What causes the PC from turning on : Dampness or Faulty motherboard or PSU???

[ryzenuser]

On Sep 21, 2019, there was heavy rainfall in the early morning, Power was shutdown(electricity), I was not aware the power was shut down, I tried to switch on the Power button on the PC case, it did not respond, then I realized that there was power shutdown, then when the Power came back, I again tried to turn ON the PC, It did not start, I thought it might be loose connection of the plug, I checked it, the plug to the PSU was pretty tight, I realized that was not the problem.
But the RGB component in the Motherboard alone glows. (image )

But the CPU fan, nor any fan in the case moves there is no response.

I saw a few videos, related to this problem, where the suggestion I received was to

1. Try installing a NEW CMOS battery
2. Check if PSU is working by the Paper Clip/stapler pin method.

I tried both of that suggestion, I got a New CMOS battery, removed the pre-installed CMOS battery from the motherboard, installed the new one, Then tried switching on the pc. Still, it didn't turn ON.
I removed the entire PSU unit from the CPU CASE and tested it using the Paper CLip method. Since I couldn't get a Paper clip I tried it with Stapler pin, The fans in the PSU started spinning, I think that implies that PSU is perfectly fine.

I took the PC to Service center(on Sep 22,2019 )from where I brought the whole thing, even there the condition remained the same, which is PC not turning up after switching on the power button on the case, just the RGB in the Motherboard glows,
So the technician replied motherboard might be faulty he would contact the Asus for claiming the warranty and would notify me after 10-15 days,
But after I got out and took a few steps towards my vehicle I received a call from the technician who called me back saying that my PC booted,
I went in and I checked, It was working fine, I asked him what he did, He just said the 24 pin from PSU was loose he pressed and interested it harder, and I myself switched off the power cable many times directly and switched it on again in the service center, PC booted, every single time.

So I thought the problem was solved, again traveled 44 km to my home and tried switching on the PC, in my home.
THE SAME PROBLEM STILL EXIST, I WAS WONDERING HOW DID THE PC TURNED ON IN THE SERVICE CENTER,

On Sep 23, 2019(the weather was clear and sunshine was really good, don't be puzzled what relevance it has anything to with this issue, keep reading this you will realize later) I left the PC untouched for most of the day, I tried starting it by around 6 Pm
PC suddenly started turning ON, I was working in it for like 3 hours before going to sleep, I thought it is fixed now, Again Next morning (Sep 24, 2019)when I switched on the Power button in the front case, the same problem came back. but on the very same day(Sep 24, 2019) at around 9 pm PC turned ON.

From that day (Sep 24, 2019) till Oct 16,2019 the pc was working fine without any issues,

but again on Oct 16,2019 morning when I switched on the Power button on the case, the same problem occurred, no response, none of the fan(CPU, Exhaust, cooler) runs but just the RGB component of the motherboard alone glows(I have attached the image of the RGB component glowing in the first image of this thread).

The very first time(Sep 21, 2019) this problem occurred, it was a heavy rainy day, and when the problem reappeared on Oct 16, 2019, it was a rainy day again, does it have to do anything with the climate or is it by just random chance that the problem occurs on rainy days.

I just speculated that It may something related to dampness that is preventing my PC to start.
so I kept my PC in the sunshine for 45-50 minutes on Oct 18, 2019, and brought it into the home and connected the plug when I pressed the power button on the case it started.
Again the very next morning Oct 19, 2019(it was heavily raining ), the same problem appeared again. when pressed the power button it did not start, I again kept my pc with side cases removed in the sunshine for 55 minutes, brought it back to home, and plugged it in it worked.

I thought silica gel might help by removing the dampness, so I bought a few and kept inside the PC.

But on Oct 20, 2019 morning same problem appeared again.
I don't think the problem is with Power button on the case, as I tried to jump-start the PC by shorting the Power PINS in motherboard with a screwdriver, still, it did not work, but after keeping it in the sunshine when I tried jumpstarting the PC with a screwdriver, the pc immediately started, then connected the Power headers from the front panel to the respective pins and started through the Power button in pc case, it started.
on the same day (Oct 20, 2019) Clouds cleared and sunshine came around 2 pm, I kept my PC with the sides cover removed in the open in sunshine, for 1hour exactly, then brought it back into the house, plugged in and switched on the Power button on the case, it is working.

