So I just started my second year in college and brought my new gaming rig up. I built this thing back on the 4th of July weekend and it has been running great until today. I plug it in once I get setup in my dorm room and it just gets stuck at the motherboard splash screen during bootup. I've tried unplugging RAM, HDD to no avail, have unplugged the system and don't have any idea why this is happening. It is extraordinarily hot in my room but I don't think heat is the issue. Any ideas?

It's stuck at the motherboard splash screen or does it keep restarting?

For some reason I keep wanting to suggest plugging the video into the chip (the plugin on the motherboard) instead of the graphics card, but I don't think that will work because you are getting video. Hey, my gut might be an idiot, but you might as well try it.

In the meantime, does the hard drive make any weird noises, or even the humming noise it should make when it turns on? Did any of the innards get shaken slightly out during the ride to your doom?

Unplug all drives (i.e. DVD/Blu-Ray/HDD) and all USB devices (except the keyboard) and see if you get past the splash screen.

Go into the BIOS and check temps to make sure heat isn't the issue.

If I had to guess, I'd say you have a busted hard drive.

sounds like something popped loose during transport. I had this happen to me once. I fixed my problem by unplugging every cable and component, then plugging them back in.

If this isn't the case, a computer freezing during post (the boot sequence) means that there is a failed motherboard.

Yep, if you just transported it then something getting knocked out of place seems most likely. Open it up and make sure everything is seated properly (components, cables, power cables etc.) Power to something would be my hunch.

Stuck on splash screen.. Can you still interact with it or is totally frozen by this point? Not sure exactly what might be the cause if it was running fine before (and booted to your OS), would immediately think it was a problem with your MBR/OS setup as if you didn't have one or the bios/mobo can no longer find the drive it's on, or it's corrupted. No errors pop up about the operating system during boot-up?

It doesn't sound like your unit is finding a bootable device. Like others have said, reseat your connections. If that doesn't work, looks like you're needing a new HDD. If you're lucky, it might just be a bad SATA connector or cable.

Check all the connections. Sounds like a HDD issue though, after the MOBO splash screen, it should boot the OS. Try checking the SATA cables and power cables. Good luck!

Couple things you can try............

Resetting the Bios/Cmos = To do this just simply take out the battery thats on the motherboard, this stores all the info so the comp can remember bios settings n stuff, this will just reset the bios back to factory default.. the battery is a round one not hard to find....

Switching the back of the powersupply off, and then back on again, sometimes a PSU can get locked up that way though i dont think this is your issue......... But i will say if it was overheating, the whole thing would most likely just turn off, to prevent damage to cpu/motherboard ect.. if it was overheating on the GPU, your screen would just turn off......

Do proper RAM test... Simply unplugging them isn't always enough, just try 1 RAM stick (if you have 2) and try putting them in a different RAM slot also...... not plugging them back into the same slots... you never said if you tried booting up with no ram sticks in them...

Need some more info from you about this, when it gets stuck, can you hear the harddrives still chugging along? does it sound like its booting up? just the screen is stuck on the splash screen? Do you hear any beebs? and if you do what kind are they? make sure the GPU is firmly in the pci express slot.... Try a different powersupply if all else fails......... I wouldn't have thought its a dead motherboard but you never know i guess... What are you system specs?