Z77-D3H doesn't want to turn on

[HighFlyer]

Hello there,

This morning I have woke up to find out that my computer has died  I have only had it for two weeks, but now, I have trouble where the computer starts, fans roll and after a length of a second, it switches off.

I have the following specs:

Intel i5-3570K
ASUS GeForce GTX 560 1GB GDDR5 850MhZ
8GB Corsair Vengeance
1TB WD Caviar Blue, 120GB Corsair SSD Force 3
Corsair 600W Power Supply
Noctua NH-D14 cooler

Let's start from the beginning. After assembling the computer, everything worked well and I went onto with overclocking. After a few days, I managed to successfully OC Intel i5-3570K to 4.5GhZ on VCore of 1.3V. It seemed to be stable, Prime95 ran once overnight, with no trouble. And last night, I went to sleep switched off the computer, and I find it dead this morning - bizarre.

Immediately, I dug down to find the issue and the solution. First, it was suggested that I should change the BIOS battery. I opened the case and noticed that my GTX 560 has two diodes on green: ELED1 and ELED2. I went onto checking RAM, and the top of the Corsair RAM, the radiator thing, had the fan speed regulator cable stuck in between the radiators. The computer was lying down then, as I opened the case, and upon removing the cable from the "brush", it started and reached the welcome screen point. I decided to turn it on it's feet, and it switched off.

It then returned to the switch on and off problem, so I decided to unscrew the Noctua NH-D14 to reach the BIOS battery. I took it out and took it back in. I reapplied the thermal paste and the cooler back on, and still no result.

Where can I dig for further issues? Please help, I'm hopeless now. Thank you in advance.

[YoJembo]

It's like fixing a car. You have to go through a checklist process of elimination. I find a spare power supply is the most handy thing in my line. Try that first. I've known Corsair PSUs simply c**p themselves after a power surge.  PSU failure can be subtle too however. But it can be any thing. This particular mobo had erratic USB to dying/startup problems on me because it had compatibility issues with an old iStar monitor in the VGA port!!! It had all the hallmarks of a PSU problem. Sometimes it's the HDD even if your system OS is on an SSD. (Avoid WD Green HDDs like the plague.) Saving the Windows System Image file of a SSD to an internal HDD can cause this mobo (?) to delay startup by minutes... only reformatting the HDD will fix it! Bizarre! I use free Reflect now. Maybe it's one dud RAM stick. Try just one then the other, all sockets. One mobo that failed for me at home but worked seemly perfectly when tested in the shop, I only just happened to notice as we were about to leave that it was not reading all the RAM sticks in POST. It was a total fluke, blink and you would have missed it (a month long wait for a replacement board fixed it). One board would fail if I changed any of it's settings in BIOS even just dividing the RAM... but slowly, slowly over days. Dealing with the supplier was a nightmare. That's why I NEVER buy mobos etc. off the internet anymore. Find one of those local direct import franchises that are popping up. They have good brands usually e.g. GB. Just don't expect advice. They will however deal with your problem face to face with no extra shipping costs. Sometimes you just have to cut your losses and lose a 15% restocking fee, say, if you can argue for that, because they just can't see it, think you're an idiot ftard or you're actually wrong but you don't know till you replace that part anyway.

Good luck, sometimes it's baffling where the problem is, sometimes it's oh-so-obvious in hindsight. But you'll get there. I will say that since this rig has had those issues dealt with it's been utter silk. I've rebooted stacks of times. An OCZ Vertex4 helps  . Time to hand it over to it's new dad.

(Please short the BIOS reset on the board (turned off and unplugged). I'm assuming you updated to the latest BIOS? Do it if you can. Use Qflash via the BIOS with a Fat32 memstick in USB2 port in rear panel. If needed, remember to reset to ACHI in both cases after.)

PS: please note, unlike other brands, I have never had a problem with a Gigabyte motherboard that warranted a replacement... yet.

[Seanie]

When I fitted my GPU's I had the exact same problem, the lights would flash and the fans spin then it would just die. I done hard BIOS reset by removing the CMOS battery, draining the power and waiting 20 minutes. It worked for me but it looks like you have tried that all ready. 

[Dark Mantis]

Hi

Sometimes more than just a standard CMOS clear is called for. The next thing is an extended clear. Follow these instructions:

Remove the power cable from the mains supply and then press the power switch on the case for a few seconds just to drain any residual energy in the PSU capacitors.

Once done remove the motherboard battery overnight before replacing it.
 
Next plug back into the mains supply and boot.
 
You will now need to enter the BIOS by pressing DEL and load Optimised BIOS Defaults.

Make any other changes to the BIOS settings to suit your self like disabling the floppy drive, disabling the full screen logo and making the HDD the primary boot device and then press F10 to save and exit.