On 21st October 2019 morning, I tried to turn on PC by pressing the power button, the same problem came back, as the night before that morning there was a heavy downpour,
there was no sunshine the whole day,
Same was the case on the 22nd October 2019, it was totally cloudy no sunshine,
So I was not able to turn the PC on for both the days

On 23 October morning, there was a clear sky and had good sunshine, I kept the PC with the side cover removed in the sunshine for 1 hour, brought it back into the home, plugged in, IT STARTED,

On 24 Oct 2019 morning same problem came back(It was heavily raining the night before), there was slight sunshine for a short time, I kept my PC in the open with the two side covers removed for 1hr, then brought it into the house , plugged in and pressed the Power Button on the pc case, IT STARTED!

Every time when I start PC after keeping it in the sunshine, the time in the windows is changed or it is delayed.
I have not checked the time in BIOS.
But the time in Windows is changed every time when I start after keeping PC in the sunshine,
When I say there was a change in the Time and date in windows. The date is delayed, I think the date in which it is present is the date on which it was the last shutdown.
I have to change the date (UPDATE) and change the time every time after I start PC after keeping it in the sunshine.

Again on 25th Oct 2019 morning the same problem came back, (the night before there was heavy downpour), the whole day was gloomy, so I was not able to turn ON the PC for the whole day.
On Oct 26, 2019
Sunshine came at 3 pm, I kept my PC in sunshine till 4 pm, then brought it into the home, plugged in, pressed the power button on the PC case, it worked.

But the date is right, but the time is totally wrong, it shows 2:52 but the time is 16:20, I never touched CMOS, I have no idea why time changes.

on the same day ( Oct 26, 2019)
before going to sleep, I kept my PC in sleep mode, When I woke up the next morning (Oct 27, 2019)the PC power button was blinking as it should when it is in a SLEEP MODE, but power(electricity) in my home went off, for 10-15 minutes, but after the electricity came back, I immediately didn't switch on the PC as I was held up in other work, but I tried switching ON the power button in PC case after maybe an hour, It didn't switch ON, There was no Rain, even the climate was not too humid,

After that immediately I removed the side covers of the PC and took it outside to keep it in Sunshine, Now currently at this moment PC is in the sunshine.

By the way, I just noticed that long before I kept my RAM frequency to 2666 Mhz but now it is in its default 2133Mhz, I didn't change it back to default, I don't know how that happened.
Also, I find time being changed every time after I start the PC after keeping it in the sunshine.

the same problem appeared on 29th October 2019 but I started the PC by keeping it in Sunshine for 1 hour while going to sleep I choose sleep mode in the windows 10, there was heavy downpour through the night till early morning, there was power off(electricity shutdown), when I woke up in the morning again I was faced with the same problem, so today the whole day there is a heavy downpour, there was no sunshine, So I just could not start the PC.

On 31 October 2019, there was no Rainy, sunshine was really good, I kept my PC 1 hour in the sunshine and brought it back into a home, plugged in, pressed the power button on the PC, IT STARTED.
But the RAM speed was reset to default (2133 MHZ) and the time was changed(lagging).

Yesterday( 31 October 2019) before going to sleep, I switched my PC to sleep mode in windows 10, The power button on the PC case was blinking, even after I woke up in the morning (1 November 2019) the power button on the PC case was blinking, I thought everything was fine, but when I tried to wake up the PC,
by pressing various keys on the keyboard,
clicking mouse,
pressing the power button on the PC case( the power button light was blinking ),
holding the power button for 5 seconds,

Nothing happened, but the LED light in the mouse was glowing,
The PC did not start from sleep mode, but just the power button light on the PC kept blinking,

I switched OFF the power plug switch and again switched it ON, then tried to start the PC as usual, the same problem which has been happening all these days came back, no response, I kept my PC in the sunshine for one and half hour maybe, then brought it into home, plugged in, pressed the power button on the PC case, It started immediately.

