Power but no boot :(

hots · 05-12-2014 10:37am #1

Hi all,

Having the worst luck with stuff lately, rent up, boiler dead and now the PC is on the fritz.

Basically been running a build (after lots of advice from the building & upgrading forum) for nearly 2 years now without any problems but yesterday when powering on, the fans whirred and lit up for a couple of seconds without booting and no peripherals got any power... I turned the power off at the PSU and tried again and all was fine for the whole evening. I went to power on again this morning and the same happened except now it won't boot at all after trying turning the PSU power off.

I'm at work now but want to take a look at it tonight, am I right in thinking I just need to start taking bits out to find the cause of the problem? Seems like RAM out first is the general consensus and hope for some mb beeps...

Any other advice

anonyanony · 05-12-2014 10:40am

hobbit of the shire wrote: »

Hi all,

Having the worst luck with stuff lately, rent up, boiler dead and now the PC is on the fritz.

Basically been running a build (after lots of advice from the building & upgrading forum) for nearly 2 years now without any problems but yesterday when powering on, the fans whirred and lit up for a couple of seconds without booting and no peripherals got any power... I turned the power off at the PSU and tried again and all was fine for the whole evening. I went to power on again this morning and the same happened except now it won't boot at all after trying turning the PSU power off.

I'm at work now but want to take a look at it tonight, am I right in thinking I just need to start taking bits out to find the cause of the problem? Seems like RAM out first is the general consensus and hope for some mb beeps...

Any other advice

Fans spin? First reset your cmos see if that fixes it, then strip it down and see if it works, if it does start add one thing at a time.

Halfbaker · 05-12-2014 12:33pm

What motherboard have you? Does it have a little led display for showing fault codes?

CountyHurler · 05-12-2014 1:36pm

It's either a problem with the mother board or the power supply. If it was on my desk, I would try a new power supply with it and see if it booted..

hots · 05-12-2014 2:01pm

anonyanony wrote: »

Fans spin? First reset your cmos see if that fixes it, then strip it down and see if it works, if it does start add one thing at a time.

Yeah fans all spin, what's a cmos? I've enough knowledge to put the parts together but not enough to know what they are!

Halfbaker wrote: »

What motherboard have you? Does it have a little led display for showing fault codes?

Pretty sure it's an ASrock Z77 pro4 and as far as I know no LEDs...

CountyHurler wrote: »

It's either a problem with the mother board or the power supply. If it was on my desk, I would try a new power supply with it and see if it booted..

Thanks, wouldn't have a spare psu at home but might try and borrow one if the other stuff doesn't work.

Thanks guys

anonyanony · 05-12-2014 2:12pm

hobbit of the shire wrote: »

Yeah fans all spin, what's a cmos? I've enough knowledge to put the parts together but not enough to know what they are!

Pretty sure it's an ASrock Z77 pro4 and as far as I know no LEDs...

Thanks, wouldn't have a spare psu at home but might try and borrow one if the other stuff doesn't work.

Thanks guys

Some mb have a button on the bottom of it or the back to clear it and reset the bios, look up the manual on how to do it if there is no button

hots · 06-12-2014 11:48am

Ok need more help if anyone's around... I disconnected harddrive, ssd, dvd, graphics & wireless. Powered on and it runs ok, so went to add in parts 1 by 1 and started with the ssd, when I connected just the ssd power cable it was fine again but when I connected the SATA cable it goes back to a flash of power and dead again?

hots · 06-12-2014 12:03pm

Okay scratch that, I've connected the ssd and it powers on now... Does this sort of intermittence lead to a PSU problem? It's a Coolermaster 550 Bronze one which should be plenty for the entire rig, nevermind having just the ssd plugged in.

hots · 06-12-2014 12:52pm

Another update, so decided to keep adding parts, running fine with every one up until graphics card where it's failed again...

With it working then not working it must be psu?

anonyanony · 06-12-2014 12:59pm

hobbit of the shire wrote: »

Another update, so decided to keep adding parts, running fine with every one up until graphics card where it's failed again...

With it working then not working it must be psu?

Can you remove unneeded power drains then try it again with the gpu, does your psu have another set of power connectors for the gpu to try.

there is the chance it's the gpu not the psu

hots · 06-12-2014 1:11pm

anonyanony wrote: »

Can you remove unneeded power drains then try it again with the gpu, does your psu have another set of power connectors for the gpu to try.

there is the chance it's the gpu not the psu

Will try that now but don't think it is because even with everything disconnected except the ssd the problem was recreated to..

