power supply is unplugged and the battery is removed).

Then, move the CMOS jumper over the pins that clear it. After a few moments, put the jumper
back, plug the power and battery back in, and try it.
If it works, you're done! Congratulations on being extremely lucky! Karma will probably come
around later and bite you in the ass.
If not, continue on. You may have a long road in front of you.

3. Strip the system down

The first thing you should do is remove the system from the case, place it on a non-conductive
surface, and disconnect all components from the motherboard with these exceptions

CPU (and heatsink/fan)

A single stick of memory
Video
Power supply
Power button

This means no drives, no peripherals, no extra ports, nothing. This tests two problems at
once. They are the possibility of some peripheral preventing the system from powering up and
the possibility of the motherboard shorting onto the case somehow (aka, a standoff that
should not be there).
To do a quick elimination (only if the system is completely failing to give any power at all), find
where the power button connects and short those two pins for a moment with anything
conductive that you have on hand. A screwdriver, knife, coin, or anything metal will work. If
the system spins up, you need a new power button. (If your system was already spinning up,
you can skip this step.)
If the system fails to power up outside the case, here are two things you need to do. First, do
a visual inspection of all the capacitors on the motherboard. These are the little batterylooking things. What you'll be looking for is any fluid leaking out of the top or bottom, any
"gook" anywhere on them, or if they are bulging out the top or sides.
While you're poking around for bad capacitors, take a look at the ATX power connector; make
sure it doesn't have any scorch marks or look melted. If anything shows any of these
characteristics, your motherboard is almost definitely your problem. If they all look ok, test
repeatedly, with each stick of memory individually in each slot (this means nine tests for three
sticks of memory on a board with three slots!).
If the system eventually powers up, you've found good memory probably your only problem
and you're probably done. Put the stripped-down version back into the case and secure it. If
it powers up again, skip to step 9.
If not, you need to remove it again and investigate the setup of your motherboard standoffs
and make sure nothing is touching the motherboard where it should not be touched. After this
is done and all is well with the basics inside the case, skip to step 9.
If it fails to power up with any memory configuration out of the case, we know it must be
either the CPU, the memory, the video, the motherboard, or the power supply, or any
combination thereof.
With this in mind, and our system still out of the case, we continue.

On to the CPU
4. Does your CPU work?
There is only one good, reliable way to test this: drop your CPU into a known good and
working system. Use a friend's, a neighbor's, roommate's, hallmate's, coworker's, or
whomever happens to have a system that will take your CPU.
If your CPU allows this known good system to power up, you know that it is good, and it is not
the cause of your problems.
If not, you'll need a new one. As above, it's likely that this is your only problem, and once you
get it replaced, you'll be good to go.
Note that I did not say to try another (known good and working) motherboard. The reason for
this is that there are too many other variables at play: does the RAM work? does the video
work? is the power supply work? These questions will be addressed later.

5. Does your memory work?

There are two (probably equally reliable) ways to test this, although one is riskier than the
other.
The first is to take your memory and pop it into a working test system (perhaps the same one
you used for the CPU) and, again, see if that system powers up.
If it does, we know the memory is good. For good measure, test all of your sticks in all
possible combination, just to be sure that it's not a pair of sticks not playing nicely together.
If the good system fails to power up, you have bad memory and need to replace it.
The other (and riskier) way to test memory is to take known good and working memory and
put it into your motherboard. This is riskier because the possibility exists that it is the
motherboard that is bad. It is not unheard of for bad motherboards to kill good sticks of
memory. Take this route only if you have no other test system.
If the system powers, you had bad memory. If it does not, the problem is either your
motherboard, your video, or your power supply.

6. Does your motherboard work?

This is extraordinarily simple to test: get another motherboard from somewhere, put together
the basic system (as described in step 3), and see if it boots.
Again, if the system powers, you had a bad motherboard. If it does not, the problem is either
your video or your power supply.

7. Does your video card work?

This can be tested in two ways, just like the memory: using the test computer, and a different
card. However, this time, the risk of burning a good part on a bad board does not exist, as we
have already tried the board. You must know, however, that if you are testing a good video
card with a bad power supply, and that good card plugs directly into the power supply, you
may end up a brand-new, very flat paperweight.
Something that makes this test easier is onboard video. If your motherboard has it, and it
works, but no known good video cards work, you probably have a bad AGP slot. Take a gander
in there for bent pins.

