PC will no longer turn on ** RMA update

Mickcas · 2 Aug 2020 at 12:39

Afternoon all

My PC decided to shut down randomly today, my daughter was playing some web browser game at the time and didn't quiet catch what it said other than the screen changed and it said something about power off and possibly safe mode.

Now it won't turn on at all. There is some power getting to the motherboard, the green light indicating the cpu is ready is lit. And the gpus power has lit up too.

Is it possible that a dead psu would still allow some power to these lights and that's likely the issue??

Anything I can do to test this. Unfortunately I don't have a spare psu lying around

Toothy1911 · 2 Aug 2020 at 12:50

Certainly doesn't sound totally dead. In my experience, if a PSU goes, nothing works. Have you checked for any lose connections?

Mickcas · 2 Aug 2020 at 13:02

Nothing loose loose. Tried ram in different slots, tried without gpu, reset cmos etc.
If the battery is dead would that stop it powering on?

Brizzles · 2 Aug 2020 at 13:49

A major hardware failure ( mobo/cpu/grxcard/psu) wouldn't show in windows with power off / safemode / reboot etc - it would just go off. Souns more like a corrupted OS or hard drive issue

Can you enter BIOS ? ( Spam DEL at boot up )

If not,

Remove hard drive - can you enter BIOS ?

Mickcas · 2 Aug 2020 at 14:31

No bios no. Its literally dead aside from the odd light. When I hit the power button it does absolutely nothing

Brizzles · 2 Aug 2020 at 14:51

Although i've never personally come across it, it does sounds like a partial failure in the PSU, maybe one of the voltage rails has failed or similar ( I'm no expert on PSUs' ).

Try the paperclip method on the psu, and connect 1 fan to it - that will show whether the 12v is working.

Mickcas · 2 Aug 2020 at 16:09

Tried the psu paperclip trick and nothing. Looks like it's dead, I'm just confused to why the cpu ready like and the gpu power lights come on

Brizzles · 2 Aug 2020 at 16:18

Mickcas said:
Tried the psu paperclip trick and nothing. Looks like it's dead, I'm just confused to why the cpu ready like and the gpu power lights come on

Those leds are possibly using the 3v or 5.5v rail of the psu, so low voltage going in, but dead 12v

Mickcas · 2 Aug 2020 at 16:26

OK thanks. The only thing that throws me now is the fact my daughter said it came up stating it was shutting now. Now I'm not 100% convinced this was the case as any issue with the psu I'm guessing it would just black screen. Also cpu issues such as overheating would normally blue screen.

Brizzles · 2 Aug 2020 at 16:45

Totally agree with you, a blue screen i could explain as a power drop causing instability then blue screen, or just complete black screen shut down.

I never encountered Windows politely saying it is shutting down, then find out the psu is dead.

Toothy1911 · 2 Aug 2020 at 17:05

Try disconnecting everything you dont need to boot. HDDs, fans (except CPU), maybe something is shorting out.
If you have a multimeter, you could do paperclip trick and check wires to see if they'll all giving desired voltages.

Also, check the power and/or reset buttons are not at fault. Disconnect them from the motherboard and just jump the pins manually to start. I've had faulty restart buttons before do similar things.

Mickcas · 2 Aug 2020 at 18:16

Tried disconnecting everything already but to no avail.
Mobo has a start button on there and I've been trying that, I was thinking the same regards the case power button, but still no luck.
Don't have a multi meter but did try the paper clip trick and nothing at all.

I'm going to reach out to some friends to see if anyone has a spare powersupply I could try out. Unfortunately most of them are console players last time I checked

Joxeon · 2 Aug 2020 at 18:47

Mickcas said:
Tried disconnecting everything already but to no avail.
Mobo has a start button on there and I've been trying that, I was thinking the same regards the case power button, but still no luck.
Don't have a multi meter but did try the paper clip trick and nothing at all.

I'm going to reach out to some friends to see if anyone has a spare powersupply I could try out. Unfortunately most of them are console players last time I checked

you could always buy one and use the 14 day return if it proves not to be the psu.

norfolknchance · 3 Aug 2020 at 20:31

Ive had this (or similar) had to replace the PSU in the end after a lot of faffing around. Hope you get it fixed soon buddy

Mickcas · 3 Aug 2020 at 20:44

Raised an RMA with seasonic so fingers crossed its sorted soon

Mickcas · 4 Aug 2020 at 11:46

Little update. Was about to pull the Psu out for the RMA and decided to hit the power button.

It fired up straight away, error code 0d which if I remember correctly is a ram issue.

Anyways I reset cmos, updating the bios and left everything stock and so far its OK.

Really not sure what happened...

Mickcas · 18 Aug 2020 at 10:23

Thought I'd pop in with a quick update and some major praise for Seasonic

Throughout troubleshooting the shutting down issue I had a few back and forth's with Seasonic over email, with the Computer sometimes working for a few hours before shutting off, then other times wouldn't turn on at all I wanted to ensure they where aware. Last thing I wanted was for it to be returned and it work first time and they just ship it back.

During the emails Seasonic where great, informed me of different test to do, including running stress tests to test other components, those had already been done but if this was someone less tech savvy its great to see that they put this kind of effort in.

Once I had confirmed that all tests had been complete but that due to the PC sometimes working I couldn't be 100% sure the PSU was at fault, they still suggested I send this in the they would send a replacement.

Sure enough within a week of posting I received a brand new 750w Plat rated replacement, PC has now been running since yesterday with zero issues.

Hats off to Seasonic, brilliant RMA service!

merlin6r · 18 Aug 2020 at 11:39

Mickcas said:
Little update. Was about to pull the Psu out for the RMA and decided to hit the power button.

It fired up straight away, error code 0d which if I remember correctly is a ram issue.

Anyways I reset cmos, updating the bios and left everything stock and so far its OK.

Really not sure what happened...

Sounds like you have a failing startup capacitor.

Once the PSU is running it will run perfectly. Your daughter could be correct, it did a restart but the PSU couldn't power on again.

Randomly it will startup when you push the button. Once it's on it will be fine.

Return it, it'll happen again.

mickyflinn · 18 Aug 2020 at 11:48

merlin6r said:
Sounds like you have a failing startup capacitor.

Once the PSU is running it will run perfectly. Your daughter could be correct, it did a restart but the PSU couldn't power on again.

Randomly it will startup when you push the button. Once it's on it will be fine.

Return it, it'll happen again.

Think you missed his update post below the one you quoted

ash888 · 18 Aug 2020 at 12:05

sounds like a similar issue to what i had, mine was a psu issue.

it worked fine but would cut off randomly, sometimes after weeks or days.
but it wouldnt turn back on unless i left it for some time.

swapped psu and was ok, so had to buy a new one as seasonic psu was out of warranty.