My PC Win10 won't post up and gives no beeps -how to find the culprit

My PC Win 10 won't post up and gives no beeps. Simply pressing the power button shuts the power off instantly, I don't have to hold it for seven seconds.
Recent changes include replacing one Logitech trackball with another trackball a month ago. But about a week or two ago strange things started to happen to a variety of programs and on my desktop icons. In some programs I would see a window which said zoom and the focus would zoom out to 300 to 600%. The icons on my desktop would blow up to what seemed like 50 times the normal size of the 60 icons on my desktop, overlapping each other and a total mess.
I found out that if I right clicked on the desktop I could set the icons back to "small" and the icons would resume their normal size.
For a week I substituted a generic mouse for the trackball, and a generic keyboard for the fancy Microsoft keyboard (which I used for two years without issue) with all the special buttons on it. The problem seemed to go away
A few days ago I put them both back. Then, just today the zooming thing on all kinds of different programs started happening again.
So I decided to only swap keyboards in order begin to isolate whether it was the motherboard, the video chip on the motherboard, the Microsoft keyboard, or the trackball mouse.
So I turned off the computer and plugged in the generic keyboard and after that is when the computer failed to post up or boot with just a black screen on the monitor.
Local computer shop fellow mentioned to me a couple weeks ago that it couldn't be video chip because the taskbar was not blowing up and zooming out but only programs.
I guess my question is: could it merely be the video chip and if I pop in a video card will this possibly fix the problem and account for the no postup?’
UPDATE: I removed the hard drive and mounted it in an external enclosure on my laptop. In Windows disk management, it shows the hard drive without letters, without the four partitions but calls it "healthy".
I installed data recovery software and a quick scan revealed the individual files are intact, as I opened a couple of word documents.
Is it possible that the hard drive didn't actually fail but just that it's partitions got lost and I can use some type of partition recovery software to find the old partitions locations restore them and restore my operating system, my apps, and my data partition?
So my question is this: did the hard drive fail or did the motherboard fail or did the motherboard failing wipe out the hard drive, or did an attached device like a mouse or keyboard fail and wipe you girl both of them out?
I just happen to purchase a new hard drive about two weeks ago having a feeling that my PVR hard drive might fail soon and anyway it would be a good backup in case my PCs hard drive failed, even though I thought that unlikely as the computer is only two years old.
I have at least two Acronis backup images of the system partition and the apps partition and I have in the past laid them into a new hard drive and then just had to sort out what I guess you call the HAL level. I am prepared to do that if necessary but I'm confused on which way to turn at the moment.
Data recovery software should enable me to recover all my data at least in a unnamed way (is that called RAW form? ) Which is a pain in the ass because hundreds of word documents, audio files and pictures would have to be opened and then renamed).
But I don't know how to figure out what failed. Do I install the new HD into the case format it do all the restoration work and then find out that IT gets fried by some devise or the MB...
Thanks for considering my problem,
Rollo

It's a loooong post :) but it doesn't really help diagnose anything unfortunately.

Some of M$ fancy new keyboards have Zoom sliders built into them , perhaps you bumped it or the Keyboard software was acting up? however I don't see that causing the Hard-drive to fail.

Install Minitool Partition Wizard 9 (free see below) on your laptop and have a look at the "failed" HD and post some pics of what it shows. ( use Snipping Tool in Windows Accessories to make screen pics) . If all the Partitions are gone or it is seen as RAW then you may have a drive failure , however that in itself should not stop the computer from Posting at least.

If the computer won't post , it is more likely you have a motherboard/cpu or power-supply failure , possibly a power surge fried something, eg if the PS failed it may have fried other components on it's way out.


MiniTool Free Partition Manager for Window 8/7/vista/xp | Partition Wizard Free Edition

You might have a faulty PSU or something is overloading the PSU causing it to shut off. Disconnect everything from the PSU and try the paperclip test to ensure the PSU turns on - see http://www.wikihow.com/Check-a-Power-Supply

If the PSU doesn't turn on and show the correct voltages then you need a new PSU.

Then reconnect devices one by one and check the PSU supply is stable. I would suspect high power consumption devices like the motherboard or GPU first. Worst luck would be to have a motherboard which takes too much current causing the PSU to shut off

1. Disconnect everything from the computer .. Keyboard mouse, Printer ext hdd usb drives. Now power On only with monitor connected and if it completes the post.. Try to find the culprit by connecting all the devices one by one.
2. Disconnected power cable and press and hold power button for 30 sec and try to power on..
If above method fails.. Try to re seat Memory cartridges(ram).

Yes the keyboard does have a zoom slider even tho I never used it. And I now understand the method of checking the power unit within voltmeter and will get on it today. Thanks for your feedback,
Rollo

Kbird said:

It's a loooong post :) but it doesn't really help diagnose anything unfortunately.

