pc wont boot

Sweeney47

Well-known member
So i got my pc back today, plug in turn on. Lots of beeping from the new cooler with its display showing a "!"... This cleared after a while but although it powers on, i do not get to bios. Ive tried taking out the ram and placing in one by one but no change. Tried reseating the graphics card but no change... Anyone have any ideas?
 

Sweeney47

Well-known member
Well I had an thought that it might be the GPU (something that PCS did stuff to) so took out the original one and put in an old 8800GT I have, I got a bios beep.

So seems PCS has broken my 5870... I'm not paying £35 to get it sent back and im certainly not going to pay them for the replacement card... :mad:
 

keynes

Multiverse Poster
Sorry to hear that, I am having some issues as well with my pc but hopefully everything will get sort it. I assume the £35 is to arrange the delivery, did you get charge for the initial repair?
 

Karnor00

Bright Spark
Are you sure the beeping is from the cooler and not from the motherboard? Because the motherboard beeping is usually an indicator of a particular problem - the number of beeps indicates what the particular fault is (the motherboard manual should explain how many beeps mean what).
 

JakAttack

Resident Metalhead
Staff member
Moderator
Hello there Sweeney,

I'm sorry to hear about the issues, if you have just received it back you never get recharged for the collection and redelivery, it wouldn't be fair to do so, only if it was a seperate fault months later. All the components tested passed and it was working when we sent it, so I'm not sure what has changed in the meantime, if you wish, you can send the card back and we will pay for your postage as the rest of the system seems to be okay, or we can bring the PC back, but the £35 C&R would not be re-charged.

Are you sure the beeping is from the cooler and not from the motherboard? Because the motherboard beeping is usually an indicator of a particular problem - the number of beeps indicates what the particular fault is (the motherboard manual should explain how many beeps mean what).

I think he meant the single BIOS POST beep to confirm everything is okay.
 

Sweeney47

Well-known member
The beeping is definitely from the cooler, it did it again when I turned it on this morning, the cooler has a display which shows a ! while it's beeping (with high rpm) which calms down after 15 seconds and the ! disappears, along with the beeping and turns to two arrows. What causes this I don't know!

From what I've checked in the mean time, the graphics card wasn't sitting in the pci slot correctly - wasn't clipped in so im guessing during transport it had become loose and caused damage, I cannot get the card to sit properly in the slot anymore so is continuously loose which is possibly what is preventing the boot. I tried an old 8800GT and I got the bios beep so the problem must be due to the card...

When it did come loose it has bent the connection & pins on the mobo for my front fan which is just below the card so there has been further damage from this issue - the fan appears to still work...

Also the bottom three dust filter segments (on PCS Maelstrom tower) were dented right into the front fan on delivery so somewhere along the lines it was not looked after!

Problem is: my parts are no longer covered by warranty so If the card is broken will I have to pay for another one? Even though it was working while PCS had it (passed all tests) and got broken either at PCS-post testing or during transit? Surely that's covered under some warranty/guarantee?
 

tom_gr7

Life Serving
Gutted to hear about ya troubles mate, sounds like either a call to pcs or wait for a response on here.
 

Sweeney47

Well-known member
So it appears PCS' "testing" is incompetent...

I got through to PCS who told me to send the card back by itself, which I haven't had chance to do. But I thought that while I was cleaning out the belly of the beast I'd run some tests.

First test was to try the graphics card in my alienware, sure enough, the alienware wont boot with the card in... so there is definately a problem with the card (of which I will not pay for as it worked when I last used it and passed testing... apparently)

So next test was to try an old card (under PCS' suggestion) and continue to use my machine while my new card was fixed... so I throw in an 8800GTX and boot the system. It gets to the Windows page and bluescreen, try all sorts of fixes through the system restore stuff etc and it continues to bluescreen... Then I read the report from the error when it said it couldnt repair the system (and I have a picture of this) it states that the last successful boot was on 3/2/2012... the day before it broke originally... so in all of PCS' testing they never managed to boot my system so how in the hell did it "PASS" all the "TESTS"? Part of their testing isn't to see if the system boots? What sort of testing is that?

