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My system will not turn on

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  • Power Supplies
  • Systems
Last response: in Systems
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October 7, 2014 6:57:44 PM

Hello,

Just today out of the blue my computer stopped working. I was using it, playing a game. I exited the game but the program froze (though I could still do things like alt tab though it wasn't properly going to my desktop). So I just pressed the power button on my tower and the computer shortly shut off.

I pressed the power button again but nothing happened. Puzzled, I took the side panel off the case to see if the green motherboard light was on, it was.

I unplugged and plugged the PSU (waiting for the light to go out first) and tried again. No dice, though the light still came on.

I unplugged every single component from the motherboard except 1 stick of RAM (which I have since tried in every of the 4 sockets) and the CPU. Still no dice.

So then I thought ok maybe the button is broken. Disconnected PowerSW and all the other header connectors and shorted the PowerSW pins myself, still won't turn on.

I disconnected everything from the power supply except all the case fans and did the paper clip test with pin15 and a ground pin and flicked the PSU on. It turned on and all the fans went ablazin. Great, so it doesn't appear to be the power supply then.

I connected the PSU back up to the motherboard with only the24pin and 8pin for the CPU and tried again. Nothing.

I noticed that when I try to turn it on, the lights in the room momentarily dim so it seems like SOMETHING is happening but I don't know what.

I've also taken out the CMOS battery just because and put that back in but it changed nothing.

I've looked at the motherboard the best I can with it installed to see if something on it has maybe gone puff, but I don't see any scorch marks.

What do I do?

More about : system turn

a b ) Power supply
October 7, 2014 7:22:23 PM

Your specs?
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October 7, 2014 7:28:05 PM

Specs please. And did it post when you turned it on through the paper clip trick? If it did it is just you case power button
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October 7, 2014 7:39:53 PM

My specs:

Corsair AX750 PSU
Asus p8z77-m pro
Intel i5 3570k
16gb corsair ddr3 1600 vengeance
SLI gtx 670 graphics (currently removed)
4 hdd's and 2 ssd's (currently disconnected)

And I think you misunderstood what I said. The power supply itself will turn on when I test it with a paper clip. It WILL NOT turn on at all when it's connected to the motherboard. Neither with the case power button nor shorting the PowerSW pins on the motherboard manually.

I've been messing around with the RAM because I was able to get the system to turn on intermittently. I thought maybe one of the DIMM slots was bad or one of my sticks of RAM is bad, but I just did a test.

I had 1 stick of ram in the first dimm slot, flipped the power supply switch on then pressed power. It turned on....but I just shut it off right after. So then I moved the ram stick through each dimm slot sequentially and it wouldn't turn on at all. I then moved it back to the first dimm slot and tried again but it still wouldn't turn on. I'm very flustered/confused.
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a b ) Power supply
October 7, 2014 9:06:13 PM

Can you try a different PSU and to see if other parts work?
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October 7, 2014 9:20:22 PM

I do not have another PSU, so no, I can't.

I have done some more fiddling around. I found that if I leave the system powered off, power switch OFF on the PSU for several minutes, then switch it on and power up it will turn on.

I tested it with all components + 1 GPU plugged in and I was able to get to the BIOS.

I plugged the second GPU in and all my desktop stuff - keyboard, mouse, headset, WiFi adapter and powers it on again. It turned on for a brief period then shut off. Then it came back on again by itself,then shut off again after a brief period. Then it would no longer turn on again.

So there may be some other issue going on here. No idea what right now, but iI guess iI will test each GPU independantly and see if I can get to BIOS with both of them.
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October 8, 2014 8:48:40 AM

I think your power supply isnt providing enough power to the motherboard to help everything run
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October 8, 2014 9:49:22 PM

Ok so I have since submitted RMA for both my PSU and Mobo since they are in warranty, however while I wait I have been tinkering with the system more.

I took ALL the components out of the case and I'm working on it on my desk.

I have discovered thaat maybe when I took the CMOS battery out before, I didn't take it out for long enough because I did it again and got into the BIOS.

I noticed that the settings for CPU and RAM were not what I had them set to (due to removing the battery duh lol). I left everything as-is and hooked up my SSD with Windows on it and rebooted. All seemed to be fine.

So then I went back in BIOS and set CPU and RAM to proper settings, as the RAM was showing as 1333 when it is 1600.

The system would not boot. I remembered that there is a jumper to clear CMOS so i did that and got back in BIOS. I had downloaded the ltest BIOS so I did an EZFlash. Wouldn't boot fter that again so I had to remove CMOS battery again.

I don't know if there is an issue with CPU or RAM or what at this point, so I downloaded MemTest86 to test my RAM. Problem is I am not able to get the system to boot no matter what setting I put no, even the ones it is showing after CMOS battery removal will not allow system to boot back into BIOS.

I try BIOS flashback button on motherboard, but it did not work at all. Now stuck again.
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