But the time in the windows was changed.

1st October 2019), I turned off my pc before going to sleep, again when I woke the next morning (2nd October 2010) the very same problem appeared again, there is no evidence of any rain, I kept the PC in sunshine for hour and brought it into home, plugged in, pressed the power button on the case, IT STARTED without any issue.

This happens every single time, When I keep my PC in the sunshine for an hour or longer, it starts immediately without any issue, The simple logic which I can speculate is there must be something damp in the motherboard which heats up and loses its dampness when I place it in the sunshine,
My idea is what if I place the PC in the sunshine(with side covers removed) for an entire day till the sunsets so that it might remove all the dampness, I never heard of PC parts being damaged from sunshine.


These are the thread where some users have posted a similar problem like mine, please go through this too.

https://www.firstpost.com/tech/news-analysis/is-dampness-the-cause-of-my-pc-not-starting-up-how-do-i-fix-thisronald-dcosta-3584869.html

https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?39507-HELP-High-humidity-causes-failure-to-boot-quick-fix/page2&s=b5e3f6f6e9c9a1b2835353e2f2a09d78

 

This my build

 

My PC is barely a year old.
This is my PC config
AMD Ryzen 3 2200G( disable the VEGA 8 onboard graphics)
Asus Ex 320 Gaming motherboard
Gskill RAM 8GB(1 X
Corsair VS 550
Zotac Geforce GTX 1050Ti
BIOS is latest.

[Warenz Dragon]

Hi!

Can you try to test the electricity from your outlet? It sounds like maybe you have inconsistent power delivery to your PSU.

[Bombastinator]

 sunshine may not have to do with dryness but heat. The sun is hot. If so there may be an intermittent short somewhere. Clearly there is something that is only barely just working somewhere. Where in your system I have no idea.

[ryzenuser]

2 hours ago, Warenz Dragon said:

Hi!

Can you try to test the electricity from your outlet? It sounds like maybe you have inconsistent power delivery to your PSU.

Thank you very much for your valuable response.

 

I tested the PSU with a paper clip test, the fans in the PSU started spinning. 

 

Also I tried switching on the PC in my neighbors home, It did not respond.
.

[ryzenuser]

1 hour ago, Bombastinator said:

Where in your system I have no idea.

Are you asking the place where I am keeping my PC?

 

I too had the doubt that the place where I keep my pc may be of high moisture, so I slightly shifted its place but in the same room, still I faced the same problem.

[Bombastinator]

4 hours ago, ryzenuser said:

Are you asking the place where I am keeping my PC?

 

I too had the doubt that the place where I keep my pc may be of high moisture, so I slightly shifted its place but in the same room, still I faced the same problem.

No.  I’m saying if it works when warmed but not when cold, some part of your PC is possibly only barely functional.  There are a bunch of things that might do this.  A cracked solder joint might work when warm, but not when cold.  Heat expands things.  Lots of solder joints in a PC though and I have no idea where it might be.  A barely still alive battery might also do it.  It might even be a software issue, and leaving it out kills the power from the clock battery resetting everything.

 

The only thing I know to do is start replacing individual parts with known good ones until the problem goes away.  An expensive and time consuming thing to do.  General practice is to start with the easiest cheapest stuff first.  The clock battery is cheap.  Couple of bucks.  That might already have been done though.

 

PSU got tested as working.

Fans got tested as working.

 

MoBo May or may not have a problem because it’s actually a bunch of different things stuck together.  Basic power to it apparently works, but that doesn’t mean other parts may not be bad.

 

Intermittant shorts are a PITA because sometimes they work anyway even if they’re the problem.

 

You might be able to test the heat theory by putting the whole machine in a warm place for a while and see if it suddenly works.  Its not reliable though.

[ryzenuser]

12 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

No.  I’m saying if it works when warmed but not when cold, some part of your PC is possibly only barely functional.  There are a bunch of things that might do this.  A cracked solder joint might work when warm, but not when cold.  Heat expands things.  Lots of solder joints in a PC though and I have no idea where it might be.  A barely still alive battery might also do it.  It might even be a software issue, and leaving it out kills the power from the clock battery resetting everything.

