PC /sometimes/ doesn't turn on

bennydragonboy

bennydragonboy

bennydragonboy

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Joined
19 Oct 2009
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132
Location
Berkshire, UK
I have been using a Seasonic G series 550w '80 Plus Gold' Modular PSU since December 2013, and up until very recently it has been nothing short of excellent, but now my computer occasionally refuses to start up. More specifically, it seems that the PSU does not provide any power to the system when I press the power button on the front of the case, because literally nothing happens. I can eventually get it working, if I turn it off at the wall socket for some time, then back on, or sometimes cycling on/off a few times on the PSU itself.

Note: The button itself is fine, I am confident that everything is seated and connected securely, and when the computer gets started - all is well (for the most part).

My other specifications are as follows: -

Corsair Carbide 330R Silent Mid Tower case (has 2x 140mm fans)
Gigabyte Z87-D3HP Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX motherboard
Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 processor
Patriot Viper 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual Channel memory
Asus Radeon R9 280X DirectCUII TOP 3072MB GDDR5 PCIe3 graphics card
Asus Xonar DGX 5.1 PCI-Express sound card
Samsung 120GB 840 EVO SSD
Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 64MB Cache hard drive
OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA optical drive
TP-Link 150Mbps Wireless PCI Express NIC
Noiseblocker BlackSilent Fan XK1 (140mm)
Prolimatech Panther CPU Cooler (1x 120mm fan)

My diagnosis is that either my PSU or my motherboard VRM is faulty, although I think it's much more likely to be issue with the PSU, since I think that I am pushing it to its limits. I emailed Seasonic support, and they agreed that it is highly likely to be one of those two things, although think it is more likely the motherboard. Go figure!

So I am not entirely sure, and am hoping someone here can help me decide what to do about the problem. All my components should still be within their warranty period, and Seasonic have said that if I RTV my PSU they will test it, but I would rather not do that. Going through OcUK would probably be the simpler option, but even then, I do not want to be without my PC for any amount of time.

So, what do you think the cause of the problem is, and what should I do? Thanks in advance.
 
are you running latest motherboard bios? id do that first if not

only way to test for psu is to order another,maybe 650-750w this time and test with that,if it cures it rma the old psu and sell the replacement,if it doesn't cure it then idk other than a mb fault
 
Yes, I am running the latest release of the BIOS for my motherboard, version F6.

If I do need to buy a new PSU outright, then I would not consider getting anything less than a 750w 80+ Gold PSU now, ideally 850w (in case of future upgrades).

The problem with that is cost though, if I could sell or get a refund on my current PSU, then that would not be such an issue.
 
you could also try bare minimum setup,use igpu/one ram stick

see if its still hard to start with less load being put on to the psu
 
Hmm, yeah, that might be an idea.

I was thinking for simplicity's sake, the next time it happens, to just remove the power cable from the top of my graphics card and then see if it will turn on.

Would that work?
 
you might need to set igpu in bios/or take it out,not sure if it auto detects if a graphic card is plugged in but not powered up
 
wazza300 said:
you might need to set igpu in bios/or take it out,not sure if it auto detects if a graphic card is plugged in but not powered up
Click to expand...

+1 It will default to the first PCIE slot, regardless of whether it's powered :) You'll have to take it out
 
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