PC *somtimes* booting. $25 lttstore gift card if you can fix it.

[CassWest]

1 minute ago, PaulHubers said:

I have heard of it happening both ways, even Linus in videos has mentioned that they have had systems have boot issues or intermittent issues due to a pin not making full contact on the board. It is a stretch for sure but you never know sometimes.

Yeah it might be worth a look for sure, I appreciate it

[Sawa Takahashi]

Since you checked almost everything that could be checked. Did you try to clear the CMOS and change the CMOS battery ? It is an inexpensive test and it solves so many weird issues.

[CassWest]

6 minutes ago, Sawa Takahashi said:

Since you checked almost everything that could be checked. Did you try to clear the CMOS and change the CMOS battery ? It is an inexpensive test and it solves so many weird issues.

I did not change the CMOS battery as I don't have another one but I did follow the clear CMOS procedure.

[Sawa Takahashi]

9 minutes ago, CassWest said:

I did not change the CMOS battery as I don't have another one but I did follow the clear CMOS procedure.

That should be good enough. I recommend changing the CMOS battery when doing a CMOS reset because it costs less than a buck. But your battery should still be good since it is a new build.

 

Did you try running the motherboard + PSU + CPU + RAM + GPU on a cardboard box outside the case ? It sometimes happen that there is a short between the case and some component.

[ToboRobot]

10 minutes ago, Sawa Takahashi said:

That should be good enough. I recommend changing the CMOS battery when doing a CMOS reset because it costs less than a buck. But your battery should still be good since it is a new build.

 

The battery is there to save settings when the machine is off.  Dead batteries don't prevent systems from booting.

[ToboRobot]

23 minutes ago, CassWest said:

I did not change the CMOS battery as I don't have another one but I did follow the clear CMOS procedure.

Reset is all that's required.

Replacing the battery is pointless at this stage.

[Damocles Ti]

Can you describe everything that happens on a failed boot attempt and everything that happens on a successful boot attempt? I'm wondering if you're able to get into BIOS before a failed attempt to boot to OS

[CassWest]

2 hours ago, Damocles Ti said:

Can you describe everything that happens on a failed boot attempt and everything that happens on a successful boot attempt? I'm wondering if you're able to get into BIOS before a failed attempt to boot to OS

Yes, on a successful boot attempt it boots normally and works as it should. On an unsuccessful boot attempt, nothing happens, literally nothing. As if there's a power outage. When it works, it works. I can not get into the BIOS, nor can I read any potential error LEDs, it's dead until it isn't. 

[CassWest]

4 hours ago, Sawa Takahashi said:

That should be good enough. I recommend changing the CMOS battery when doing a CMOS reset because it costs less than a buck. But your battery should still be good since it is a new build.

 

Did you try running the motherboard + PSU + CPU + RAM + GPU on a cardboard box outside the case ? It sometimes happen that there is a short between the case and some component.

Yes, first thing I tried. No difference. I don't think the issue is a short considering it sometimes turns on as it should without touching anything. 

[Damocles Ti]

1 minute ago, CassWest said:

Yes, on a successful boot attempt it boots normally and works as it should. On an unsuccessful boot attempt, nothing happens, literally nothing. As if there's a power outage. When it works, it works. 

So if it's not successful, it wont even post, no chance to mash the delete key and enter the bios?

[CassWest]

1 minute ago, Damocles Ti said:

So if it's not successful, it wont even post, no chance to mash the delete key and enter the bios?

Sorry I just edited my reply to you, I'm reading too many things at once.

Yeah, it's completely dead until it isn't. No chance of seeing error messages or getting into the BIOS as it doesn't post at all.

[Damocles Ti]

4 minutes ago, CassWest said:

Sorry I just edited my reply to you, I'm reading too many things at once.

Yeah, it's completely dead until it isn't. No chance of seeing error messages or getting into the BIOS as it doesn't post at all.

It sounds like an issue that happens when the motherboard goes into a power state so low that the CPU doesn't recover from. This happens when you overclock the system or when you're just unlucky and your CPU needs more power than others. You can try tuning the settings in BIOS responsible for APM (active power management) Things like S4 and S5 states might need to be turned off. Things that might help is to make sure windows isn't corrupted and the BIOS is up to date because lately I've noticed these Mobo makers releasing products with obvious voltage and power management bugs.

So to start, check if your motherboard has a new BIOS update and see if that helps with the power saving behavior. Check if you can disable any sleep states (S#) in the BIOS too.

[Alan G]

I suspect it is the PSU and there is something wrong with the power on good signal that sometimes does not get sent out.  I had this issue some years ago with an HTPC and a Seasonic PSU that all of the sudden started behaving erratically.  Some of the inexpensive PSU testers will tell you if this is faulty.

[Sawa Takahashi]

18 hours ago, CassWest said:

Yes, first thing I tried. No difference. I don't think the issue is a short considering it sometimes turns on as it should without touching anything. 

It still can be a short because shorts can be intermittent too. But if it boots no better outside the case, this is clearly not a case short.

Not the easiest thing to do, but you really should try your components one by one into a known good computer. This will at least tell you where to look to find the fault.

Have a nice day

[CassWest]

CONCLUSION:

The motherboard was broken all along, horrible thing to diagnose considering it worked flawlessly when it started. Ended up bringing it to the boutique that sold the parts for a diagnosis, happy I did, ended up getting a new motherboard that was also a slight upgrade. Everything was covered by the warranty.
Thank you to everyone that helped.

Updating this thread and marking this as the "solution" in case anyone googles this and has the same issue, no real help but hey ho. Sometimes shits just DOA and you have to deal with it.