So rather than having to send the card back, im going to have to ring them again at the weekend to get a RMA for my entire system and again book two days off work for collection and return...

Really not happy... :mad:<--- see...
 

Frenchy

Prolific Poster
Rather than jumping to conclusions how about talking to PCS first, finding out exactly what they tested and how, and raising your concerns with them. As you know they often do a restore to a initial state for sending out new pcs, might they possibly do a system restore to the point at which you sent it back to them, so that anything they installed while testing was removed? In which case wouldnt this also reset all the logs such as last sucessful boot?
 

Sweeney47

Well-known member
I tried a system restore myself and the last available system restore point was the 2/2/2012 from Windows critical updates... So using that theory the last successful boot should have read some point on 2/2...
 

Frenchy

Prolific Poster
I tried a system restore myself and the last available system restore point was the 2/2/2012 from Windows critical updates... So using that theory the last successful boot should have read some point on 2/2...

Possibly, but I dont know how PCS's tools work, jumping to conclusions though will not get you anywhere though, till you actually speak to them and find out exactly whats gone on id reserve judgement.
 

Buzz

Master
I agree with Frenchy on this one. I cant believe PCS would not bother testing it, or sending it back faulty again. Surely this would only cost them money and time.

Id be more worried about the method of delivery because since iv been coming here iv been reading more and more issues with comps and good few seem to be from damage inc my own from it being dropped or mishandled. Either way iv learned that getting stressed and pointing fingers doesnt help anyone.

I do sincerely hope you get it sorted soon though as I do know its frustrating
 

Sweeney47

Well-known member
They can do tests that don't involve actually booting the PC and the fact that it says the last successful boot was the day before it randomly leaked whilst not in use, on a day where there is no restore point it looks to me that they didn't try booting it but just checked the circuits...

My friend used to work at Dell tech support and has since told me this is what a lot of them used to do...

My case was dented when I got it so it must have taken a knock and I was willing to assign blame for this to DPD, until the error report told me that the system hadn't been booted since 2 weeks before PCS got it!

This is made all the more annoying that I work 9-5 except for Fridays so cannot contact PCS until the weekends, thus delaying the repair of my PC even more evident by the 1month 12 days since it was last booted by me...
 

Frenchy

Prolific Poster
Just calm down, one minute u were blaming one company, now ur blaming another based on what you believe are facts but are in fact just opinions based on incomplete information. Wait till you've spoken to them before you decide whether they have actually tested it or not. More than likley you have no idea about their testing process how it affects restore points, boot records etc.

You can always email them, you seem to have enough time to post so why not send them a webmail from your admin panel?
 

Sweeney47

Well-known member
I was calm...

Well, somewhere along the lines my PC took a beating... this is a fact, more likely it was DPD/Delivery than PCS but I can't be sure can I?

But im pretty sure that if you system restore back a week, you can then system restore forwards again? Been a while though...

If they test a system and it works, why would they bother not only restoring it back to a previous point - undoing any software fixes etc but then take the time to fake the last boot point, when surely if they truely have fixed a PC their customer is never going to get that last boot report...

And finally... I've emailed twice since my PC originally broke, one took 5 days to get a response which basically said call them... The second I never got a response from after 6 days (they only opened it on the 5th day) by which time I had a chance to call them. So from a tech support standpoint their webmail is useless...
 

Frenchy

Prolific Poster
I was calm...

Well, somewhere along the lines my PC took a beating... this is a fact, more likely it was DPD/Delivery than PCS but I can't be sure can I?

But im pretty sure that if you system restore back a week, you can then system restore forwards again? Been a while though...

If they test a system and it works, why would they bother not only restoring it back to a previous point - undoing any software fixes etc but then take the time to fake the last boot point, when surely if they truely have fixed a PC their customer is never going to get that last boot report...

