Motherboard LED is green and PSU is on, but PC won't boot

Hi there

I’m reaching out because I’ve run into one of those classic, frustrating hardware headaches and I’m honestly feeling a bit stuck on what to try next...

Basically, my PC just shut down today and now refuses to boot up at all. I went ahead and swapped out the power supply unit to rule that out, and after doing a quick manual test to see if the PSU was actually delivering juice, it seems to be working fine. On the motherboard itself, the green standby LED is lit up, so there's definitely some power getting through. I even tried bypassing the case's power button by shorting the power switch pins with a screwdriver, thinking maybe the physical button had failed, but no luck there either. I've spent most of the day scouring various tech forums trying to make sense of this, because from what I’ve gathered, if that green light is on, the board is receiving power, which usually means other components should at least trigger some kind of error code or sign of life during the POST process. But in short, the machine is just completely dead...

So, here is the situation: MOTHERBOARD - green LED is on - receiving power
- PSU - replaced it and verified it works by jumping the green and black pins to get the fans spinning
- attempted to jump the power switch pins directly on the motherboard to rule out a faulty case button, but still nothing

If anyone has any insight or a different angle to look at, please let me know... I could really use the help!🙂

So, you’re getting zero beeps when you hit the power button? But the CPU fan is spinning? Okay, let's troubleshoot this mess—first, pull the RAM modules and the graphics card out entirely, then shove them back in, making sure they actually click into the slots properly... also, for heaven's sake, unplug the power cable from the wall so you aren't live while poking around, then pop the CMOS battery out for a minute or two to give the BIOS a hard reset.

I can't get this thing to power on at all; the fans on both the PSU and the CPU aren't spinning, but when I test the power supply by itself away from the rig, it works perfectly fine, so the PSU seems to be okay...

There's no beep code during startup—mostly because there's simply no power being sent to the system at all
I already tried pulling out the GPU and the RAM, but nothing happened
Even after unplugging the cables, still nothing

What should my next move be?

Hey there

I could really use some advice...

My computer died on me yesterday, most likely due to some kind of short circuit. I actually just swapped out the power supply and tested it by jumping the green and black pins; the fans spin up and the standby light on the motherboard stays lit, which seemed promising at first. I even tried manually bridging the power switch pins with a screwdriver just to rule out a faulty case button, but no luck there either. I’ve gone through the whole checklist—swapped out the power strips and cables to make sure it wasn't a surge issue, pulled the CMOS battery, even stripped the build down to the bare essentials by removing the GPU, RAM, hard drive, and the optical drive... but nothing. It simply refuses to POST...

Does anyone have any ideas on what my next move should be? I'm struggling to figure out if the motherboard is truly dead or if I'm missing something obvious, and I'd love to be certain before I go out and buy a replacement. I've spent hours scrolling through endless threads on various tech forums trying to troubleshoot this myself, but I haven't found a solution that fits my situation, and since I don't have a spare board lying around to test against, I'm feeling a bit stuck...🙂

Look, you basically need a GPU and a CPU just to get the machine to actually boot up—everything else is just extra noise if you can't even hit the power button. And assuming you’ve already double-checked that your power supply isn't a total dud, then there really isn't any other suspect left besides the motherboard.

You don't really need a GPU... Almost any PC will fire up without one, but it’ll probably just hang on the POST. Though, I guess some might actually boot up just fine.

I mean, it’d be pretty damn helpful if we could actually see what’s happening on the screen. 🙂

placidcanyon2 said:A dedicated GPU isn't strictly mandatory. Almost any PC will technically power on without one, though you might run into some delays during the POST process. Some systems seem to boot up just fine, too.

Some motherboards come with integrated graphics built right in. 😉

So, I’m running into a series of headaches with my PC. First off, getting Windows installed was an absolute struggle. I ran into missing file errors repeatedly, finally managed to get halfway through installing my programs, and then—after a standard restart—the whole thing just died on me. The machine seems to be running, but nothing happens; meanwhile, the CLR/CMOS light on my ASRock motherboard is staying lit. I’ve dealt with this before, and I managed a temporary fix by pulling the CMOS battery from the board to reset everything to its last working state... but now things have gone from bad to worse. Windows is reporting missing files, preventing the graphics driver from installing, and after a reboot, I hit the ultimate wall: no video signal. My old Samsung CRT is a classic and works perfectly fine, so I didn't think it was the monitor itself. To test it, I plugged in an LCD monitor that my roommate uses, but even that shows "no signal."
If anyone has any smart ideas on what might be going on, I’d really appreciate the help.
🙂

Eric Morgan5 said:Look, my PC is basically a dumpster fire right now. First, getting Windows installed was a nightmare. Then, files started going missing. Eventually, I got half my software running, hit restart like it asked, and then... nothing. The machine sounds fine, but it's dead. The CLR/CMOS light on my ASRock board is staying on—happened before, so I just pulled the battery near the RAM sticks to reset it. That worked temporarily, but now Windows is throwing errors about missing files when I try to install GPU drivers. To top it all off, after a reboot, there's no picture. My old Samsung CRT is a beast, so I thought maybe it died, but I plugged in my roommate's LCD and it says "no signal" too.
If anyone has a clue what's going on, let me know.
🙂

You made your own thread, so don't spam everyone else with your issues. Just wait for an answer there.

Benjamin King2 said:Look, you basically need a GPU and a CPU just to get the thing to boot. Everything else? You could rip it out if it won't turn on. I mean, if you're positive the power supply is fine, then there isn't really anyone else to blame but the motherboard.

I guess you also need the RAM to pass POST, 🙂plus you might have integrated graphics