Power Problems

TwoShedsJackson

I'm having an issue with my PC too, wonder if anyone can help. I built it about a year ago and it has worked perfectly up to last night. I left it running overnight and when got up this morning it had powered off at some point during the night.

I tried powering it on but nothing was happening. Checked the external power cord etc. everything seemed fine. Eventually it did start to power up (the keyboard Num Lock light flickered for a few seconds first, then the PC booted up).

It got into windows then after about three minutes the desktop went blank, then the PC shut down. It has just recently been cleaned out with an air duster so i dont think dust etc is the problem.

Once it was off, it refused to power on again at all, and at that point I had to leave for work.

I'm assuming so far that this points to something shorted out on the motherboard, but what is my best way to go about diagnosing this problem? If it won't even power on I can't check the motherboard codes etc.

8T8

I moved your problem to a separate thread so it can be dealt with separately from joshcorks.

It could be a power supply issue from the sounds of it if you can borrow one from another PC even a friends temporarily and plug it into your and see if it powers up it will let you know if it is the PSU & what you need to replace.

Stephen

^^^ I agree.
What make and model is the current PSU? Is the PC a self-build or a Dell or other OEM?

joshcork

What do you mean by

It has just recently been cleaned out with an air duster so i dont think dust etc is the problem.

what exactly did that entail, perhaps something was hit or loosened when that was done.
The num lock flickering isn't a normal thing right?
Do you have a surge protector between the wall socket and PC?
How old is the PSU and what are your specs?

I'd say clear the CMOS disconnect anything not essential to get the screen up just in case the PSU is dying and not supplying a stable enough supply. As 8T8 says best to try another PSU if you have one handy

TwoShedsJackson

joshcork wrote:

What do you mean by



what exactly did that entail, perhaps something was hit or loosened when that was done.
The num lock flickering isn't a normal thing right?
Do you have a surge protector between the wall socket and PC?
How old is the PSU and what are your specs?

I'd say clear the CMOS disconnect anything not essential to get the screen up just in case the PSU is dying and not supplying a stable enough supply. As 8T8 says best to try another PSU if you have one handy

I just used a can of compressed air to get dust off the fan intakes and from around the PCI slots etc. The PC is self-built and the power supply along with almost everything else in it, is just over a year old. The power supply is a NorthQ 500W Quiet Fan as seen here: http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=313804 I have two DVD re-writers, a Sapphire Radeon X1900 and two hard disks running off that.

I already took out the graphics card and reseated it to be sure it hadn't been knocked slightly loose.

The RAM in the system is older than the rest of it as I took that out of the last Dell I had, the RAM is around three years old.

I don't have a spare power supply unfortunately so I guess I'll have to start by taking out RAM sticks one at a time to see if it boots up but the fact that it simply sits there and does nothing when the power switch is pressed is pointing to the power supply I suppose.

8T8

NorthQ are very poor quality PSU's which would further increase my suspicion is the root cause.

If you have a friend with a PC you can ask just bring over your PC and ask to plug in the ATX power connector into the motherboard just to see if it powers on (you don't even have to pull the PSU from their case just unplug it and plug into yours).

TwoShedsJackson

Really, I'd heard good things about NorthQ before I got it - what are the best brands out there?

Anti

TwoShedsJackson wrote:

Really, I'd heard good things about NorthQ before I got it - what are the best brands out there?

seasonic, enermax, hiper, corsair and a few select others. But seasonic is usually the safest best as they are extreemly efficient and quiet. And dont ever buy a jeantech psu from pcworld.

DirkVoodoo

Can't believe you didn't mention tagan anti

Any chance you can grab a spare/friend's/steal power supply to see if it is the root cause.

Anti

DirkVoodoo wrote:

Can't believe you didn't mention tagan anti

Any chance you can grab a spare/friend's/steal power supply to see if it is the root cause.

Yeah tagan too, dunno how i forgot about them

stay away from forton source too

Stephen

I had heard good things about Fortron?

SwampThing

joshcork wrote:

I'd say clear the CMOS disconnect anything not essential to get the screen up just in case the PSU is dying and not supplying a stable enough supply. As 8T8 says best to try another PSU if you have one handy

joshcork; not to start an argument but just a point on your suggestion.
Is clearing the CMOS not a little extreme as a first action? I'd be more inclined to to follow 8T8's suggestion first, then start pulling bits out and clearing the CMOS.
The OP could be an inexperienced user and might just assume the info you're giving him is the sequence to follow. He then ends up with a probable simple enough PSU problem, but also has a machine with the innards out on the floor and the CMOS cleared.

I just think that people in the know should gear their answers, in some respects, to the relative experience of the OP.

Anyway, gripe over!

joshcork

Fair point but I was thinking that as he had the PC on over night that previously had been working fine only to the discover that it was dead the next morning perhaps he had a power surge or something. Perhaps something had been hurt somehow, I'm not smart enough to know how or what precisely, but there are only a few things you can have affect on at the mother board level, I was thinking of minimizing the avenues for error.

Anyway clearing the CMOS isn't that bigger deal TwoShedsJackson says he built the PC himself so it's fair to say he's at least familiar with it all. If he's made adjustments to the BIOS then he knows enough, if not then clearing it will only reset to the Defaults settings that they would have been since from when the PC was first built (unless some other person went at it then TwoShedsJackson would surely know and likely ask that person or here).

My thinking about taking bits out was if again a power surge had damaged the PSU so that it wasn't providing enough power for all points or a component so the mobo wouldn't then initialize.


Forgot to ask if the machine is working at all any progress TwoShedsJackson

I suppose you are right though i didn't make it clear that following 8T8 advise as a first course is what to do but I stand by the other stuff as a next step, correct me if I'm wrong there though.

TwoShedsJackson

It's been working fine the last week or so - I had the CPU overclocked at 2.4 GHz from 2 GHz so I returned that to its default and no problems since. It seems likely it was just a power surge overnight so I'll get a proper surge protector and see how I go from here.