Bit of a weird one...

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Wondering if anybody can help me with a slight problem that I've recently started having as it's doing my head in.

The system in my sig (Silverstone RV02-E, 3770k, ASRock Z77 OC Formula, EVGA P1000 etc) has recently started turning off randomly, sometimes 30 minutes after being on or sometimes after 2 hours of heavy gaming, and then refuses to turn on again. Nothing new there then! No warnings about excessive temps etc as it's all being monitored. The machine will just hard turn off. No hardware changes at all and no moving around of parts, with the exception of reapplying thermal paste (my temps were high!) and using compressed air to clean out the vents.

Now once the machines turned itself off, the power button will not respond. The part that is doing my head in is that there is a specific way to turn the machine back on .. remove the side panel from the case. Do that and immediately the case will spring into life. Once I've done that, the machine will stay on and functioning even under extreme conditions like stress testing. The PSU is cool to the touch, as well as the exhaust, and all other temps are within the normal ranges (max 65 for the CPU under stress and 70-75 for the 290s in XFire).

So I know that it's going to be an earthing issue but where, or how to insulate the side panel, is slightly tricky as there's not a lot of space to put anything like washers/rubber seals etc. The panel fits onto grooves that are very tight to the fans that are at the bottom of the case and also their mountings that raise them up.

I'm going to be stripping the entire machine at the weekend (fun!) and replacing anything like screws, motherboard mounts, cables etc but wanted to see if anybody else has ideas :)
 
Hmm, check if it turns on when you run just the motherboard with the bare minimum (Processor/RAM) outside of the case (rest it on a cardboard box or other appropriate surface). Short the power pins with a screw driver so you don't have to use the button on the case. Check the caps on the motherboard too. If it still doesn't work, hopefully you have another PC or a friend to help you check the processor and the RAM still work. To me it sounds like the motherboard is the issue. Especially as it won't turn on at all.
 
I would also suggest to give it a go outside of the case and see if it is working there. If yes, install it again with washer to make sure there is no grounding issue. Did you install the IO Shield of the motherboard and run a graphics card with the IO panel installed? Can you upload a picture of your system to have a look if we can see anything that could cause it?
 
Once had a similar case, turned out to be a grounding standoff that only came into contact with the clients PC when the side panel was on as it made the case more rigid and the standoff touched, when it was off the natural flex of the aluminium removed contact.
 
Paper washers around the stand-offs and securing screws should fix this

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