Help tracking down a fault

Dacelonid

Bit of a strange problem that I having trouble diagnosing.

Basically every so often, ie not all the time, my computer will fail to start.
The leds will come on and the fans will spin up, then it will restart, and it will keep restarting indefinitely. Basically the only way to get it to boot is to disconnect the power and leave it for a while, although sometimes even that doesn't work (By the way the turning on normally happens in the evening so it has been powered off for at least 18 hours at that stage). One tactic that does seem to work, is to disconnect one of the fans. That has so far always worked.

The other thing is that it could then work perfectly fine for a week or a month without any problems until the problem occurs again.

Once the computer does start, it works perfectly fine. No restarts, no BSOD's, nothing out of the ordinary.

I assume that the PSU may be at fault, but I don't want to splash the cash on a new PSU if I don't have to.

So is there anyway to diagnose problems that occur before the BIOS/UEFI even loads.

• Motherboard - AsRock z68 Pro3
• CPU - Intel i5 2500
• Stock cooler
• Memory - 16Gb G.Skill DDR3 (PC3-10700) Speed 667 MHz
• Harddrive - 500GB Western Digital
• DVD - Standard Toshiba Drive
• PSU - Corsair 520 Watt (with removable cables and a few years old)
• Case - Antec 900
  

yoyo

I would be thinking PSU also, could you borrow one for a while and see if it solves the problem?

Nick

Dacelonid

yoyo wrote: »

I would be thinking PSU also, could you borrow one for a while and see if it solves the problem?

Nick

The only problem with that is, the problem is so intermittent that I may never be sure it is fixed

Monotype

Intermittent problems are usually a faulty PSU's signature.

Faulty RAM or hard drives or corruption are usually more consistent - or coincide with a particular program use.


CPUs nearly never go wrong unless they've been worked heavily for 10 years. The only really thing else is a faulty motherboard. You could try updating the BIOS, but I'd have to go with yoyo and recommend that you get a loan of a PSU and see how that works for you.

Dacelonid

In the end I pulled all the cables, and rewired it using more of the module cables, so that the load on any one line is reduced.
I don't know if it will make any difference, but if it occurs again I guess I know it is the PSU

Thanks

Dacelonid

Ok think i've come up with a possible cause. The cpu heatsink isn't sitting properly on the CPU. Checking the CPU temps now and they are up around the 80 degrees mark, which I am pretty sure is high.
So my current thinking is that the cpu gets too hot, and the safeties kick in and restart. Maybe thats it, maybe not, either way I have a problem where the heat sink isn't doing its job properly

So it looks like one of the pegs/pins/locks or whatever they are called, isn't locking into the motherboard, which means one corner of the heatsink is loose.

Is it possible to buy those things separately, or do I need to buy a new heatsink/fan.

Thanks
Dace

the_syco

A stock cooler would usually go for a fiver or a tenner. Where are ye based?

Dacelonid

I actually managed to get the bent push peg thingy into the hole in the motherboard and it is rock steady now with temps ~45 degrees

Will have to keep an eye on it now to see if the same fault occurs again or if I have actually managed to find the culprit