4 year old PC wont boot up all of a sudden, powers on and off in a loop

[Mark A]

If debug sits on 00 then cpu is dead.

I don't think its reading a debug code, that just happens to be the first code during boot and the mobo resets before it can show anything else. The mobo powers on for maybe a second before turning off again, so it has no time to show anything else. I tried the mobo with no cpu in at all and it does the same thing if that makes any difference.

Also that display used to read 00 when in windows since I built the PC 4 years ago.


I'm so tempted to take advantage of the ebay 15% off offer and buy some new parts, but that still ends up being £370 for the cpu. It seems a lot for a cpu considering I got my current CPU plus the Asus Maximus VII ranger motherboard for under that price 4 years ago.

I could wait and see what happens with the new AMD chips, but I don't know if I can hold out that long, especially since I have preordered Resident Evil 2!

 

[Doug2507]

Yeah, prices have changed dramatically since Haswell! 8600k is only 240 quid and equivalent of what the 4670k was back in its day....

 

[Pulseammo]

If you're considering AMD I don't think their next round will be out until well into 2019, you'd need to decide based on their current line up and then swap the CPU out later if you felt it was worth it. The 2700 is quite a good value for money CPU anyway.

Also, are you certain 00 was your running code? I think it's usually A0.

[Edit: You're -> Your, what a derp].

 

[Mark A]

If you're considering AMD I don't think their next round will be out until well into 2019, you'd need to decide based on their current line up and then swap the CPU out later if you felt it was worth it. The 2700 is quite a good value for money CPU anyway.

Also, are you certain 00 was your running code? I think it's usually A0.

[Edit: You're -> Your, what a derp].

In windows? Yeah it displayed 00 once it got to desktop and then stayed like that. IIRC it was something else at one point, then I think i had to update the bios for some reason and then it started displaying 00 instead, but its been like that for years and there has been no issues until now.


I was all set to order a i7 9700k and Asus motherboard last night, using mine and my brothers ebay accounts to get the 15% off each component. Then i saw a comment about the temps being high for this chip and it put me off. I currently use a Thermalright true black 6 heatpipe 120mm cooler, which I have used for years and it has been an amazing cooler. From what I can gather this will no longer be sufficient if I got for the intel chips and i'd need an AIO watercooling setup? I read that on air at stock the chip can reach 90c and if you overclock at all aircooling is a no go?

I'm more interested in an AMD setup now as they apparently run cooler, although i'd probably need to buy a new air cooler as i doubt mine will fit on an AM4 socket. Also like you mentioned I could upgrade in future and the mobo would still support the new chip.

My main reason for wanting to go Intel is because one of my favourite games (Stalker) is very cpu dependant and only uses a single core, which I believe the Intel chips have superior single core performance.

 

[Pulseammo]

The Intel CPUs are definitely still king of the single core performance because they can clock so high, so they'll be better for old games or CPU bound games and esports titles if you want to push massive FPS. Can't go wrong with intel really, but bang for buck wise it might not be optimal.

Can't speak to the temperatures of the new Intel stuff, not in the loop enough, you should check if those air temps include the monster air coolers like the Noctua D15, that might be passable if you don't want an AIO.

 

[Mark A]

@Pulseammo After a bit more research it seems it could be possible to cool on air on something like the Dark Rock 4. From a Youtube video where he tested both the DR4 and a 240mm AIO cooler the temps were almost identical and he concluded that it was just a hot chip and was probably down to Intels shoddy thermal compound.

But I'm torn between that and the AMD platform as the zen 2 sounds like it might increase single core performance and I like the idea that I can use the same AM4 mobo and just update the bios for the new cpu. Only slight concern is that I have read PCIe 4 and 5 are coming, so i'm not sure how that would affect future proofing.

Thanks for all the help btw. I don't know anyone IRL that is into PC building so its been great to get some input after being out of the loop for so long.

 

[pp111]

Just drawing on many years of fixing PC's I have to say it's most likely the motherboard that's failed. I would certainly replace that first -if you can even find one, and unless you can then I wouldn't bother. I mean there isn't any point in throwing money at an old PC trying to fix it. You only do that with new PC's.
And don't be misled by error messages. I just had a prime example of that. An 8700K PC failed with a RAM error message but it turned out that the motherboard had failed and the CPU just couldnt read the RAM - the RAM was in fact working. So I would always approach this type of problem from the angle or replace the motherboard first! ... if you can even find one.

 

[freddie64]

There was a fault with some Seasonic X series PSU's. Think it was the overload protection that was faulty and shutting down the psu.

