Computer randomly Shuts Down during startup and upon input.

GCshepard

Honorable
Jul 10, 2013
2
0
10,510
My computer has been shutting down randomly for the past 6 months. It normally happens right after I press some input, such as pressing a button in a window or making a game go fullscreen. The more frequent and more prevalent issue is that the computer will at times refuse to start. When I press the power button, the fan lights will turn on for at most half a second (the exact same amount of time each time) and then shut off. Removing power to the computer for a few seconds and then trying again will provide the same results until after between two or many dozen tries, it will work fine until the former issue will occur and deactivate due to some simple input after about ten minutes.

I thought the issue was fixed first when I moved the speaker system to another power strip (not part of the computer), which prompted it to not occur for a few weeks. At that time the second, more severe issue was not present and the first issue was much less frequent. It then began again and both issues happened, with the second issue arising and both slowly becoming increasingly more severe. I thought I had then fixed it when, upon putting another friend's computer together, my friend noticed he had failed to put the spacers in behind his motherboard, and I remembered we had failed to do the same on my computer. Afraid it was causing my computer's motherboard to short circuit and being the main cause for the issue, we dismantled my computer and screwed the spacers in place. This caused the issue to not occur for another two week. I then brought my computer to a friend's house today, where the issue has risen again. It took twenty tries, where it then shut off after five minutes upon clicking a button while browsing the internet.

I have absolutely no idea what the issue is, nor does my friend. The only hypothesis we have is that the power supply (being 600 Watts) is low power enough that the start-up wattage cost is just high enough to in some cases be too high for the computer to handle. However, this would not explain the first issue, since this can happen during very low load circumstances.

If anyone has anything, my friend is willing to help test out any hypotheses you suggest. All and any help would be appreciated and I would be forever grateful. If we manage to somehow find the proper antidote, we will post here to inform anyone who has the same issue in the future.

SETUP
Power Supply: Corsair GS600
CPU: Intel 3770K
GPU: Sapphire 7870 XD
 
Solution
Two possibilities, either your PSU is faulty or a capacitor in your mobo is damaged, to me it seems it's a damaged capacitor, the usage without the spacers might have caused short circuits killing one or several capacitors, which once damaged are sensitive to any EMI (like your speakers, hence it got better once you moved them away).

Try getting borrowed another PSU and see if the problem goes away, else try getting your mobo into RMA before having to buy another one.
Two possibilities, either your PSU is faulty or a capacitor in your mobo is damaged, to me it seems it's a damaged capacitor, the usage without the spacers might have caused short circuits killing one or several capacitors, which once damaged are sensitive to any EMI (like your speakers, hence it got better once you moved them away).

Try getting borrowed another PSU and see if the problem goes away, else try getting your mobo into RMA before having to buy another one.
 
Solution

GCshepard

Honorable
Jul 10, 2013
2
0
10,510
We placed a different PSU into the computer, and there have been no crashes as of yet. Unless something changes in the near future, the issue is assumed to be solved. Thanks to you, RaDiKaL, for your advice.