System totally dead

Devrij

Devrij

Devrij

Soldato
Joined
23 Jul 2009
Posts
14,129
Location
Bath
Hi all, trying to work out what's happened with my missus' desktop.

Power switch yields no response (nor does shorting the switch pins on the mobo). Paperclip trick spins up the HDD so it isn't totally dead if it is the PSU (superflower psu that's only 2yrs old so should be alright in theory).

I don't have a multimeter to test the PSU voltages and don't have a spare psu either. Any ideas on what else I can test?

Loathe to get my psu out of my build (my beautiful cable management!) so may pick up a multimeter if I have to.
 
What's the precise model code of PSU?
5V standby going bad could prevent motherboard from powering PSU and Golden Green HX is likely full of cheap capacitors.

Also trying only with minimal parts connected to see if you can get to PC to boot/do POST is another thing.

And then because also my crystal ball is broken what components that PC has?
 
It's a 2500k in a p67a c45 board, 4 dimms of 2gb ram. Has a 5850 in it too, one HDD and a SSD for boot drive.

Can't remember model of psu, but it has a gold surround and isn't modular, so may indeed be the budget one.

Have ordered a multimeter to see if it's the PSU.

In the meantime will try dropping the gpu out to see if that frees up enough juice to at least power the board (no onboard gpu support for that chipset).

In fact, with the cpu 4pin connected, should the fans have spun up when I jumped the PSU from the 24 pin? Because they didn't.
 
Yeah that's the one. I think I was just surprised to not get a hint of power. Usually one of the rails goes or the pwr_ok line is low etc, but fans still power up.

Could it be the board though? I did have one of these go bad a few years back (this was a new RMA replacement)
 
Voltage regulation is the nicer failure because it causes more obvious instant problem.
While increasing ripple can insidiously stress and wear out components without giving fast signs.
That's why I consider choosing capacitors for their cheap enough price bad in PSUs.
(heck, my last CRT, Samsung 959NF developed problems in 6 years because of failing caps... while few years ago my father still used 17 years old Nokia 449Xi)

Though motherboard could be also quilty.
Testing with other known working PSU would be only sure way to bracket problem's location.
 
EsaT said:
Voltage regulation is the nicer failure because it causes more obvious instant problem.
While increasing ripple can insidiously stress and wear out components without giving fast signs.
That's why I consider choosing capacitors for their cheap enough price bad in PSUs.
(heck, my last CRT, Samsung 959NF developed problems in 6 years because of failing caps... while few years ago my father still used 17 years old Nokia 449Xi)

Though motherboard could be also quilty.
Testing with other known working PSU would be only sure way to bracket problem's location.
Click to expand...

I may end up taking the PSU out of my htpc to test if the multimeter doesn't show up any obvious issues. If that still doesn't work then I reckon the board is the culprit. If the PSU will power up and spin up the hard drive, why wouldn't it do that when I power up the whole system, even if it fails to post or boot? Time will tell! Kinda hope it is the PSU as everything else is long out of warranty!
 
get computer to bare minimal no vga, unless no on board , no hdd, stick of memory all we want first is the bios to show up! Then progress from there if lucky
 
Right, power supply voltages are all perfect, so now I'm thinking the board could be the culprit. If it at least powered on without posting I'd know what to do, but I'm a bit stumped otherwise.
 
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