Gadgetman496 · 06-12-2014 1:16pm

hobbit of the shire wrote: »

Will try that now but don't think it is because even with everything disconnected except the ssd the problem was recreated to..

It's all pointing to the PSU by what you have described. If it is the PSU it's a relatively easier fix than a lot of other issues it could have been.

anonyanony · 06-12-2014 1:24pm

gadgetman496 wrote: »

It's all pointing to the PSU by what you have described. If it is the PSU it's a relatively easier fix than a lot of other issues it could have been.

I would have said it's pointing more to the GPU, you need to try the psu or gpu on another rig, got any friends you can bring the gpu too

hots · 06-12-2014 1:33pm

So isolated the GPU and it's booted fine and now got everything back in (including all peripherals) and it's running fine?? I can't really find any pattern to it...

hots · 06-12-2014 1:33pm

anonyanony wrote: »

I would have said it's pointing more to the GPU, you need to try the psu or gpu on another rig, got any friends you can bring the gpu too

I literally don't know anyone with a tower othan than work and don't think they'd like me messing with office pcs!

CountyHurler · 08-12-2014 10:36am

Just wondering, do any of the capacitors on the PSU(from what bits of it are visible), motherboard or graphics card look like this...

hots · 08-12-2014 10:38am

CountyHurler wrote: »

Just wondering, do any of the capacitors on the PSU(from what bits of it are visible), motherboard or graphics card look like this...

I'll have a look when I get home but I didn't see anything like that...

hots · 09-12-2014 5:03pm

Ok so the problem keeps coming back, can't get it to boot at all at the moment, has anyone got any other ideas? I'm loathe to pay someone else to take a look at it but getting desperate...

Gadgetman496 · 09-12-2014 5:56pm

hobbit of the shire wrote: »

Ok so the problem keeps coming back, can't get it to boot at all at the moment, has anyone got any other ideas? I'm loathe to pay someone else to take a look at it but getting desperate...

Have you tried another power supply as suggested?

hots · 09-12-2014 7:25pm

gadgetman496 wrote: »

Have you tried another power supply as suggested?

No not yet, I've no access to one... I'll be going home for christmas so i can use my brothers build then for parts for testing.

CountyHurler · 10-12-2014 12:10am

It is possible to test the power supply independently, but you would need the help of somebody who's good with the electrical stuff and safety to do it properly... I did a few courses in fixing power supplies and it is something that I do, but I try to be very careful while doing it...

Or maybe if you live near a recycling centre you could wangle an old PC and PSU out of the cages they have there... They usually have stacks of old PCs there that are still working but people just dont need.

That's all I can suggest...

biketard · 10-12-2014 3:30am

Hey OP. Sorry, I know how frustrating this is.

I had a weird one a while back where something similar was happening. Sometimes it would get as far as a beep and sometimes it wouldn't. But every time the fans whirred up for about five seconds then shut down. I tried all the usual stuff. Removing and re-adding parts one at a time, etc. Then suddenly it would start and work fine, but next time it would be screwed again. I couldn't figure it out at all. Then it finally dawned on me. The power button was screwed and when I pressed it, it was like it was still making contact (even after I let go). So I was basically telling the computer to power down after five seconds. I disconnected the power switch from the MB and connected the reset switch to the power pins on the MB and used it as a temporary substitute.

And it worked.

Might be worth trying.

hots · 10-12-2014 9:34am

Appreciate the suggestions guys, in terms of testing power I think I'll wait until the xmas break and test it then but I'll give the power switch a go tonight/tomorrow, it feels normal but definitely worth testing and something I hadn't even considered!

10-12-2014 9:35am

hobbit of the shire wrote: »

Ok so the problem keeps coming back, can't get it to boot at all at the moment, has anyone got any other ideas? I'm loathe to pay someone else to take a look at it but getting desperate...

I had this exact problem 2 weeks ago.
It was the PSU.

biketard · 12-02-2015 2:19am

Did you ever get this sorted, OP?

hots · 12-02-2015 6:13am

biketard wrote: »

Did you ever get this sorted, OP?

Can't believe I never updated, in the end I took a chance on a new modular psu (and grabbed a cooler while I was at it to make myself feel better) and it's been fine ever since. Also gave me a chance to tidy up the cables a bit and connect ask the case fans to the mb instead of directly from the psu.

No idea why the last one died, shouldn't have been under any stress and whilst it wasn't a top brand it was still a bronze one...

Power but no boot :(

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