Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Locked thread
zelah
Dec 1, 2004

Diabetes, you are not invited to my pizza party.
Problem description: I built a new PC this Thursday and now (Monday) the power button does nothing. I had two blue screens on Friday when I was overclocking the CPU, but I lowered the settings and hadn’t had any other issues. There is a light on the motherboard that is illuminated when the PSU is plugged in, but the fans/gpu don’t react to the power button being pressed.

Attempted fixes: I’ve unplugged the power cable, held the power button on the case for 10 minutes, and plugged it back in. I’ve removed the hard drives/GPU/RAM/case fans so that the only thing plugged in to motherboard is the cpu/cooler fan. The only thing attached to the modular power supply are the two cables needed for the motherboard/cpu. I tried turning it on by bridging the pins on the motherboard with a screwdriver but nothing happened. Through all of this the light on the motherboard is lit up.

I tried the paper clip thing to jump the power supply (disconnected from everything else) and it did spin up, so maybe that’s not the problem? The fan in the power supply only spins for about 10 seconds and then turns off. I don’t know if this is due to the “silent at low loads” feature or if it’s dying. I don’t have a molex fan to try this with.

Recent changes: everything but the GPU and hard drives are new. I used the PC a few hours Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with no issues.

--

Operating system: Windows 10 Pro

System specs: Phanteks Evolv ATX, i7 8700k, Asrock Taichi Z370, Corsair RM750x, MSI 970, be quiet dark rock 3, Corsair LPX 16gb DDR4 3000mhz

Location: USA

I have Googled and read the FAQ: Yes

My question is: how do I figure out if it’s my PSU or motherboard or CPU? I don’t have extras of any of these to swap out. There’s a PC repair place down the street but they start at $125 and it seems like a waste since I’ll still have to RMA something, I just don’t know what yet.

zelah fucked around with this message at 03:53 on Jan 16, 2018

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Pill Clinton
Jun 4, 2006

Feast for thought
What I would do is going after the PSU first. Can you get a new one from Best Buy? It should not cost you a thing for returning it.

I personally detest Corsair PSU. If I recommended someone to buy a PSU, Corsair would not ever be mentioned unless someone holds a gun to my head.

zelah
Dec 1, 2004

Diabetes, you are not invited to my pizza party.
Thank you. I ordered a thermaltake PSU that will be here tomorrow, so I’ll update any progress then.

MF_James
May 8, 2008
I CANNOT HANDLE BEING CALLED OUT ON MY DUMBASS OPINIONS ABOUT ANTI-VIRUS AND SECURITY. I REALLY LIKE TO THINK THAT I KNOW THINGS HERE

INSTEAD I AM GOING TO WHINE ABOUT IT IN OTHER THREADS SO MY OPINION CAN FEEL VALIDATED IN AN ECHO CHAMBER I LIKE

You could also bridge the connectors on the board to see if maybe it's just an issue with the button/wire to the board, a dumb video of a nerd doing it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuPZlliGqBw

zelah
Dec 1, 2004

Diabetes, you are not invited to my pizza party.
Tried bridging the connection but nothing.

New power supply came in today and a coworker loaned me his power supply tester. Good news is my original power supply works. Bad news is now I have to send back my motherboard and I don’t have much of the packaging left. Amazon will send me a new one at some point.

Is there a chance it could be the CPU? I feel like if it was the CPU the cooler/case fans would spin up at least a little before shutting off, but I don’t know.

Pill Clinton
Jun 4, 2006

Feast for thought
Seems like your motherboard has a short somewhere. The fans should spin up and stay spinning until power is cut off when you have a working PSU and motherboard. Hopefully whatever caused the short on your motherboard did not also zapped your CPU.

zelah
Dec 1, 2004

Diabetes, you are not invited to my pizza party.
So I got the new motherboard. Cleaned the thermal paste off the cpu and cooler and moved those over. Plugged the CPU power and 24 pin into the motherboard. When I flip the switch on the power supply the LED towards the middle of the board is white for a split second then starts slowly pulsing blue. This is a new thing. Google isn’t really helping.

I try jumping the power pins with a screwdriver and nothing happens. I tied the other power supply that I have (both tested fine with the tester I borrowed) and no change. Installed a stick of ram and nothing. I tried plugging my it into my case’s power/reset buttons and that didn’t do anything either. I tried installing it in the case and hooking the case fans up just in case but nothing there either. It doesn’t respond to the power button being pressed/held. No fans spin on the PSU or case.

I tried using the CMOS reset button and removing and reinstalling the watch battery looking thing and no change.

I’m not sure what else to try at this point. Do I try to take it somewhere? I’ve already tried a new power supply and motherboard. Do I order a new CPU and hope that makes a difference?

Zogo
Jul 29, 2003

PSU testers can be deceptive in that PSUs can be failing but still test as working. PSU testers are better for quickly sorting through completely dead ones. Unfortunately most PSUs fail gradually rather than explode and die outright these days.

One thing you could do is check the CPU pins/motherboard socket for physical damage.

zelah posted:

When I flip the switch on the power supply the LED towards the middle of the board is white for a split second then starts slowly pulsing blue. This is a new thing. Google isn’t really helping.

What were the LED lights doing back when the computer was initially working?

Because pulsating lights on a motherboard usually means that a dying PSU has fried a motherboard.

Pill Clinton
Jun 4, 2006

Feast for thought
Did you plug the Corsair or the Thermaltake PSU into your new board? I am guessing you plugged the Corsair into the new board. If so, the Corsair PSU might have claimed its second victim.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

zelah
Dec 1, 2004

Diabetes, you are not invited to my pizza party.

Zogo posted:

PSU testers can be deceptive in that PSUs can be failing but still test as working. PSU testers are better for quickly sorting through completely dead ones. Unfortunately most PSUs fail gradually rather than explode and die outright these days.

One thing you could do is check the CPU pins/motherboard socket for physical damage.


What were the LED lights doing back when the computer was initially working?

Because pulsating lights on a motherboard usually means that a dying PSU has fried a motherboard.

It was just solid white before. Now it goes white for a second then slow pulsing blue.

I dropped it off at a place down the street. We’ll see how generous amazon is with returns after their seven day estimated turn around time. If I’m lucky, then I’m just a moron and it’ll come back working with no more replacements needed.

  • Locked thread