PC caught in post loop

[gt403cyl]

So after doing some Windows updates I tried to restart my PC: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/psf8Vn

 

Once it shutdown and started to come back on it would just shutdown after 1-2 seconds and loop.  The only way it would boot is if I held the power switch down while it was trying to boot.

 

First I tried removing all overclocks and using factory defaults in BIOS, no luck.

Tried clearing CMOS via the reset button at the rear I/O, no luck

Then I shut the PC down, flipped the main switch on the PSU off and held the power switch on to drain residual power and removed the CMOS battery, no luck

 

I did notice that my front fan (200mm LED NZXT) which is connected by molex 4-pin/2-pin directly to the PSU was spinning and the LED's were on but dim with the only power source being the CMOS battery as the main switch on the PSU is still off at this point.....

 

I though maybe PSU so I looked at the voltages via Aida64, seen here at idle: https://gyazo.com/7abccfe0c98f811185a24d6de13d3278

 

Anyone have any ideas on what is going on?

 

[petem]

Have you tried holding down the shift-key to see if it will go into windows safe-mode?

[petem]

If the system was stable, and the last thing you did was update windows, 9 times out of 10, it's the last thing you did (or let your computer do...) ><

[petem]

All the voltages look fine, except for the GPU core, which I don't know enough about to comment on

[gt403cyl]

Thanks for the replies guys I am still thinking PSU has a problem..... I unplug the power cable and the front fan still spins with the LED on... short vid here:

[TheV_Machine]

Maybe the condensators of your psu are faulty and they are draining very slowly. And i dont know as much about the software hardware thing how a computer is exactly turned on by kicking on the psu but maybe there is a defect on your mobo somewhere thats leeds to instant reboots cause of a thing like a short circuit.

[petem]

Thanks for the replies guys I am still thinking PSU has a problem..... I unplug the power cable and the front fan still spins with the LED on... short vid here:

 

Some PSU's take a while to power down as the condensers drain.  Not necessarily a sign of a bad PSU, unless you know it didn't do that before ...

[petem]

I would be suspicious if it was powered on for more than about 5 seconds.  Some PSU's also allow a small amount of power to the mobo to allow charging plugged in USB devices while the PC is shut off.  Not sure whether that matters or not.

[TheV_Machine]

Some PSU's take a while to power down as the condensers drain.  Not necessarily a sign of a bad PSU, unless you know it didn't do that before ...

Did the psu things like that before? And by the way you can test if your os is the problem, just take out your main drive and use this drive in another pc or laptop and bott from your drive and look if it works. if it get caugt in the same loop as now, your os might be the problem

[gt403cyl]

I would be suspicious if it was powered on for more than about 5 seconds.  Some PSU's also allow a small amount of power to the mobo to allow charging plugged in USB devices while the PC is shut off.  Not sure whether that matters or not.

 

I just did a test of 10 minutes no power vid here (not a 10 min vid..):

 

Did the psu things like that before? And by the way you can test if your os is the problem, just take out your main drive and use this drive in another pc or laptop and bott from your drive and look if it works. if it get caugt in the same loop as now, your os might be the problem

 

I don't think so I leave my PC on 24/7 except for updates ect..... rebooting generally has no issues until today/yesterday.....

 

I can try a new drive but I don't think it's the OS, it doesn't even get that far in POST.... I can't get to BIOS unless I hold the power button like a bump start type of thing.....

 

This build minus the loop and motherboard is 13 months old, the motherboard and loop were installed in July.

[petem]

Hmmm, besides the obvious: remove and reseat all cards, cables, etc.

 

I'd say a PSU swap out is a good hypothesis test

[Shiwoon]

Try to drain your pc (power drain)

[gt403cyl]

Hmmm, besides the obvious: remove and reseat all cards, cables, etc.

 

I'd say a PSU swap out is a good hypothesis test

Yeah I will be doing that at some point this week if I can't figure it all out by then, busy with work on overtime ect......... and have to drain my loop to get better access to all the motherboard cables ect.

