Troubleshooting advice please

GingaNinja · 18 Jun 2014 at 13:53

Hi all. I have a vexing problem and I’d appreciate your thoughts.

Relevant specs (no overclocking or anything):

Mobo: Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R (socket 1366)
CPU: i7 920 (at stock)
Cooler: Titan Fenrir
RAM: Patriot Viper – 3x 2GB
GPU: Nvidia 770 GTX
SSD: Crucial 240 GB
PSU: PC Power and Cooling 910W (80+ silver)

I have a rig that ran well, with no problems, for about 2 years. Over the past 6 months, however, I’ve been having start-up problems. Basically, most of the time (but not all the time) when I press the power button all the fans spin up and I hear that funny whirr (RAM counting?) but there is no monitor output and the PC is unresponsive – can’t get into the BIOS or anything. I then have to hold the power button until it shuts off and try again. Sometimes I have to go through this process several or many times before the PC will boot successfully. Once booted it’s solid as a rock, with no instability whatsoever.

There is one way in which I can make the PC boot reliably. When the PC becomes unresponsive, I hold the power button until it shuts off, and then I flick the switch on the PSU to ‘off’. When I then press the PC power button, the PC shows a flicker of life but then dies (because the PSU is off). When I then flick the switch on the PSU to ‘on’, the PC boots normally without me pressing the PC power button.

I’ve rebuilt the PC in a new case (Fractal Design Refine R4), not to solve the problem but because I needed a new case, but nevertheless this didn’t make any difference. I’ve also invested in a PSU checker, which didn’t find any problems with the PSU, and the PSU is adequately powered for my rig I think. Finally, I’ve tried stripping the PC down to minimal components but the problem still happened.

Sorry for the long message! So my questions are:

Any thoughts as to the likely cause?
If this were your rig, what component(s) would you replace, in an attempt to fix the problem?

Cheers

Ginga

wazza300 · 18 Jun 2014 at 14:33

are you using latest firmware for the crucial m4?

and latest motherboard bios?

it could also be a cold boot issue which is usually ram related/voltage/setting

how much qpi/vtt voltage you using?

bignev72 · 18 Jun 2014 at 14:55

This is your PSU I reckon.

I had a similar but not identical problem and it was my PSU.

Could you borrow one from a friend? If not then buy one from a shop, test it out and return it if it doesn't resolve the issue.

GingaNinja · 18 Jun 2014 at 16:29

Thanks wazza300. TBH, there's a bewildering array of voltage options in BIOS, and I've never changed them. I'll have a look at what they're currently set to when I get home. If there's a way to fix it by changing a simple setting, that would be pure win. The SSD *should* be up to date, because I only installed it a few weeks ago, but I'll look into that and the BIOS as well.

begnev72: thanks for your thoughts. I fear you might be right, but I'll try the cheaper options first. I'll be gutted if I end up swapping the PSU, because I' hoped it would last a good long while, but I suppose I've been using it for about 4 years. Care to recommend a decent PSU, with enough power for overclocking and possibly SLI (in the future)?

Cheers

Ginga