I had a X850 last year that i think has this fault, made thread here about it https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/psu-reassurance.18790352/#post-31136453

Got it working but bought a new PSU as i did not trust the X850.

Maybe you have something similar happening with yours.

 

[Mark A]

There was a fault with some Seasonic X series PSU's. Think it was the overload protection that was faulty and shutting down the psu.

I had a X850 last year that i think has this fault, made thread here about it https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/psu-reassurance.18790352/#post-31136453

I tested with my brothers seasonic Focus+ psu and it did the exact same thing unfortunately. I was hoping it might be the psu as that would have been an easy fix. Thats interesting though and maybe i should get a new psu when I build a new PC. Although this psu has been pretty solid for the 6 years I have had it.

@pp111 These mobos do pop up on ebay now and again and usually sell for around £100. I was thinking about doing that as a stop gap, but I'm hesitant to throw money at a 4 year old system like you say. Plus i'm not sure if my oem copy of windows would still be legit, which would add more to the cost.


Update: I just tried my PC again and this time it cycled on and off a few times and then stayed on for a minute or so and the display read 00, but there was also a red led lit on the mobo with cpu stamped next to it. Then it went off again and kept cycling on and off again.

So could it be the cpu after all?

 

[Pulseammo]

Could be, or it could end up being the board being faulty and throwing out a red herring :/. When the CPU light illuminates it's meant to indicate a CPU fault.

The joys of troubleshooting when you don't have a bucket of spare parts .

 

[WantoN]

The joys of troubleshooting when you don't have a bucket of spare parts .

We could do with a collective parts bucket. Where members retain older parts and charge a small fee + shipping to borrow parts for testing.

As you say, it’s so frustrating when you need to troubleshoot but can swap components in and out at will!

 

[Mark A]

We could do with a collective parts bucket. Where members retain older parts and charge a small fee + shipping to borrow parts for testing.

As you say, it’s so frustrating when you need to troubleshoot but can swap components in and out at will!

That would be awesome! I almost bought a cpu from ebay last night, but then thought about it and there would be no way of knowing if you had been sent a dead cpu by an untrustworthy seller. So then would be back to square one.

 

[WantoN]

That would be awesome! I almost bought a cpu from ebay last night, but then thought about it and there would be no way of knowing if you had been sent a dead cpu by an untrustworthy seller. So then would be back to square one.

Wouldn’t it just? We could keep a list of who had what on the OP, with a fixed fee and shipping charge, so the parts just moved about and no one was left out of pocket.

I’ll ask the mod team.

 

[pp111]

I tested with my brothers seasonic Focus+ psu and it did the exact same thing unfortunately. I was hoping it might be the psu as that would have been an easy fix. Thats interesting though and maybe i should get a new psu when I build a new PC. Although this psu has been pretty solid for the 6 years I have had it.

@pp111 These mobos do pop up on ebay now and again and usually sell for around £100. I was thinking about doing that as a stop gap, but I'm hesitant to throw money at a 4 year old system like you say. Plus i'm not sure if my oem copy of windows would still be legit, which would add more to the cost.


Update: I just tried my PC again and this time it cycled on and off a few times and then stayed on for a minute or so and the display read 00, but there was also a red led lit on the mobo with cpu stamped next to it. Then it went off again and kept cycling on and off again.

So could it be the cpu after all?

Microsoft are usually fine with a Motherboard change but I have to say that I always worry about exactly the same thing. All you need is a CS guy who got out of the wrong side of bed that day and you are down £100.

Just becuase the motherboard says it's the CPU doesn't mean it is. Unofrtunately it's very difficult when the fault is with the CPU, motherboard or RAM in they are so dependant on each other it could be any. I am afraid you often just have to throw money at the problem.

 

[Mark A]

RYZEN 7 EIGHT CORE 2700X 4.35GHZ (SOCKET AM4) PROCESSOR - RETAIL

ROG STRIX X470-F GAMING AMD X470 (SOCKET AM4) DDR4 ATX MOTHERBOARD

TRIDENT Z RGB 16GB (2X8GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C16 3000MHZ DUAL CHANNEL KIT
or
HYPERX PREDATOR RGB 16GB (2X8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHZ DUAL CHANNEL KIT

Dark Rock 4 cpu cooler

Does this spec look ok? Not sure about ram, but just picked two sets out of the christmas deal lineup that looked good. I think it's more of a sidegrade rather than an upgrade gaming wise, but theres always the next gen cpus that I can upgrade to down the line if it struggles with some cpu intensive games.

I've given up on the idea of trying to get my old pc working as i'm not sure if its the mobo or cpu and don't want to waste more money on it.

