PC starts up and shuts down immediately, looping every 3 seconds

AxU27 · August 11, 2022

The problem: A few days ago my PC shut down randomly during low to medium load. I pressed the power button but it just kept trying to turn on (lights turned on and fans started to spin) and shut down within a second or so, looping on this startup every 3 seconds. I took out all non-essential components and but them back in and it started working. After that the PC has shut down randomly 1-2 per day, but booted back up without problem. Last night it shut down again (low load) and has been looping upon starting ever since. Every time it tries to turn on or off there is a clicking sound coming from the PSU.

I took out all non-essential components again (GPU, storage, etc.), tested all RAM sticks and slots, checked all the cable connection, remounted the CPU cooler and replaced the CMOS battery.

CPU: i5-8600k (second hand)

MOBO: MSI Z370-A PRO (second hand)

RAM: 2x4GB HyperX Fury + 2x4GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 2133MHz

GPU: MSI RTX 2070 Super Gaming X Trio

PSU: Corsair RM 750x (2018)

Storage: 1x Seagate HDD, 1x Samsung SATA SSD, 1x Intel NVME SSD

The PC has worked completely fine for the last 3 years, which is when I bought most of the components.

2BDamned · August 11, 2022

I would like to suggest you to test other PSU (if you have) and the stability of your pc set (by using benchmarks - to see if this problem does still exist or not). For me it seems like it's a problem with this component.

Uptivuptiz · August 11, 2022

This is most likely a motherboard issue. The clicking you hear from the PSU is totally normal as its just the sound it makes when it turns on the main power rails.

If you have a spare motherboard to test with try that. If not, see if there's a PC repair shop near you that is willing to take in the system to test it.

AxU27 · August 11, 2022

Update: I got a new brand new PSU. It booted up just fine. After about 20 seconds in Windows I got a BSOD saying acpi.sys failed. The PC restarted, and immediately after logging into Windows again I got another BSOD saying system service exception. And now it just freezes on the BIOS boot screen and nothing happens.