my PC always gets this problem and drives me mad

[3moNoob]

Hello everyone.

about 2 years ago i bought this used PC. 

Here are the specs:

CPU: i5-9400F

Ram: 8x2 (16GB) ddr4 2400hz XPG AData

Motherboard: Asus TUF B365M-Plus Gaming

PSU: Xigmatek X-Power 600w

also there is a small speaker in the MB that beeps every time it Posts.

.

so the problem is that ever since i bought this PC i had this problem whenever i clean it or move it or unplug/plug something it would not post when i try to turn it on and all fans spin to life but i get a black screen and no beeps and non of the peripherals turn on 

it does that often and i try everything to fix it and it always works after 1-5 Hours of troubleshooting but the problem is that i do so much to fix it that i don’t know what i did right that fixed it.

it works for as long as “no one disturbs it’s atmosphere”

as in never hit the table or or move the pc around.

while troubleshooting i do the following:

disconnect all peripherals and cables (including monitor cable)

and remove CMOS Battery and press the power button many times to discharge all static and “leftover power” and keep repeating while trying something new each time like checking and repluging power cords and such things but im sure it’s internal.

eventually it works but i still don’t know what i did right and what the cause of the problem is

now it did it again and im desperate to know the cause.

Please help.

[191x7]

Could be a faulty PSU or the motherboard; check both for bad capacitors.

[johnt]

That's a PSU problem. 

[3moNoob]

13 minutes ago, 191x7 said:

Could be a faulty PSU or the motherboard; check both for bad capacitors.

i checked em both and everything look’s intact 

also i tried powering on with no ram installed and it beeped but didn’t post

[3moNoob]

10 minutes ago, johnt said:

That's a PSU problem. 

but what is is exactly 

[whispous]

8 minutes ago, 3moNoob said:

but what is is exactly 

A dying or broken PSU.

[3moNoob]

2 minutes ago, whispous said:

A dying or broken PSU.

but how do u know and how can i know if it works somehow when it wants to 

its been doing this for 2 years and still didn’t fry itself

[johnt]

9 minutes ago, 3moNoob said:

but what is is exactly 

It's a cheaply made PSU. I checked the cultist PSU list and it's an E tier model. My guess is cheap capacitors.

 

https://cultists.network/140/psu-tier-list/

[johnt]

1 minute ago, 3moNoob said:

but how do u know and how can i know if it works somehow when it wants to 

its been doing this for 2 years and still didn’t fry itself

It's not about frying itself. That isn't the only indicator of a broken PSU. That's an indicator of complete failure. There could be other components giving you hints, which is what is happening in your situation.

[whispous]

3 minutes ago, 3moNoob said:

but how do u know and how can i know if it works somehow when it wants to 

its been doing this for 2 years and still didn’t fry itself

A lightbulb works one day and fries the next. It having been working for a long time is meaningless.

 

We don't  KNOW it's the PSU, but with many of us having sometimes a decade, two or more of PC hardware experience, this is what our intuition tells us is most likely.

 

None of us have your computer in our hands, so every single recommendation is based on an educated guess. Take it or leave it.

[3moNoob]

1 minute ago, johnt said:

It's a cheaply made PSU. I checked the cultist PSU list and it's an E tier model. My guess is cheap capacitors.

 

https://cultists.network/140/psu-tier-list/

ye i knew that before but expected it to Completely stop working or fry itself 

any recommendations on other “cheap but not bad” PSUs?

[3moNoob]

1 minute ago, johnt said:

It's not about frying itself. That isn't the only indicator of a broken PSU. That's an indicator of complete failure. There could be other components giving you hints, which is what is happening in your situation.

i see

[Somerandomtechyboi]

id instantly suspect mobo since thats the #1 most error prone part in a build

 

since it still turns on i have my doubts on it being a psu problem but if a mobo swap doesnt fix it then thatd be the next thing to go since no beeps = 00 or doesnt even attempt to post, if it were s ram issue then there should be some beeps indicating ram error

 

oh and that psu is pretty meh, you can tell by the 12v rail since its 42a or 504w, just barely within what id tolerate for a psu (max 100w below psu advertised rating), no reason not to upgrade anyways since you can buy cheap used 750/850w rm(x) or equivalent for like 40-60$ and youd have to upgrade anyways, but again id only suspect it after mobo swap

[johnt]

5 minutes ago, 3moNoob said:

ye i knew that before but expected it to Completely stop working or fry itself 

any recommendations on other “cheap but not bad” PSUs?

Find a PSU in a price range that you are comfortable with and see where it falls on the Cultists Network list. Ideally you want an A or B tier PSU. I'd be willing to say you need more power than a C tier models because of your CPU, and I'm assuming you have a GPU as well.

 

https://cultists.network/140/psu-tier-list/

[johnt]

5 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

id instantly suspect mobo since thats the #1 most error prone part in a build

I think there is a slim chance it is the motherboard. Fans require significantly less power to start. Usually they are on completely different rails than the CPU and other major components. The Op mentions it doesn't post and he gets a black screen... why not say it's the GPU? (which he didn't list, but an F series Intel CPU doesn't have an iGPU, so he definitely has a GPU).

 

It could easily be a wiring short if the Op really plays with the internals for 1 to 5 hours every time this happens.

[3moNoob]

6 minutes ago, johnt said:

Find a PSU in a price range that you are comfortable with and see where it falls on the Cultists Network list. Ideally you want an A or B tier PSU. I'd be willing to say you need more power than a C tier models because of your CPU, and I'm assuming you have a GPU as well.