 

[Pulseammo]

The strix looks like it has quite good VRM which may come in useful if there are later higher core count CPUs down the road. I think I read somewhere the other day that those are getting announced at computex end of may 2019 and the next set of boards will have PCIe gen4. I'm not sure if PCIe gen3 bandwidth is even saturated yet. I don't think so.

You're kind of right it's a bit of a side grade if you're just gaming with it. A high clocked haswell still has the same single core performance as some of the ryzen stuff, it's really just the multi core that the haswell will get smoked on.

RAM wise you need to be careful on the big ass coolers, you might need low profile ram like corsair LPX, but don't take my word for it. I run an alpenfohn k2 which is a double tower cooler but it has no cut out slot for ram clearance and has clashed with some of my ram in the past. The dark rock pro 4 has a ram clearance slot I think, so compatibility should be better.

Have you considered getting a CPU or board off the members market or from auction? I suppose if you use it to test and then flip the part later you're only down for postage and fees assuming you "guess" wrong.

Oh regarding windows... I thought if you had the windows license linked to your windows live account (happens automatically if you log in with it I think) then it binds the license to the account not the board? Last few times I've had to re-install windows all I've had to do is log in my windows account and it activates.

 

[MosherMike1138]

I know this is a bit late as the last reply was 3 years ago but I thought I'd reply just in case you were still looking for an answer to your problem.

I had EXACTLY the same problem with my Asus maximus VII Ranger. The problem occured after about 5 years of use. I also found the hairdryer trick worked in order to boot for a while but then noticed that pressing down on the power connector would do the same. Releasing the power connector would see the problem return. I'm an electronics engineer and this immediately screamed "dry joint" at me. Sure enough it turned out to be a dry joint on the button marked MEMOK situated near the power connector.

I resoldered the pins of the button and the system now boots perfectly every time.

Apparently the MEMOK button resets the motherboard and tries to make changes to the bios to enable ram which isn't 100% compatible to work with the system. Holding the button down instead of pressing and releasing causes the motherboard to continuously reset (which is what you and I were seeing). The button is a push to break type, meaning pressing the button intentionally breaks a circuit. The dry joint on the buttons pins effectively break the circuit in the same way that holding down the button does, which in turn causes the motherboard to reset continuously.

Hope this helps even if it is 3 years late.

 

[WantoN]

I know this is a bit late as the last reply was 3 years ago but I thought I'd reply just in case you were still looking for an answer to your problem.

I had EXACTLY the same problem with my Asus maximus VII Ranger. The problem occured after about 5 years of use. I also found the hairdryer trick worked in order to boot for a while but then noticed that pressing down on the power connector would do the same. Releasing the power connector would see the problem return. I'm an electronics engineer and this immediately screamed "dry joint" at me. Sure enough it turned out to be a dry joint on the button marked MEMOK situated near the power connector.

I resoldered the pins of the button and the system now boots perfectly every time.

Apparently the MEMOK button resets the motherboard and tries to make changes to the bios to enable ram which isn't 100% compatible to work with the system. Holding the button down instead of pressing and releasing causes the motherboard to continuously reset (which is what you and I were seeing). The button is a push to break type, meaning pressing the button intentionally breaks a circuit. The dry joint on the buttons pins effectively break the circuit in the same way that holding down the button does, which in turn causes the motherboard to reset continuously.

Hope this helps even if it is 3 years late.

I absolutely love posts like this. Well done dude.

 

[BUDFORCE]

I know this is a bit late as the last reply was 3 years ago but I thought I'd reply just in case you were still looking for an answer to your problem.

I had EXACTLY the same problem with my Asus maximus VII Ranger. The problem occured after about 5 years of use. I also found the hairdryer trick worked in order to boot for a while but then noticed that pressing down on the power connector would do the same. Releasing the power connector would see the problem return. I'm an electronics engineer and this immediately screamed "dry joint" at me. Sure enough it turned out to be a dry joint on the button marked MEMOK situated near the power connector.

I resoldered the pins of the button and the system now boots perfectly every time.

Apparently the MEMOK button resets the motherboard and tries to make changes to the bios to enable ram which isn't 100% compatible to work with the system. Holding the button down instead of pressing and releasing causes the motherboard to continuously reset (which is what you and I were seeing). The button is a push to break type, meaning pressing the button intentionally breaks a circuit. The dry joint on the buttons pins effectively break the circuit in the same way that holding down the button does, which in turn causes the motherboard to reset continuously.

Hope this helps even if it is 3 years late.

Nice, you should feed this back to the board manufacturer.