 

The only thing I know to do is start replacing individual parts with known good ones until the problem goes away.  An expensive and time consuming thing to do.  General practice is to start with the easiest cheapest stuff first.  The clock battery is cheap.  Couple of bucks.  That might already have been done though.

 

PSU got tested as working.

Fans got tested as working.

 

MoBo May or may not have a problem because it’s actually a bunch of different things stuck together.  Basic power to it apparently works, but that doesn’t mean other parts may not be bad.

 

Intermittant shorts are a PITA because sometimes they work anyway even if they’re the problem.

 

You might be able to test the heat theory by putting the whole machine in a warm place for a while and see if it suddenly works.  Its not reliable though.

Thanks for suggestion.

 

I am narrowing down the problem to the solder Crack, as other than this nothing can explain why every single time PC starts I place it in sunshine for an hour, today (03 october 2019) the same problem occurred , I just kept the PC in sunshine for an hour It started working, since the motherboard is under warranty, I will contact the Asus.

[Bombastinator]

Solder joints are everywhere in computers though.  Could be many places. RMAing the mobo will give you a known good part though.

[ryzenuser]

Okay, I purchased a brand new PSU Antec Atom V550, I connected the NEW Antec PSU to the motherboard, pressed the power button on the PC cabinet, as usual, NO RESPONSE,

 

I took the PC cabinet(with just GPU, motherboard, RAM, CPU ) and kept it in the sunshine for an hour after an hour brought it back into the home and connected the new PSU to the motherboard, pressed the power button it TURNED ON.

 

Now I can assume that motherboard is the real problem here, as every time I turn it on after exposing it to sunshine I find date and time are lagging.

also from the last 2 days, the RGB component in motherboard stopped glowing.

[Kilrah]

Sounds like a faulty mobo indeed.

[Intergalacticbits]

That was weird about the sunshine.

 

[Kilrah]

That's at the beginning of his post...

[ryzenuser]

5 hours ago, Intergalacticbits said:

That was weird about the sunshine.

 

Although it does sound wired, I don't deny the weirdness,  but every single time I keep the PC in sunshine for an hour and then press the power button on the PC cabinet, it started, not once it failed.

Some have explained that is due to cold soldering which gets expanded on heating thus making contact.

[Intergalacticbits]

I don't know enough about hardware to say.  Sounds like something is not letting the electrons flow where they want to go.  I couldn't say what though.

 

[Intergalacticbits]

3 minutes ago, Intergalacticbits said:

The expanding and contracting sounds believable with the sunshine effect you've said on here but of what exactly.  I don't know enough about hardware to say one way or the other, sorry.  Sounds like something is not letting the electrons flow where they want to go until it expands though.

 

 

[Sumadiana]

On 11/3/2019 at 3:17 PM, ryzenuser said:

Thanks for suggestion.

 

I am narrowing down the problem to the solder Crack, as other than this nothing can explain why every single time PC starts I place it in sunshine for an hour, today (03 october 2019) the same problem occurred , I just kept the PC in sunshine for an hour It started working, since the motherboard is under warranty, I will contact the Asus.

Hi, i have the same problem too my pc won’ boot unles it is heated up for abit using hairdryer at the back of the mobo just in the other side of the cpu. really frustrated to fix this problem. 
By the way my pc spec is Ryzen 5 2600 gigabyte b450m gaming corsair vengeance lpx 2x4 2666 gigabyte gtx1660 and coolermaster master watts 550w 80+B

[SavageNeo]

Just now, Sumadiana said:

Hi, i have the same problem too my pc won’ boot unles it is heated up for abit using hairdryer at the back of the mobo just in the other side of the cpu. really frustrated to fix this problem. 
By the way my pc spec is Ryzen 5 2600 gigabyte b450m gaming corsair vengeance lpx 2x4 2666 gigabyte gtx1660 and coolermaster master watts 550w 80+B

rma the board.

[Sumadiana]

2 hours ago, SavageNeo said:

rma the board.

Looking forward to do that but not sure how to do it