PC won't turn on - is my PSU dead?

frying_pan_cat · 15 Oct 2015 at 18:55

Over the past couple of months I've been having an intermittent problem with my PC where occasionally when I press the power button there's a hesitation before it will turn on, or less frequently won't turn on at all. Yesterday it turned on OK but I went for a shower and when I came back it was off (but the power light was still on). Today I was on it for 5-10 minutes when it suddenly restarted, booted to windows then went dead. Again power light still on.

I just opened it up and tried the paperclip test on the psu and it clicked into life but immediately went dead again. If I wiggled the paperclip it would keep doing the same but I couldn't get it to stay on.

Does this sound like a dead PSU?

I've not had any issues like this before so a bit lost as to where to start if the fault isn't the PSU

wazza300 · 15 Oct 2015 at 18:56

its hard to say,but psu would be a good start

be handy to borrow one for testing?

list your pc parts

frying_pan_cat · 15 Oct 2015 at 19:05

I've not got any spare parts unfortunately and don't really have anyone who it would be convenient to borrow from.
Spec is
Superflower 650W modular PSU
4690K
Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 3 Intel Z97
Sapphire Radeon R9 280X Dual-X OC
TeamGroup Vulcan GOLD 8GB
Raijintek EreBoss cooler
TP-Link N600 Wifi adapter

wazza300 · 15 Oct 2015 at 19:10

you could try bare minimum setup,to try and reduce the load on the psu

remove the gpu and use integrated graphics and see if it still plays up (its not a 100% test though but worth a try before splashing out on new psu)

dacads · 15 Oct 2015 at 19:12

Do you have one or two sticks of RAM?

How old are all the parts?

varkanoid · 15 Oct 2015 at 19:17

Buy a PSU tester you can get them for less than a tenner and its cheaper than buying a new PSU only to find out its not the PSU. They can come in handy in the future.

The sky blue shirts sell them if you cant wait for online/delivery.

frying_pan_cat · 15 Oct 2015 at 19:37

Thanks for the responses guys.

I've got 2 sticks of RAM. Everything was bought new last July so just over a year old.

I'll try it with minimum parts and see if that helps. Don't know if I'll have a chance tonight but if not I'll have to wait until the weekend when I have a bit more time.

I'll look into a PSU tester

frying_pan_cat · 15 Oct 2015 at 20:42

I tried it with minimal components and it won't turn on so I've ordered a PSU tester. Suggestions of anything I can try in the mean time are welcome though

wazza300 · 15 Oct 2015 at 20:44

can take out the cmos battery on the mb,leave it out for 20 minutes and then put back in and try

if that board has a backup bios switch,flick it to the backup position and try booting from backup bios

frying_pan_cat · 17 Oct 2015 at 11:11

Thanks for the suggestion. I've now luckily managed to get my hands on a spare PSU and the PC seems to be fine so I think it is the PSU that was the issue. I guess I'll have to RMA the bad PSU now