New computer won't POST

[mstcharles]

Hello,
Last week, I got all the parts to build my new computer. Everything went smoothly except for the ram. I bought a four stick 32gb kit, and at least one of the dimms was bad. I could tell because it wouldn't POST, and the motherboard's red ram LED was lit. So I put in two sticks, and that was fine. (I bought another set of the same ram to replace. I had a copy of Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit to install, and found out recently that you need Pro to use 32gb of ram, so I ordered that.)
Then I started having BSOD problems, but that turned out to be a wonky usb game controller driver, and those problems went away.

A couple days go by, everything's fine. It turns on and off fine, plays games smoothly, etc. I successfully update the bios with Asus's AI suite software. Get current nvidia drivers. Windows is all updated and happy. Microsoft Security Essentials. All is good. It's plugged into a surge protector too.

Yesterday, I go to turn my computer on, and it doesn't POST. I hold the power button to shut it down. I open the case, and watch the red lights on the mobo. I press power again, and the CPU and RAM lights flash, like they should, but the rest don't light (VGA, Boot). All the fans spin up. The monitor doesn't wake. I notice that I have my two DIMMs in the wrong slots, so I move them into the correct positions. Success! And the whole day is spent playing Dishonored. No problems! Max settings, no hiccups. I had been monitoring my CPU and GPU temps when I was getting BSOD's playing games- CPU maxed around 40C, and GPU around 60C. Fine!

TODAY. It won't POST again! The new ram has arrived, so I say what the heck, and put all four sticks in. No good- the mobo still briefly lights CPU, then RAM, and nothing. I try pulling all but one stick. Same thing. I flash the CMOS. I press the MemOK! button- it flashes and the mobo resets itself a few times, like it should, but still no POST. I reseat power cables- 24pin and 8 pin, plus the two PCI express power cables in my video card. I reseat the video card. I pull ALL the ram out- this time the ram LED stays lit, like it should. I try the TPU switch, and the EPU switch. Nothing gets it to POST! Once, early in my testing, it did flash four LEDs in a row- ram, cpu, vga, and I swear the boot LED too- but then nothing. My monitor is plugged in, DVI plugged in, and speakers too. No POST, no BIOS, no Windows.

What is going on?
Thank you in advance!

System:
OS Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 7601 Multiprocessor Free Service Pack 1
CPU Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3570K CPU @ 3.40GHz
Motherboard ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. P8Z77-V
Memory 16.00 GB
Graphics Card NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570
Sound Card (1) High Definition Audio Device (2) NVIDIA High Definitio
Screen Resolution 1920 x 1200 x 32 bits (4294967296 colors) @ 59 Hz
PSU OCZ ModXStream 700 watt
Cooling CoolerMaster Hyper 212 Evo
Hard Drives (1) SAMSUNG SSD 830 Series ATA Device (2) WDC WD1002FAEX-00Z3A0 ATA Device (3) WDC WD1502FAEX-007BA0 ATA Device (4) WDC WD5000AAKS-00UU3A0 ATA Device
Case: Antec Three Hundred Two

[Hood]

You have the same system as I do except I only have 8 GB of RAM. I may have gotten lucky, but my P8Z77-V has worked flawlessly for over 2 months, and scores 22.4 GB/s RAM throughput with a $40 set of 1600 MHz. I opted to only use 8 GB because I read about too many others having problems populating all slots or using 8 GB modules. Since I never use over 4 GB and don't use a RAM drive, it just seemed better to stick with 2 x 4 GB modules. It's not just Asus, all Z77 boards seem to have a high incidence of incompatibility with certain RAM configurations.
But you say it won't POST now even with one stick in the default slot? Sounds like it may be a power supply problem, or possibly just a bad board. Try a known good power supply if you have a spare laying around, and try one known good 4 GB stick of 1333 or 1600 RAM if you have one available, and unplug everything but the boot drive. External drives, internal drives, keyboards, mice, headsets, microphones, etc. have all been known to cause boot problems at times. Also remove the board and check for any possible way it's grounding against the mobo tray. Check the Hyper 212 and see how tight it's mounted - you should be able to swivel the cooler fairly easily, if you can't move it, you may have the bracket lined up wrong causing it to be too tight (I did this once and had no video output until I did it right). And lastly, God forbid, check the CPU socket for bent pins (using a magnifying glass), memory problems are often associated with 1 or 2 bent pins. And I hope it's not that, because Asus won't honor the warranty if there's bent pins involved. Good luck, and let us know in this thread what you come up with.