And finally... I've emailed twice since my PC originally broke, one took 5 days to get a response which basically said call them... The second I never got a response from after 6 days (they only opened it on the 5th day) by which time I had a chance to call them. So from a tech support standpoint their webmail is useless...


I think the last couple of days im almost ready to give up helping people with some of the responses people post. As I said before unless you know how they test, what they use to test, what they specifically do ina test process, how windows works in depth, how administrator functions in windows can be used to rollback certain things then I really don't see how you can even begin to form an opinion on how rubbish/not rubbish PCS or any other persons testing is on your machine. You are guessing because you have seen a restore date and last boot date, guessing at this point until you have talked to them is completely pointless.

Is there any harm in emailing them again anyway? The worst position you will possibly be in is the same one you are now, and from experience my webmails have always been answered very quickly.
 

Sweeney47

Well-known member
I'm not exactly the first person to have had their machine tested, delivered, but broken... Either this is down to PCS not being thorough enough in tests OR not securing the product properly OR Using a rubbish courier. Back when I bought my PC there was a guy called SteveUK who had his graphics card delivered broken about 3 times, after which point PCS gave him a free upgrade to a new card.

Having looked closely at my PC for the first time since these issues I've come to notice that my card doesnt actually clip into the PCI slot, the board bit that slots in has a bit of a lip on it which prevents the clip from locking in... PCS must have known this so is it any surprise that in transit it's come loose, broken & bent the pins for my front fan? Again, I don't know if the card was broken pre or post delivery...

Also at no point have you tried to "help" me, all you've done is tell me my opinion is wrong, over and over again!

You may have had good email support but mine has been lackluster at best and I'll just wait until tomorrow and call them in the morning...
 

Frenchy

Prolific Poster
I'm not exactly the first person to have had their machine tested, delivered, but broken... Either this is down to PCS not being thorough enough in tests OR not securing the product properly OR Using a rubbish courier. Back when I bought my PC there was a guy called SteveUK who had his graphics card delivered broken about 3 times, after which point PCS gave him a free upgrade to a new card.

Having looked closely at my PC for the first time since these issues I've come to notice that my card doesnt actually clip into the PCI slot, the board bit that slots in has a bit of a lip on it which prevents the clip from locking in... PCS must have known this so is it any surprise that in transit it's come loose, broken & bent the pins for my front fan? Again, I don't know if the card was broken pre or post delivery...

Also at no point have you tried to "help" me, all you've done is tell me my opinion is wrong, over and over again!

You may have had good email support but mine has been lackluster at best and I'll just wait until tomorrow and call them in the morning...

I have told you that you are jumping to conclusions which is not helping your cause. You are quick to blame one company, then quick to blame another, all I have said is atleast wait till you have been in contact with them and have a full picture before you form an opinion. So yes currently your opinions such as PCS testing isnt very good is based completely on guesswork at this point in time, which doesn;t help any one on this forum.

As I said, is there any harm in emailing them, yes you may have had trouble before but didnt your PC break during the time in which they stated they were extremely busy and had a big backlog of emails? Yes I have always had extremely quick responses but just because you have had slow response in the past does not mean you will this time. Try emailing them, itll take you 2 minutes, no more than writing a post on here and if you don't get one back you can ring them, if you do though well great. How is that not trying to help? I'm offering you my advice on how to contact PCS, and to stop being so negative, I know its frustrating when things don;t work, believe me Ive been there.

What possible reason would PCS have (please give me some examples because I would love to know) to send you a broken PC back? It is completely in their interest to fully test your system, otherwise it is just going to cost them more money and time and probably lose your future custom.
 

Rakk

The Awesome
Moderator
Can everyone please try to calm down.

Yes, it is incredible frustrating when something goes wrong, especially if multiple things go wrong, but I'm sure a solution will be found.

Sweeney47, are you using the email/messaging system in your admin pages on the main site, if not, use it instead of normal email, it will tend to be quicker through there than just using the standard email address for enquiries.
 
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