PC will turn on for a few seconds but then shuts off.

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sharp461

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Mar 24, 2014
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I am trying to figure out what is wrong with my brothers PC. Earlier he mentioned his computer randomly shut down while playing his game twice (different times and games). Now all of a sudden when we hit the power button, we will hear the fans and see the lights, but after a few seconds (can vary between 3-10 seconds) it will just shut off. My first thought was the PSU went bad (due to the random shutdowns and now this failing to keep power), but browsing on the web scares me into thinking its his CPU. I figured if it was his CPU, then we should at least be able to get to BIOS, but most of the time it shuts off before we even see a screen. Plus most posts mention overheating, but his is water cooled and when I looked at his temps after his last shutdown (before this stuck phase) it was averaging between 30-50 degrees C.

I checked the CMOS battery as well and even put in a new one as I had a spare, but still the same problem. Tomorrow I hope to borrow my friend's PSU tester to hopefully prove I'm right, but in the meantime, anyone have an idea as to what could be causing it?
 
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sharp461

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Mar 24, 2014
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Specs are as follows:
AMD FX-8150 Eight Core CPU
Nvidia GTX 560
16 GB RAM
ASUS 990FX MB
750W Thermaltake PSU
Corsair H80i Liquid CPU cooler

I was able to use my friends simple PSU tester and when I plug in the main power to it, everything in the computer turns on, and seems to stay on too without shutting off (granted I only left it on for 5 min but that's way longer than 10 or so seconds). Upon doing so I noticed the LED light on the liquid cooler was now pulsing red (which online says is bad). So, I changed my theory to the CPU/Cooler being the problem. My corsair cooler has a LED light on it which changes color, and yesterday I noticed it pulsating from off to yellow. Just now when testing the PSU it was pulsating red (which I read that if its red something is wrong). I could never find any information about why its pulsing though, or even why it was yellow (people say the software lets you choose any color but it was pulsing yellow before we installed it). I will continue looking up more information about the red color and possibly re-seat the CPU as well.

Any other tips or help is appreciated, thank you peoples.
 
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sharp461

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Mar 24, 2014
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I was just about to re-seat my CPU when I decided to check the CPU FAN plug. I switched it to another port labeled CPU OPT and was able to boot to an error stating CPU FAN ERROR (because that plug has to be in the normal CPU FAN port). So switching back to that one, the computer finally stayed on and is still running, with the LED light not showing blue instead of red. It seems like this was some sort of connection issue but may be too soon to know for sure.
 
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sharp461

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Mar 24, 2014
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Just wanted to update that it started flashing yellow again and did a random shutoff, but we pushed the cable in harder and now its OK. I guess there must be a loose connection with that cable.
 
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