 

https://cultists.network/140/psu-tier-list/

Update: it just posted and i turned it off to connect everything back in but now it just changed it’s mind IG and it’s back to not posting

and yes i have a GTX 1650 Super i forgot to mention it

thanks i will be looking for another PSU

[3moNoob]

2 minutes ago, johnt said:

I think there is a slim chance it is the motherboard. Fans require significantly less power to start. Usually they are on completely different rails than the CPU and other major components. The Op mentions it doesn't post and he gets a black screen... why not say it's the GPU? (which he didn't list, but an F series Intel CPU doesn't have an iGPU, so he definitely has a GPU).

 

It could easily be a wiring short if the Op really plays with the internals for 1 to 5 hours every time this happens.

yes i keep messing and connecting then disconnecting Power cables until an attempt gives me a post.

[3moNoob]

1 hour ago, johnt said:

I think there is a slim chance it is the motherboard. Fans require significantly less power to start. Usually they are on completely different rails than the CPU and other major components. The Op mentions it doesn't post and he gets a black screen... why not say it's the GPU? (which he didn't list, but an F series Intel CPU doesn't have an iGPU, so he definitely has a GPU).

 

It could easily be a wiring short if the Op really plays with the internals for 1 to 5 hours every time this happens.

Update : turned out it’s the ram sockets on the right side that are just a lil dirty even tho they look clean

i told a friend of mine about the problem and thank god he had the same problem before and his MB got a lil digital screen in it that showed a code for ram.

he told me to try using one ram stick on each socket and see if it works, it did on both sockets closer to CPU and didn’t on the others and he told me to try using both ram sticks on both the working sockets and it worked but no in dual channel of course. so he told me to clean the other sockets with a tooth brush and guess what? it worked like magic

i feel so stupid now but im glad i finally know what caused the problem.

still gonna change PSU tho lol.

thanks a lot everyone for your time.

[Somerandomtechyboi]

1 hour ago, johnt said:

I think there is a slim chance it is the motherboard. Fans require significantly less power to start. Usually they are on completely different rails than the CPU and other major components. The Op mentions it doesn't post and he gets a black screen... why not say it's the GPU? (which he didn't list, but an F series Intel CPU doesn't have an iGPU, so he definitely has a GPU).

 

It could easily be a wiring short if the Op really plays with the internals for 1 to 5 hours every time this happens.

i mean ive dealt with like 30+ broken boards at this point and ive seen a fair share of odd issues and boards randomly up and dying on me, so fair to say boards are the most error prone part of a pc build and any odd issues like this will immideately be blamed on the board before anything else

 

psus wise the only one thats ever catastrophically failed on me was a china no brand black box psu with a big fan where it just exploded on me, otherwise no failiures even on cheap grey box with tiny fans and pathetic 12v rails except that one unit that was delivered faulty and turns out there was some sort of corrosion internally

 

weirdest issue on psus for me was only on said cheap oem grey box psus with pathetic 12v rails where overclocking on my p5q resulted in 12v -> 14v, 5v -> 6v, 3.3v -> 2.7v, just garbage volt regulation on a board that seems to really hammer psu volt regulation, ever since swapping to my dazumba 450w (effective 360w due to 12v rail = 30a) no issues with that board same goes for my other actually half decent units i bought for <20$ used all lesser known brands and i just used the 12v rail as a reference for quality hence my doubts on ops psu since even if its very much on the lower end quality wise i dont think itd have any issues with a system that probs dont even draw >250w

 

if my 13yo dazumba 450w isnt dead by now then i have my doubts that a newer psu would just fail that quickly unless its a lemon cause tbf i did buy that dazumba when it was 9yo and im pretty sure if it has lasted 9 years it wouldnt be a lemon thatd die quickly unlike a new psu where there are lemons and there are units thatll blow right past 12 years

[Somerandomtechyboi]

2 minutes ago, 3moNoob said:

Update : turned out it’s the ram sockets on the right side that are just a lil dirty even tho they look clean

i told a friend of mine about the problem and thank god he had the same problem before and his MB got a lil digital screen in it that showed a code for ram.

he told me to try using one ram stick on each socket and see if it works, it did on both sockets closer to CPU and didn’t on the others and he told me to try using both ram sticks on both the working sockets and it worked but no in dual channel of course. so he told me to clean the other sockets with a tooth brush and guess what? it worked like magic

i feel so stupid now but im glad i finally know what caused the problem.

still gonna change PSU tho lol.

thanks a lot everyone for your time.

why the hell wasnt it beeping though?

 

so yep confirmed mobo issue due to filth, no that psu is completely fine so theres no rush to replace it, just that when you do upgrade youll have to swap anyways

 

bare minimum 850w if you want a decent upgrade otherwise you are just wasting money on an upgrade that wont last when you get another gpu upgrade, but there are still used 850w rm(x) or equivalent for 40-60$ so if you domt have the cash but still wanna upgrade id look at the used market, risk is next to none just by personal experience buying 3 lesser known units all <20$

[3moNoob]

16 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

why the hell wasnt it beeping though?

 

so yep confirmed mobo issue due to filth, no that psu is completely fine so theres no rush to replace it, just that when you do upgrade youll have to swap anyways

 

bare minimum 850w if you want a decent upgrade otherwise you are just wasting money on an upgrade that wont last when you get another gpu upgrade, but there are still used 850w rm(x) or equivalent for 40-60$ so if you domt have the cash but still wanna upgrade id look at the used market, risk is next to none just by personal experience buying 3 lesser known units all <20$

i was wondering the same

thanks for the advice