PC problem: No power to usb, no image on screen

[Montoya]

Im posting this here because I know some poor soul, close to giving up on their PC will find this and hopefully it helps them.

TLDR: Change main drive to different SATA port.

The story:

Ninjagirl calls me from the other room "Montoya! My computer is not working!"

Great! Lets go see what the problem is!

She says it was fine last night, but this morning when she started it, nothing happens. No power to the keyboard (strangely enough the mouse was fine) and none of the monitors register anything.

"Wonderful!" I thought, as my mind starts tallying up how much I should spend on some new mid-tier parts to replace the entire thing.

I start with the usual process of elimination, unplug all peripherals, usb hubs, webcam, speakers.

Power it up, no joy.

I unplug everything except main monitor, negative.

Fans are spinning on gpu card, all RAM and PCI slots are secure and pushed in.

I bump my head on the corner of the desk as I lean in to get the power cable to unplug it, curse at the table, rub my head. I hold down power button with cable unplugged, reconnect it, try again, nothing.

Time to go search google and also browse newegg for some deals because this sounds like a $700 problem.

In browsing ancient archives on google, I see some stranger in a far off land say that his PC has this issue, and he switched SATA ports for his main drive.

That sounds stupid, whey would a SATA port suddenly die?

Might as well try anyway.

I go back to her case, switch the SATA port to the next one over... BAM!!! IT WORKS!

Thank you PC gods, you saved my morning and my wallet.

 

[FluffyVonRage]

A fix is a fix is a fix - EVEN if it just looks like you've gotta add more incense and a few more lines of prayer to the machine god.

Or are you sure it wasn't your head bump blood sacrifice that did it?

 

[Hybus]

As a sanctified Lord of Telecom, I hereby bless this post, for your perseverance and google searching. As @Stevetank and @CrudeSasquatch can testify, remote supporting someone is brutal. Case in point, last week's online D&D session and I got a call. and they heard the following

"OK I need you to move the cable at Port 0 on the old device to Port 0 on the new device.
No, port 0,
Port 0, it's the first one on the left
the left
the left
it's Labeled P0
move P0 old to P0 new
holyfuck, turn on skype and a video session, point the camera at the rack
ok move your hand down
down
down
that's up, your other down
down, left, there you go, unplug that one
no, don't fucking drop it, pick it up
that's a yellow cable, the one you dropped is blue, why did you grab that one
where did you unplug that from? put it back
pick up the blue cable
ok move up, up, up, up more, ok the empty left port, plug it in there

I'm summarizing, this actually took an hour. Of course over discord I heard someone say, he's going to kill all our characters when he's off the phone isn't he.......

 

[Sirus7264]

@Montoya Sounds like you have a defective motherboard(or it broke depending how long you have had it.). This could be one of 2 things a pin on the motherboard is damaged for your SATA connection or the wire to your drive was not fully in contact with the drive or the motherboard. i suggest you try to reseat the cord on both the drive and motherboard(the possible damaged one). and see if it is completely dead. I also suggest you replace the wire as maybe it is a contact issue which possibly arced and shorted that portion of the board. You dont want to lose another Sata port so its always good to be cautious.

 

[Montoya]

Or are you sure it wasn't your head bump blood sacrifice that did it?

While no blood was actually spilled, there was enough sharp pain and swearing that possibly was enough of a sacrifice.

I'm summarizing, this actually took an hour. Of course over discord I heard someone say, he's going to kill all our characters when he's off the phone isn't he.......

I bet you did!

your SATA connection or the wire to your drive was not fully in contact with the drive or the motherboard.

Possible, but I made sure to make sure all wires were seated properly. Something made that one single SATA port misbehave.

 

[CrudeSasquatch]

If anyone is wondering, @Hybus didn't kill us, he just stole all my Equipment and the spikes off of my shell.

 

[Montoya]

I may have spoken to soon.

The problem came back!

I also suggest you replace the wire as maybe it is a contact issue which possibly arced and shorted that portion of the board. You dont want to lose another Sata port so its always good to be cautious.

I changed the SATA wire, same problem.

I think Ive narrowed it down to the SSD itself, or the power going to it.

