Help me get this issue resolved..enter here

Santa_

Catchy title eh? Well I'm glad it was enough to lure you in.

This thread will consist of user's issues that they may be experiencing with their current PC at home, at work, or any where of that nature.

*If this has been created or one similar, my apologies*

I created this thread because I, myself am expericing an issue on my home PC that has stumped me on a resolution, but I believe I know the issue. Though it is sometimes best to ask for another opinion.


Below will be an example of what a user (I) may ask;

This past weekend as I was working from home on my personal desktop, the machine had randomly powered off with no warning. I expected a surge, but noticed that nothing else in my room or home lost power.

As I went to turn on the machine, it had actually made a pop within the PSU - which then smelled burnt. I immediately knew my PSU had seen it's last day after 7 years in comission. Brand: PC Power & Cooling 550W blah blah...

After this happened I unplugged everything from the rear and waited for the smell to go away. Once it was gone I opened the side panel and looked for any sign of blown/worn capacitors or the alike - nothing was found.

I removed all internal connections that were connected to the PSU except for 2, the 12V 4pin ATX and the 24 pin - just to see what would happened, but of course nothing did.

My next plan of action was to order something on NewEgg that day - I searched and searched until I decided to go with the same brand as previous. PC Power & Cooling Silencer Mk II 950W ..yeah a bit excessive compared to the 550W, but I knew in the future (tax season) I will be upgrading. Why not start now?

After receiving it today in the mail I anxiously waited to leave work to get it put in. Atlast I arrived from worked, removed the other PSU, placed the new one in (after reading the owners manual because I like to), and everything seemed to be working which put a smile on my face, but soon to turn upside down.
1ST Attempt: The machine powered off within 15 seconds - it went through POST, Boot Menu, and when it started to load Windows it DIDNT power off, but instead both the rear 2 x 80MM fans powered off, screen display went off, and everything remained powered (CPU fan, CD/DVD drive, HDD).

I pressed the Reset - did not reset. I held in the Power - did not power off. I have to flip the switch on the PSU to power off.

2nd Attempt: I doubled check any loose connections - good.
I checked any loose RAM, PCI, PCI-E, SATA - good
I checked for any missing standoffs - good
I looked over the owners manual again - check
Made sure video card had 6pin connected - good
Made sure 12V 4PIN ATX - check
Made sure 24PIN - check
Powerd on - same problem as first attempt. Will boot fine, run for about 15 seconds from any point and then rear fans power off, display will go away and then the rest will remain running.

3rd attempt: Removed RAM - 2 sticks - same issue (besides beeps)
Removed 1 RAM stick at a time - same issue
Removed PCI & PCI-E - same issue
Removed PCI & PCI-E + RAM - same issue
Disconnected HDD, CD/DVD - same issue
Reset the CMOS /Jumper - same issue

Which lead me to remove the 4-pin ATX 12V - the system stays running longer than the 15 seconds without any issue, but of course we know not having this connected doesn't resolve anything..

With just the 4-pin removed I'm able to use the reset switch and hold the power button to shut it off. With it connected I cannot , as mentioned above.

So I'm left to believe that when the PSU went it shorted out the motherboard too.
Help me before I call it quits and buy another new part! Opinions please...this is not a NO Post issue if you read the above.

Essendon

I aint a hardware expert mate, but definitely looks like the mobo's fried. The fans and the display go off seem to tell me that the board's dead.

crrussell3

Always good to do the following:

1. Remove any and all non-required hardware and try booting into safemode. Reseat removed hardware one piece at a time, boot and check if everything runs. Repeat until done or faulty hardware found.
2. Use a linux live cd just to rule out OS corruption.

It really sounds like a piece of hardware was also fried when this happened. Hopefully you can narrow it done with the above steps.

lordy

Sounds like a hardware issue. I guess the PSU took the motherboard down with it. Sorry for your loss

Santa_

crrussell3 wrote: »

Always good to do the following:

1. Remove any and all non-required hardware and try booting into safemode. Reseat removed hardware one piece at a time, boot and check if everything runs. Repeat until done or faulty hardware found.
2. Use a linux live cd just to rule out OS corruption.

It really sounds like a piece of hardware was also fried when this happened. Hopefully you can narrow it done with the above steps.

I might have left out what you said in number 1. I did try this when I removed all power connections and ran it with just the ram. All other peripherals were removed.

Number 2) This issue sounds like a good try, but it isn't an OS corruption due to the fact that which ever screen I'm on - bios, boot, startup - all occur to do the same thing.

Regardless, I gave it a try and same problem.

Thank you though for your suggestion.

RobertKaucher

Santa_ wrote: »

Catchy title eh? Well I'm glad it was enough to lure you in.

This thread will consist of user's issues that they may be experiencing with their current PC at home, at work, or any where of that nature.

*If this has been created or one similar, my apologies*

I created this thread because I, myself am expericing an issue on my home PC that has stumped me on a resolution, but I believe I know the issue. Though it is sometimes best to ask for another opinion.

It's not clear to me based on the above but... If the idea is to make this a thread that acts as a bucket for troubleshooting issues that many different people might be having, I would argue that is a bad idea:

1. Searching becomes much harder because the subject does not contain any details regarding the actual problems.
2. Navigating the thread becomes difficult as you can have multiple issues being worked on at one time.
3. Users from the outside who might find the thread via Google would find a non-linear, multi-topic mess where it would not be easy skip through the cruft and get to the answer.

I encourage people who wish to post trouble shooting questions to this forum to start new threads for each issue and give them descriptive subjects (I have been guilty as well) and not subjects like "weird issue installing Windows 8" but more like "Error 0x002145 Installing Windows 8 on Intel SSD."

Please be good citizens of the Internet and help make this forum a better resource for everyone! And sorry if I misunderstood the intention.