Computer malfunctioning, can not seem to find the issue.

Dewy Decimal

Honorable
Mar 1, 2013
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10,510
Hello,

I built my current rig about a year and a half ago. My friend built his new rig recently, but after about a week it stopped working, something fried either his motherboard or PSU.

As it became apparent that he should be able to RMA his motherboard and PSU for free, he could not RMA his RAM. So we decided to test to see if it was still good on my computer, bad idea. We swapped the RAM from my computer and put his in and when we turned my computer on, it started up for a few seconds (with no response on the monitor), turned off for a few more seconds, and turned back on and stayed on (still no monitor response, and yes, we have tried different monitors). This is when we smelt burning. Somewhere on the right side of my case (optical drive, 2 hard drives, and a SSD). The RAM was apparently bad, and it fried something in my computer. We come to find out later that my hard drive is broken, and I am sure that is the source of the smell.

Luckily my motherboard had a 5 year warranty (we thought the motherboard had to be the issue). Well replacing that didn't work, still the exact same issue. Next we thought maybe it was the power supply, we did this test, my power supply still works properly according to the video.

I am now stuck, I can not think of anything else that would cause the computer to do this. Maybe it is the CPU?

Specs:
Motherboard: ASUS Sabretooth p67 (brand new from the factory)
Power Supply: Coolermaster GX 650W 80 plus
CPU: Intel Sandybridge i5 3.3 GHz
RAM: 2x4GB
GPU: 2x GeForce 560 ti 1gb SLI (although, all my testing occurred with just one of them.)(Another is not the EVGA, it is the Zotac equivalent that I bought about 10 months after the EVGA to SLI)

Thank you for you time.
 
Solution
With a bad dead short..one that took out your hard drive your better off rma the CPU and power supply for safety. The power supply green wire test in the video is just a jumper test to see if the power supply will turn on. You need a volt meter or power supply tester to see that there the right voltage on all of the wires.
With a bad dead short..one that took out your hard drive your better off rma the CPU and power supply for safety. The power supply green wire test in the video is just a jumper test to see if the power supply will turn on. You need a volt meter or power supply tester to see that there the right voltage on all of the wires.
 
Solution

Dewy Decimal

Honorable
Mar 1, 2013
13
0
10,510


The only thing I could RMA was my motherboard due to it having 5 year warranty, so I cant just RMA anything else. I'd have to buy a new piece, which I am willing to do, but only after I can narrow down the issue. You mentioned using a voltmeter to test the power supply, how would I go about doing that? I'm pretty sure I have a voltmeter, and I have some experience using one.