8. Does your power supply work?

This is simplest of all; at this point, you've ruled out everything except it, so grab a good one
and plug it in.
If the system still does not work at this point, it's time for you to post a help thread describing
the problem and what you've done so far.

9. Time to start rebuilding the system.

Congratulations on having gotten this far! If you've skipped to this step from step 3, your
problem will probably be encountered here. For those of you that got here the hard way, this is
probably not of consequence to you, but I encourage you to follow these steps, anyway.
At this point, you have a good CPU, motherboard, memory, video, and power supply. You also
have a good case that is not shorting the motherboard. So, the last thing left to test is the rest
of the peripherals and PCI slots.
To do this, start installing things and/or plugging things in one at a time! This way, if there is a
bad peripheral (or slot), you will notice it immediately, because all of a sudden your working
system won't work after having plugged in that next item. Check the PCI slot for bent pins to
make sure it isn't actually a bad card.
This is probably the end of your troubles, once you find that bad peripheral or slot.
If you skipped to this step from step 3, and have installed all of your original peripherals, and
still have no problem, then... something was up, but is no longer. Consider yourself.
At this point, you should be done. If you have a buggy system and your problem was not
solved by this guide, post something in the OpenForum along with a description of what you
have done to troubleshoot it.

Other problems and overclocking

Wait a minute, my new Barton is 1100MHz! WTH?
Simple solution: Go into the BIOS and change the FSB from 100 to 166.

This applies to all similar problems: You just got a new CPU, but it isn't being detected at the
right speed. All you have to do is go into BIOS and change the FSB to the appropriate setting.

I want to overclock. How do I do it?

Hoo, boy, this one is tough. I recommend browsing around the CPU and Motherboard
Technologia forum looking for similar threads or pieces of advice.
If you still have not found any help, here is a simple guide.
Since most new CPUs have lately come with multiplier locks (with the Mobile Athlon XP series
being the primary exception which I will not address, as there is already a loads of information
about it everywhere), I will describe how to overclock the FSB.
First of all, for most modern chipsets, best performance comes from having the CPU's FSB
running the same speed as the memory (or half of it, in the case of dual-channel Pentium 4
chipsets). With this in mind, you should have memory that is able to overclock.
For this, I recommend any memory that has a relatively high frequency rating (DDR400 or
higher) and a relatively low CAS latency (2.0 or 2.5).
The reason for the lower CAS latency is that when you raise it, you suddenly have the ability
to achieve higher clock speeds with your memory. For example, if you have DDR333 memory
with a CAS latency of 2.0, and you raise that CAS latency to 2.5 or 3.0, you can run that same
memory at DDR400 or better within spec.
Now, you go into the BIOS and start pushing the CPU and memory FSB. Do it incrementally,
about 10MHz at a time. Boot into Windows and run a CPU stress test for at least six hours. I
recommend something like Prime95, which is by far the most rigorous stress test I know of.
Run this program's Torture Test. If all is well, go back and raise the FSB again and repeat the
test.
As you can see, this is an extremely time-consuming project.
Repeat until your stress tester tells you that something went wrong. At this point, you have
two options.
Option one is to back that FSB down to the previous 10MHz. This is a perfectly acceptable
option, and chances are that you won't get much higher than this by continuing on.
Option two is to forge on. Go into BIOS and increase the CPU voltage by the smallest
increment allowed. Try the stress test again, and keep increasing the voltage and retesting
until you get stability, and try the FSB trick again.
One thing to keep in mind: You can easily burn out a CPU by pumping too much voltage into
it. For the Barton-cored Athlons, try not to exceed 1.8v, and definitely do not go past 1.85v
unless you have excellent cooling and know exactly what you're getting yourself into. Once
you have reached these voltage limits and are still experiencing problems, go back to the
highest FSB and lowest voltage you had stability with. Run the stress test for 24 hours.
That's right. One day. If nothing turns up, you've got your overclock. If there's an error, back it
down.

Overclocking is a very delicate procedure. It's not guaranteed, and it's not an exact science. In
fact, it is arguably not a science at all.
And, most importantly, remember this:
You do this at your own risk!
Hopefully, this guide will solve many problems that repeatedly get sent into Ask Ars and
posted in our forums. If it helped you, drop us a line and let us know, or post in the discussion
thread.
Happy troubleshooting (if there is such a thing)!