Little bit of help diagnosing fault

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23 Jul 2012
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Hi guys, a PC I built after buying the parts on here back in 2012 has decided not to boot for me, it was having issues with Grub (I had Ubuntu dual boot), then it booted up today with a BIOS screen I'd not seen before, before shutting off.

Turning it on, PSU spins up, CPU spins up for a few seconds then it turns off - repeat in a cycle.

I took the stock cooler off, cleaned off the paste and applied new.

I've unplugged everything, just down to the PSU with the ATX cord for the board and the one for the CPU plugged in and it's still doing the same.

Think the PSU has gone? It's a 550W OCZ one.
 
Certainly worth trying another PSU to rule it out. Could be a power safe check that is dragging the system down after a few seconds.

Any way to check voltages in the short time you have up time?
 
Here are the specs

Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155
OCZ ZT 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply
Patriot Viper Xtreme 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel
Samsung 128GB SSD 830

I'll check the voltages Tealc, I'm getting about 10 seconds so should be time enough.

I have another PSU in my main gaming machine, just a ballache to take it all out, but might have to do that to see if that is the issue.
 
I'd try clearing cmos / bios first , you already tried removing everything so can rule out that stuff of your list to do if it isn't psu possible corrupt bios as seen similar issues as yours with past Pcs repaired.
 
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Sounds similar to my issue with my old motherboard after a bios flash failed. Stuck in a never ending fan spin up and shut down cycle.

As others have said above, check the PSU but it could be the bios that's had it.
 
Thanks for the help guys, tried another power supply yesterday and it did exactly the same thing.

The Bios did flash up something I'd never seen before just before it all went wonk, it flashed up too quick for me to see.

So clearing the BIOS? I just take the battery out for a few minutes? Or get a new one and try that?

fenchu - getting a new chip, I wouldn't know where to start with that. Is it something I can fit myself?

Thanks again for all the help.
 
There may be a BIOS CMOS reset switch, or jumper. Yanking the battery out will also clear it but not sure how long it takes for the reset to happen.

Whether or not that'll work though is another thing.

If your BIOS is socketed you may be able to replace it and that may fix your issue, if that's what the problem is. I don't know how you'd tell if that were the issue though and considering you weren't flashing the BIOS at the time like the above you shouldn't be running into problems.

If you did indeed have a message up on the screen then perhaps the BIOS isn't the failure reason but something else is.

Clear power to the PC by switching off at mains, cycling power button to clear residual capacitor charges and perhaps leaving to stand for a bit, clear CMOS and this time watch, or record a video of the screen.
 
Thanks Tealc.

So I tried cycling the power button, leaving to stand, clearing the BIOS (I found a jumper to do this) and then gave it another go.

Power supply is now staying on, cpu fan is staying on, but nothing showing on the screen.
 
ive got same chip and board and i changed my psu

mine ended up doin a bios recovery as it was stuck on a loop booting up

think i still have the youtube clip somwhere

here u go, this is the 2nd clip

and i only turned it on once it just turned itself off an on then suddenly it hit bios recovery
 
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Thanks Gaz Mc, that quick almost blank BIOS screen looks familiar, I had it once before all this started happening.

After using the jumper to reset the CMOS again, I managed to get it to go into BIOS once, with everything reset. I thought I was back in business.

Connected my boot drive and tried to get it started, went straight back into the cycling thing again.

Used the jumper again and now it comes on, stays on, but no BIOS loading up on the screen.

Getting somewhere at least!

I've got this far with the original PSU, so now going to switch to the new one I borrowed to see if it makes a difference.
 
Looks like I'm in exactly the same boat as you Gaz, just swapped out the PSU and it's booting into bios consistently now. Almost back in business.
 
Alright, so Windows is booting up. My 500W Ocz PSU is ready for recycling I think.

What do you guys recommend to replace it on Overclockers these days? Fully modular please.

Thanks. :D
 
i got an evga 850w g2 but ive just upgraded my whole rig, my old psu in that vid was a corsair 620w

glad u got it sorted anyway dude
 
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