 

Try to drain your pc (power drain)

 

I know there is going to be residual power in the PSU, hense the 10min test I don't think there would be enough in the caps to keep the fan and LED running for more than a minute or 2 it was still running after 10 minutes........

 

I held the power button after unplugging ect........

[Shiwoon]

I would take out the cpu, gpu and ram then let it sit over night... I've never had this problem before so I wouldn't know what to do.
Maybe call the psu maker and ask for support?

[gt403cyl]

I would take out the cpu, gpu and ram then let it sit over night... I've never had this problem before so I wouldn't know what to do.

Maybe call the psu maker and ask for support?

yeah I guess I'm going to have to, I just need to figure it out before I take this all apart for my Z170 upgrade next week as I have to remove the lower rad to remove the PSU, I only have 1.75" between the back of the PSU and the rad...  I only want to do it once........ the price I pay for a custom loop I guess lot's of filling and draining......

Large pic!!!!

[Shiwoon]

yeah I guess I'm going to have to, I just need to figure it out before I take this all apart for my Z170 upgrade next week as I have to remove the lower rad to remove the PSU, I only have 1.75" between the back of the PSU and the rad...  I only want to do it once........ the price I pay for a custom loop I guess lot's of filling and draining......

Large pic!!!! 

nice build, what pump and res you running?

[gt403cyl]

nice build, what pump and res you running?

XSPC D5 Photon 170 combo.

[TheV_Machine]

Just to say it quickly if you cant solve the problem in a short time, take out important components like cpu and gpu. You dont want to get those things fried, do you? i know this might be unlikely, but just for sure i would do that.

[gt403cyl]

Just to say it quickly if you cant solve the problem in a short time, take out important components like cpu and gpu. You dont want to get those things fried, do you? i know this might be unlikely, but just for sure i would do that.

Yes it's probably good advice, but I would have to basically remove everything from the case at that point, right now i have spare PC's so i've left it off and unplugged until I figure something out, I also unplugged the fan that was running ect.

[Corsair Joseph]

This is a little tricky to troubleshoot since there's a lot thing that needs to taken into account. I would start with your BIOS, make sure to flash your board to the latest BIOS version. 

 

Since it's a power related issue, pull everything out a build a basic test bench, CPU, MB, PSU, DRAM, GPU, and a few fans to replicate the problem. Then start isolating each hardware from one another, PSU is a good place to start. So if you can get a spare PSU, swap them out and see if you get the same behavior. If you get the same problem using a different PSU, MB would be my next suspect. 

[gt403cyl]

This is a little tricky to troubleshoot since there's a lot thing that needs to taken into account. I would start with your BIOS, make sure to flash your board to the latest BIOS version.

Since it's a power related issue, pull everything out a build a basic test bench, CPU, MB, PSU, DRAM, GPU, and a few fans to replicate the problem. Then start isolating each hardware from one another, PSU is a good place to start. So if you can get a spare PSU, swap them out and see if you get the same behavior. If you get the same problem using a different PSU, MB would be my next suspect.

I will be taking it all apart on the weekend and trying just the basic to boot I don't have another PSU handy but I can take one from another machine temporarily I'll update this once I get more troubleshooting time.

As for the BIOS, I have tried to update it from 2.6 to the newest 2.8 but it gives me an error. I've tried with MSI's software and also M-flash, m-flash doesn't recognize any USB I own (5 of them) I've tried making them bootable FAT32 format didn't work either..... I gave up on the BIOS update.

[gt403cyl]

Thought I should update this thread...

 

I didn't pull everything out of the case, I saw I had yet another Win10 update to do so I went ahead and did that.

 

When it asked to restart I got ready to hold the power switch ect. but I didn't need to.

I have done a good dozen restarts since and not once has it got stuck in the reboot pre-post loop.

I've tried my stock settings, 24/7 OC on the CPU & GPU, all the combinations I can think of and the problem hasn't returned.........

 

I did however check to see if the fan was still being powered and sure enough it is so I don't know what to think.

 

But for now I'm going to leave it alone and when I do the upgrade (assuming 6700k's become avail in Canada again.......) I'll try another PSU and see if the AX860i hold a bit of juice....