PC won't turn on (but worked fine when it did)

BrettK · 27 Oct 2015 at 19:06

Hey guys. So, long story short, my pc was working fine. Then for a while it was being fussy about when it would turn on (I'd press the power button, it wouldn't turn on, but I'd try it again later in the day and it would). But now it doesn't turn on at all.

When it has turned on, it has worked perfectly, making me feel like it's not really a problem with the power supply or anything, but rather with the power switch on the case. But I saw online to switch the reset button with the power button connector on the motherboard to test to see if it is the power button or its wires, but that didn't work either. So I'm a little confused now.

I'd really appreciate any help with this. Thanks in advance.

wazza300 · 27 Oct 2015 at 19:12

did you reset/clear the cmos by removing motherboard battery for a few minutes? then put back in and try,youll lose any oc settings though

would be good if you could test with a spare psu to rule that out

postmanfw · 27 Oct 2015 at 19:17

Try a different power supply.

BrettK · 27 Oct 2015 at 19:22

wazza300 said:
did you reset/clear the cmos by removing motherboard battery for a few minutes? then put back in and try,youll lose any oc settings though

would be good if you could test with a spare psu to rule that out

I havn't. I've never had to do this before, so I'm unsure about how to do that. But I'm sure I can find a quick video online to help with it. And I haven't overclocked my CPU, so all the settings should be the same when I turn it back on right?

Sadly I don't have another PSU, but I don't think it's that because when my computer has turned on everything has worked totally fine.

But I'll definitely try removing the battery if not tonight then tomorrow.

jonwhite · 27 Oct 2015 at 19:58

not sure if you have tryed, get a wire disconnect on off switch and short out the two pins or if you can get to the switch contacts short it there

wazza300 · 27 Oct 2015 at 20:04

yes it just resets the cmos/bios to default

just pinch the metal tabs that hold the battery in and the battery should lift up and out,the cmos button doesn't always clear it fully

zeegy · 28 Oct 2015 at 16:51

postmanfw said:
Try a different power supply.

This,

Had the same fault.... pc being a bugger to boot, but when booted, fine. if i plugged in to mains, it could be very finnicky, let it 'warm up' and then it would work.

would propose you borrow a friends psu, connect it from the outside and rule out the psu..... my money would be on the psu though!

jbh110tdi · 28 Oct 2015 at 17:22

another vote for the PSU I had the same problem with my first build and it was the PSU

BrettK · 31 Oct 2015 at 14:40

jonwhite said:
not sure if you have tryed, get a wire disconnect on off switch and short out the two pins or if you can get to the switch contacts short it there

In a video online I saw a guy remove the power switch thingy from the two pins and touch the two pins with a flathead screwdriver. I tried this, but I'm not entirely sure if I did it correctly. It didn't fix the problem anyway, but I'll try again making sure I do it properly this time.

Thanks buddy.

wazza300 said:
yes it just resets the cmos/bios to default

just pinch the metal tabs that hold the battery in and the battery should lift up and out,the cmos button doesn't always clear it fully

Took the battery out, waited a minute or so (wasn't sure how long I had to wait) and I put it back in. I think I turned my power supply switch off when I did this, I'm not sure if I was supposed to or not? But what I did didn't fix the problem.

Thanks mate.

zeegy said:
This,

Had the same fault.... pc being a bugger to boot, but when booted, fine. if i plugged in to mains, it could be very finnicky, let it 'warm up' and then it would work.

would propose you borrow a friends psu, connect it from the outside and rule out the psu..... my money would be on the psu though!

Yeah, this is what's happening. I can't understand why the system would run totally fine when it turns on if the PSU isn't working correctly, but it does. And that "warm up" period is exactly what I was experiencing. I couldn't turn the computer on after just turning the power from the plug socket on, but if I waited until later in the day it would sometimes turn on then.

I don't actually know anyone who has a PC from whom I can borrow a PSU though, sadly. I might just have to contact Seasonic and let them what what's going on and request an RMA, telling them I've ruled out other possible problems.

Thanks buddy.

jbh110tdi said:
another vote for the PSU I had the same problem with my first build and it was the PSU

I'm pretty sure it's the PSU at this point. Such a nightmare. Grr!

rexehuk · 31 Oct 2015 at 14:53

One thing to try... that not one has mentioned.

Please try ANOTHER kettle cable that goes into the PSU. It really could be as simple as that... and should be first port of call.