 

[Sraika]

As a sanctified Lord of Telecom, I hereby bless this post, for your perseverance and google searching. As @Stevetank and @CrudeSasquatch can testify, remote supporting someone is brutal. Case in point, last week's online D&D session and I got a call. and they heard the following

"OK I need you to move the cable at Port 0 on the old device to Port 0 on the new device.
No, port 0,
Port 0, it's the first one on the left
the left
the left
it's Labeled P0
move P0 old to P0 new
holyfuck, turn on skype and a video session, point the camera at the rack
ok move your hand down
down
down
that's up, your other down
down, left, there you go, unplug that one
no, don't fucking drop it, pick it up
that's a yellow cable, the one you dropped is blue, why did you grab that one
where did you unplug that from? put it back
pick up the blue cable
ok move up, up, up, up more, ok the empty left port, plug it in there

I'm summarizing, this actually took an hour. Of course over discord I heard someone say, he's going to kill all our characters when he's off the phone isn't he.......

this is exactly what it's like lol

 

[Tealwraith]

While no blood was actually spilled, there was enough sharp pain and swearing that possibly was enough of a sacrifice.

Sharp pain and swearing is generally pleasing to the machine gods, alright.

The gods of steel require actual blood, though.

 

[Sirus7264]

I may have spoken to soon.

The problem came back!



I changed the SATA wire, same problem.

I think Ive narrowed it down to the SSD itself, or the power going to it.

Do you have another computer you can test the drive on? if you do unplug all the drives in that computer then hook it up(If you do get it to boot then please for the love of god move everything to a separate folder(even your operating system). test it a few times then if it does the same thing on the other computer then most likely your drive has either bad pins or the drive is corrupt. SSDs when they die they die instantaniously. It's always good to run them in a raid if possible so you dont lose any important data. Here is some info on Raids

RAID - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Also here is a good video to replace the SATA connector if you are feeling good. from the sounds of it since it went out once and it came back its more likely the connector. if the SSD actually died it shouldn't have come back.

This is the more complicated but best way to fix your connector.

Other option is always save everyting onto 1-2 backup drives(i dont suggest USB drives they brake way to easy).

 

[CosmicTrader]

@Montoya This sounds like a Windows 10 problem similar to why it stopped recognising my WiFi adapter after a Windows 10 update.
Windoss 10 changes IRQ addresses for different peripherals (this happens frequently with each update - different for each person - depends on what peripheral etc)
---> Lock IRQ addresses in the BIOS prior to loading Windows 10....then it is forced to use the correct addresses).
---> You only need to do this once in the BIOS.......You can 'unlock' it anytime in the BIOS if you wish.

This may not be your problem but it is worth mentioning....
Good luck my friend.

 

[Stevetank]

@Hybus is a high lord of telecom. The Oracle has blessed him so!

 

[Cugino83]

As a sanctified Lord of Telecom, I hereby bless this post, for your perseverance and google searching. As @Stevetank and @CrudeSasquatch can testify, remote supporting someone is brutal. Case in point, last week's online D&D session and I got a call. and they heard the following

"OK I need you to move the cable at Port 0 on the old device to Port 0 on the new device.
No, port 0,
Port 0, it's the first one on the left
the left
the left
it's Labeled P0
move P0 old to P0 new
holyfuck, turn on skype and a video session, point the camera at the rack
ok move your hand down
down
down
that's up, your other down
down, left, there you go, unplug that one
no, don't fucking drop it, pick it up
that's a yellow cable, the one you dropped is blue, why did you grab that one
where did you unplug that from? put it back
pick up the blue cable
ok move up, up, up, up more, ok the empty left port, plug it in there

I'm summarizing, this actually took an hour. Of course over discord I heard someone say, he's going to kill all our characters when he's off the phone isn't he.......

For case like that better use a proper LART and the adeguate intimidatory frase, somenthink like: "Hey man shake awake you Fu@#ng neurons and regain sens of up and down, becouse if I need to came there for switching a fu@#ng port I'll dig a shovel in your ass and provide you with a whole body shake "ultras" style".

I tend to work in most case... and on the remaining it provide you a bit of fun....

 

[Mushin]

If a motherboard was called a fatherboard it would just fix itself and technology would advance faster. Come on tech companies, get with it.