Computer ran perfectly fine, sudden freeze, now it won't boot.

brandonricks86 · Sep 28, 2014

My wife was playing Binding of Isaac on my custom built computer. She told me the computer just froze, something its never done. She tried to Ctrl+Alt+Del and it wouldn't respond. She shut it down with the front power button, and since then, it wont boot at all.

When I power it on, it turns on for anywhere between a split second to 5 seconds, and shuts back off. I removed all the hardware, and checked it all thoroughly, quite literally with a magnifying glass and a big light, lol. I asked her when it happened if she smelled, heard, or saw anything, and she said nothing like that. I see no physical damage, no faulty capacitors, burns, nothing is physically broken as far as I can tell. Nothing in the computer is more than 6 months old either, barely time to get any dust on the parts. I opened the PSU to make sure it didnt pop a capacitor or cause any damage, and it looks good as new. It's fan turns on, and seems to be in fine shape. I know the computer has enough power, I purchased a PSU with enough amps to run two of my cards in SLI. I also have the computer plugged in to a power strip that has a breaker, in case there's a short or something. The pins on the mobo are fine, the CPU appears just fine as well, no nicks or discoloration or burns, the memory also. I've never had issues with any kind of overheating, my case has a total of 9 fans and it has never gotten to any noteworthy temps, even with huge load. It was overclocked, but safely using internal bios, and the GPU was barely overclocked much over its normal specs using MSI Afterburner.

I rebuilt the computer to bare bones, down to just mobo, cpu, heatsink fan, one memory card, etc., and still nothing. I cleared the RTC using the jumper, pulled the battery, and did a combination of the two, still nothing. It seems to not want to post at all. The HDD storage indicator light on the front of the computer never responds either. Its a carbon copy of what happened when I first built the computer, and the mobo I purchased had bent CPU pins, causing it to never boot up. It does the very same thing now, which is why my mind goes straight to the motherboard.

I would love any other advice, or some indication as to what could have happened or what may have failed. Specs are below, and all parts are about 5 months old and new. It isn't a cheap computer has never given me any issues whatsoever, then suddenly just bricked. I'm really hoping to find some kind of solution or at least an idea of what I should consider from here.

Thanks!

Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V LK
CPU: Intel "Ivy Bridge" i7-3770K @ 4.2GHz (OC)
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 Windforce @ 1397MHz core / 7160MHz memory (OC)
RAM: 8GB GSkill Sniper DDR3 SDRAM @ 2400 (PC3 19200)
Drive 1: Team L3 120GB SSD
Drive 2: Seagate SV35.6 Series 1TB @ 7200RPM
PSU: XFX P1-850X-XXB9 850w +12V@70A
Case: Apevia X Hermes
Cooling : 4 120mm case fans, 1 200mm side fan, 1 80mm CPU heasink fan, 3 80mm GPU heatsink fans

johnbl · Sep 28, 2014

If the motherboard or the PSU detects out of spec power usage it should shut down if it is of good quality. Crappy ones tend to catch fire.
Most common cause is too much power being pulled from the PCIe bus by the graphics card. Make sure the supplemental power connections from the PSU to the GPU are connected and providing power. if they look good, pull the graphics cards and make sure that the slots are clean (no sloppy solder) and no broken traces on the gpu card edge.

brandonricks86 · Sep 28, 2014

johnbl :

All the power connections are connected and secure. I went through and rebuilt it, tending to every wire to make sure they are okay and secure, and all seems well. Even took more care into zipping all the wires more cleanly, though the case I bought is plenty large for airflow and clearance. I built the computer back up without the GPU, trying to narrow the possibilities. I plugged the monitor into the built in video on the mobo, and left the GPU out altogether, and nothing changed, so I assume the GPU is out of the running. It wont boot at all, so nothing shows on the monitor, as if the connection between the monitor and mobo isn't even there. CPU is also powered and looks to be perfectly fine, though the computer hardly stays on long enough. PSU on the inside is clean and no damage, fan works fine, and it shows no signs that it may have been the culprit. As far as damage goes, everything seems okay.

johnbl · Sep 29, 2014

I would pop in another power supply to test to see if that works. It would be good to test your current power supply but most people don't have a good way to do that.

read the section on the power good signal. if that signal is not 5 volts, your system will shut down. broken wire, broken pin, bad connection to the motherboard, shorted pin, power supply failure. My guess it is where your problem is, the signal when it gets to the motherboard is logic value zero. (less than 1.5 volts). be sure to check the pins in the connector, sometimes they break off, some times the conductor gets pushed out the back of the pin holder.

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/printpage/Everything-You-Need-to-Know-About-Power-Supply-Protections/905

brandonricks86 · Sep 29, 2014

Unfortunately, I don't have a spare PSU to test, but I tested the PSU's outputs with my multimeter and its all good. After a bunch of troubleshooting, I decided to take the motherboard out altogether and have an even more in depth look at it. On top it looks okay, but on the backside, there is a melt mark underneath a box labeled R68, which looks fine from above. Seems, what I believe is an inductor, melted inside. I tested the motherboard on my glass desk out of the case, still starting up and shutting down like before. So I spent an hour or so with Asus troubleshooting to the point where they felt an RMA was necessary. They'll most likely repair if possible, or replace if they actually decide to do so. Considering the motherboard was working fine for 6 months, then decided to up and quit, while in the case, without being touched for half a year, I'd like to assume they see that as defective if it comes to requiring a replacement. We will see, I've heard stories from all different brands of products, some are cooperative, some are not, lol. But, I think I solved the dilemma at least. So for those that may have the same issue, it helps to thoroughly and deeply inspect every piece of the hardware, be it pins, GPU, PSU components, testing with a multimeter if possible, even the tiniest little thing like a square the size of a dime can apparently brick the system, lol.

Thanks for all the help, much appreciated

johnbl · Oct 1, 2014

cool, sounds like you found the defect.

brandonricks86 :

Unfortunately, I don't have a spare PSU to test, but I tested the PSU's outputs with my multimeter and its all good. After a bunch of troubleshooting, I decided to take the motherboard out altogether and have an even more in depth look at it. On top it looks okay, but on the backside, there is a melt mark underneath a box labeled R68, which looks fine from above. Seems, what I believe is an inductor, melted inside. I tested the motherboard on my glass desk out of the case, still starting up and shutting down like before. So I spent an hour or so with Asus troubleshooting to the point where they felt an RMA was necessary. They'll most likely repair if possible, or replace if they actually decide to do so. Considering the motherboard was working fine for 6 months, then decided to up and quit, while in the case, without being touched for half a year, I'd like to assume they see that as defective if it comes to requiring a replacement. We will see, I've heard stories from all different brands of products, some are cooperative, some are not, lol. But, I think I solved the dilemma at least. So for those that may have the same issue, it helps to thoroughly and deeply inspect every piece of the hardware, be it pins, GPU, PSU components, testing with a multimeter if possible, even the tiniest little thing like a square the size of a dime can apparently brick the system, lol.

Thanks for all the help, much appreciated

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