Some of M$ fancy new keyboards have Zoom sliders built into them , perhaps you bumped it or the Keyboard software was acting up? however I don't see that causing the Hard-drive to fail.

Install Minitool Partition Wizard 9 (free see below) on your laptop and have a look at the "failed" HD and post some pics of what it shows. ( use Snipping Tool in Windows Accessories to make screen pics) . If all the Partitions are gone or it is seen as RAW then you may have a drive failure , however that in itself should not stop the computer from Posting at least.

If the computer won't post , it is more likely you have a motherboard/cpu or power-supply failure , possibly a power surge fried something, eg if the PS failed it may have fried other components on it's way out.


MiniTool Free Partition Manager for Window 8/7/vista/xp | Partition Wizard Free Edition

Kbird. I forgot to say that the Minitool Partition Wizard couldn't recover the partitions after quick and a complete scans. It looks like I'll be able to recover all my files but will take a month or so to rename and refile them all.
Thanks
Rollo

Kbird said:

It's a loooong post :) but it doesn't really help diagnose anything unfortunately.

Some of M$ fancy new keyboards have Zoom sliders built into them , perhaps you bumped it or the Keyboard software was acting up? however I don't see that causing the Hard-drive to fail.

Install Minitool Partition Wizard 9 (free see below) on your laptop and have a look at the "failed" HD and post some pics of what it shows. ( use Snipping Tool in Windows Accessories to make screen pics) . If all the Partitions are gone or it is seen as RAW then you may have a drive failure , however that in itself should not stop the computer from Posting at least.

If the computer won't post , it is more likely you have a motherboard/cpu or power-supply failure , possibly a power surge fried something, eg if the PS failed it may have fried other components on it's way out.


MiniTool Free Partition Manager for Window 8/7/vista/xp | Partition Wizard Free Edition

Manish, OK sounds like a good procedure to follow. Does your point #2 only apply to laptops? I can't understand how that would work on my desktop.
Thanks for your time,
Rollo

manish9009 said:

1. Disconnect everything from the computer .. Keyboard mouse, Printer ext hdd usb drives. Now power On only with monitor connected and if it completes the post.. Try to find the culprit by connecting all the devices one by one.
2. Disconnected power cable and press and hold power button for 30 sec and try to power on..
If above method fails.. Try to re seat Memory cartridges(ram).

One more question- if the partitions are lost but I can recover all my files from it what does that say about the health of the HD? Windows Disk Manager says it is 'Healthy', do you think it has sustained any physical damage if I am able to reformat it?
Rollo

Kbird said:

It's a loooong post :) but it doesn't really help diagnose anything unfortunately.

Some of M$ fancy new keyboards have Zoom sliders built into them , perhaps you bumped it or the Keyboard software was acting up? however I don't see that causing the Hard-drive to fail.

Install Minitool Partition Wizard 9 (free see below) on your laptop and have a look at the "failed" HD and post some pics of what it shows. ( use Snipping Tool in Windows Accessories to make screen pics) . If all the Partitions are gone or it is seen as RAW then you may have a drive failure , however that in itself should not stop the computer from Posting at least.

If the computer won't post , it is more likely you have a motherboard/cpu or power-supply failure , possibly a power surge fried something, eg if the PS failed it may have fried other components on it's way out.


MiniTool Free Partition Manager for Window 8/7/vista/xp | Partition Wizard Free Edition

OK, I finally figured out how to do a voltage test on the PSU and the results are:
+12v 12.14
5v 5.15
3v 3.14
-12v 11.05

I guess that means the MB is toast if it is getting power from all levels but doesn't post up. Is that a correct assumption at this point? MY suspicion is that it is the Keyboard zoom slider which shorted everything out. I will not use it again unless I can open it up and disconnect the slider circuit down the road in my spare time (unlikely!).
Rollo

Steve C said:

You might have a faulty PSU or something is overloading the PSU causing it to shut off. Disconnect everything from the PSU and try the paperclip test to ensure the PSU turns on - see http://www.wikihow.com/Check-a-Power-Supply

If the PSU doesn't turn on and show the correct voltages then you need a new PSU.

Then reconnect devices one by one and check the PSU supply is stable. I would suspect high power consumption devices like the motherboard or GPU first. Worst luck would be to have a motherboard which takes too much current causing the PSU to shut off

As I said to Steve C "OK, I finally figured out how to do a voltage test on the PSU and the results are:
+12v 12.14
5v 5.15
3v 3.14
-12v 11.05

I guess that means the MB is toast if it is getting power from all levels but doesn't post up. Is that a correct assumption at this point? MY suspicion is that it is the Keyboard zoom slider which shorted everything out. I will not use it again unless I can open it up and disconnect the slider circuit down the road in my spare time (unlikely!).
Rollo

Rollo said:

One more question- if the partitions are lost but I can recover all my files from it what does that say about the health of the HD? Windows Disk Manager says it is 'Healthy', do you think it has sustained any physical damage if I am able to reformat it?
Rollo