Asus Z87-A. Worked fine for weeks, suddenly no POST.

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profesorrich

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Jan 17, 2014
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Setup:

AeroCool V3X Advance Devil Red Edition
Asus Z87-A
Corsair CX600 V2 600W Builder Series 80 Plus Bronze
G.Skill Ares DDR3 1600 PC3-12800 8GB 2x4GB CL9
Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4Ghz Box
Samsung SH-224DB Grabadora DVD 24x OEM Negra
Sapphire R9 280X Vapor-X UEFI 3GB GDDR5
WD Caviar Blue 1TB SATA3

I noticed a few days ago that my PC had shut itself off during the night, I had a look at the error logs and couldn't find a reason why it had happened although I recall that in the morning it took two tries to get it to start up.

Ironically it was something I was going to investigate further today, but after leaving it on overnight I've come to find it off again and now it won't boot or pass POST.

I've tried with only one RAM, and have tried swapping them out to try both. I've tried with only the onboard GPU, I've tried unplugging all non essentials (including the drives, mouse/keyboard, etc).

I've also tried resetting the CMOS.

Normally what happens is all the fans start (CPU included), then all the red lights come on and go off, as they should - DRAM, CPU, VGA - (except the "boot device LED... however I'm not certain that ever came on). After the VGA light comes on the computer shuts off and all the fans stop. This happens whether the GPU is inserted and hooked up or not.

The green "power" light remains on.

However, once or twice it actually got as far as displaying the ASUS logo for half a second, and then shut off.

I'm clueless as to what to do next. I'm hoping that something has temporarily shorted out and after a couple of hours it'll reset and start up... :\ Maybe just due to a dodgy bios setting... is that possible?

Any ideas?

Everything was assembled professionally and tested by the company I bought it off so it'd be surprising if there was a motherboard assembly problem or the CPU wasn't inserted correctly.
 
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profesorrich

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Noticed the RAM was in slots 1 and 3 rather than the recommended 2 and 4... changed it over, reset the CMOS AGAIN... and it boots with nothing other than a windows "did not shutdown correctly" error. I checked the logs and it looks like it was going until 11am and then it cut off... no blue screen dump. The only thing is a "The shutdown at (time) was unexpected" which is timestamped for when you log back in. I noticed that since I've had the computer there's 5 of them, meaning this has probably happened five times without me realising.

Stuck my GPU back in, booted again no problem.

Very disconcerted about this now... what could be the problem? How can I begin to diagnose it?

It seems to be unrelated to the GPU at least. My suspicions are RAM or the drives... could the drives even cause such a problem like this?

Could I have some dodgy BIOS settings? Maybe the power is wrong somewhere and it's tripping something out. Maybe the CMOS reset was just "coincidental" and in reality whatever tripped out had been powered down enough that it came back on.

I'm clueless at this stage... :(
 
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profesorrich

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Jan 17, 2014
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Are there any diagnostic steps I can take before simply buying and trying a new psu? I don't have any electrical testing equipment.

Would it need to be 'faulty'? Is there any possibility of a bad jumper connection or something similar to that?

Given that it was self- shutting off during post and then suddenly started booting correctly again does that give any clues as to the problem?

Also, could it be damaging my other components?

Obviously I'd prefer if to be the psu than the board.

Thanks for the help mate.
 
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TubeExperience

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Try reseating the heatsink. The heatsink could be not making proper contact with the processor and the motherboard shutdown the computer since it the processors is too hot.

If that doesn't work, check the power supply.
 
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profesorrich

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Jan 17, 2014
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Ok so it worked for some time with no problems and now I've just experienced the initial "shutdown" first hand. I was in windows and everything rapidly closed and then it shut off. Note: There was no loss of main power and it was NOT an immediate black screen (like you'd get if you just flipped the power switch)

Then it took about two minutes of "failed startups" before it started up again, with a "windows did not shut down correctly" error.

I jumped into the Bios to check temperatures and everything looked fairly sound, in the high 30s and cooling.

I was thinking as my next step to buy a new PSU, and then put everything together with that. If I have no problems within the week of time I have to return the product then I'll assume all good and hope for the best. If it does happen again then I'll return the new PSU, stick the old one back in, and try reseating the CPU. If it doesn't work then, then I'll assume it's the main board and get a new one of those.

Do you guys still think this looks like a PSU issue? I'm extremely concious about wasting money, but more than anything worried about damaging my components.

FYI. All the voltages from the PSU appear correct and within a good range in the BIOS.

Update:

As a test I decide to "hold down" the power button to see what would happen if I did that. The result looked VERY SIMILAR to what I saw happen when it crashed. Everything starts to shut-down (on the button press) but then doesn't finish shutting down because it cuts out after 2-3 seconds.

If somehow that were malfunctioning then it would probably produce the kind of peculiar boot-up problems I was experiencing... with the computer "failing" to get through post and shutting off after 2-3 seconds.

Thoughts?

I'm going to unplug the power-button now and see how it goes.

Fingers crossed it's something so simple...

I've started it up with the buttons disconnected by shorting the jumper. Will now leave it running for as long as possible and observe. Really hoping this is it.
 
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profesorrich

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Update: took off the all the front-case jumpers and shorted to start-up, system ran fine for over 48 hours without any problems. So then I hooked it all back up except using the reset button for the power switch, and leaving the power switch disconnected.

As of today I've had 0 problems with this.

It's too soon to say for sure, but looks like this genuinely was a faulty wire or case power button! :D

 
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