PC does not power on properly

[KatetheSuperfish]

I upgraded my PC just before Christmas 2015. The case, power supply and CPU cooler were changed. Specs are below.

 

The PC was working great, but in the last few days my PC will not power on (cold boot) properly. When I press the power button absolutely nothing happens. No fans, lights, not even a flicker of any activity. However, the motherboard's LED lights are on. Through trial and error I have found that I am able to power it up by unplugging the PSU from the wall power socket, pressing and holding down the PC's power button for a minute and then leaving the PC off and unplugged for approx 7 - 8 hours.

 

Once I have powered it up, it seems to be working just fine. Using this unorthodox power on method, it POSTs, boots into Windows and performs as normal. I put the PC under load by rendering a 1440p video, doing a multiple file transfer, playing an MP3 track and typing a document simultaneously. Then I ran a Prime95 blend test for an hour. Temps were good, fans working, LED lights on steady and bright. It also restarts without a problem.

 

I have done the following troubleshooting steps:

1. Checked power cable securely plugged into wall socket and PSU. Also checked the PSU and motherboard's 24 pin & 8 pin power connections. All ok.
2. Checked all other connections between the PSU, motherboard, internal drives etc. All ok.
3. Checked for any pinched cables, exposed wiring and signs of a short circuit inside case. Nothing found.
4. Swapped power and reset switch front panel connectors on motherboard.
5. Shorting the power pins on motherboard.
6. Tested wall socket by plugging in 2 other appliances and confirmed wall socket was delivering power.
7. Used 2 different PSU power cords.
8. Moved the PC and plugged into 3 other wall sockets around the house and finally on 2 different sockets at my neighbor's house (steps 6 & 7 were done at each socket before PC plugged in).
9. Same result with all of the above. PC will only power up by going through the procedure mentioned earlier.

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

Intel Core i7-5820K (overclocked to 4.0 GHz)

Asus X99 E-WS motherboard

Corsair Dominator Platinum 32 GB (4x8GB) at 2133 MHz (XMP disabled)

Asus GTX 980 reference graphics card (overclocked to 1236 MHz boost clock, 7010 MHz memory clock & 110% power target)

Cooler Master Nepton 240M AIO CPU cooler

Samsung 1TB SSD (system), 500 GB WD Velociraptor (storage) and 3 TB WD Black (storage)

Asus Blu-Ray optical drive

Silverstone 5.25 inch front bay card reader

3 x 140mm case fans (2 with Blue LED)

Bitfenix 300mm Blue LED light strip

Cooler Master V850 Gold power supply

Cooler Master MasterCase Pro 5 case

Windows 10

[SaladFingers]

What happens if you unplug it and hold the power button for few seconds, then plug it back in and power it on? The 7-8 hours that you left it unplugged shouldn't make a difference. Do you have your old PSU laying around? Could be that your new unit is defective.

 

Also, acting up like that means it could be the ram too. So run memtest too.

[VaynardX]

You have a good PSU but like all others have said, it could mean that the PSU is faulty. Anything related to booting problems almost always relates to either the PSU or the RAM.

[KatetheSuperfish]

5 hours ago, Nex Cube said:

I don't understand your boot up procedure. You unplug the PSU from the wall, and then you hold the power button down for a minute and leave it unplugged for 7 to 8 hours? This doesn't make any sense, anything you do after unplugging the PSU from the wall socket will do absolutely nothing as far as that goes. Nothing else in your post really tells my why it could possibly be acting up in this way, so perhaps if you could clarify this boot up procedure someone may be able to help you more. Right now it just sounds like you unplug it for 7 to 8 hours, plug it back in and then it will boot?

 

5 hours ago, SaladFingers said:

What happens if you unplug it and hold the power button for few seconds, then plug it back in and power it on? The 7-8 hours that you left it unplugged shouldn't make a difference. Do you have your old PSU laying around? Could be that your new unit is defective.

 

Also, acting up like that means it could be the ram too. So run memtest too.

 

3 hours ago, VaynardX said:

You have a good PSU but like all others have said, it could mean that the PSU is faulty. Anything related to booting problems almost always relates to either the PSU or the RAM.

Thanks for the assist. I just read somewhere that holding down the power button when PC is unplugged drains any residual charge from the motherboard capacitors. You both right though, the PC powered up skipping that step and just leaving it unplugged for some hours. On the flip side doing the power button hold down and attempting to start the PC straight away did not work. I will be borrowing a working PSU tomorrow and see if that works. Until then I will try memtest.

[SaladFingers]

2 hours ago, KatetheSuperfish said:

 

 

Thanks for the assist. I just read somewhere that holding down the power button when PC is unplugged drains any residual charge from the motherboard capacitors. You both right though, the PC powered up skipping that step and just leaving it unplugged for some hours. On the flip side doing the power button hold down and attempting to start the PC straight away did not work. I will be borrowing a working PSU tomorrow and see if that works. Until then I will try memtest.

 

You are right about holding the power button with the computer unplugged, that's why it's done. It is weird though that this doesn't actually get it running but leaving it off for hours will. Is it running normally when it finally boots? To this point I actually don't think it has anything to do with RAM. 

 

It could very well be a faulty capacitor on the PSU. The strangest things can happen when capacitors are starting to go bad. Do try that other PSU to see if it works, and if so, get an RMA process going for your own (it probably still is under warranty).

[KatetheSuperfish]

6 hours ago, SaladFingers said:

 

You are right about holding the power button with the computer unplugged, that's why it's done. It is weird though that this doesn't actually get it running but leaving it off for hours will. Is it running normally when it finally boots? To this point I actually don't think it has anything to do with RAM. 

 

It could very well be a faulty capacitor on the PSU. The strangest things can happen when capacitors are starting to go bad. Do try that other PSU to see if it works, and if so, get an RMA process going for your own (it probably still is under warranty).

Once it boots it works great. Even under load it performs well, temps are normal and shows no signs of being faulty. And it passed both memtest and the Asus PC Diagnostics memory stress test.

 

Yes, the PSU is under warranty. Just have to see what happens with the borrowed PSU.

 

So, you said strange things will happen when PSU capacitors go bad. Will a PC sometimes work well and appear all ok even though the PSU is dying?

 

*thanks for your help*

[0x1e]

2 hours ago, KatetheSuperfish said:

Once it boots it works great. Even under load it performs well, temps are normal and shows no signs of being faulty. And it passed both memtest and the Asus PC Diagnostics memory stress test.

 

Yes, the PSU is under warranty. Just have to see what happens with the borrowed PSU.

 

So, you said strange things will happen when PSU capacitors go bad. Will a PC sometimes work well and appear all ok even though the PSU is dying?

 

*thanks for your help*

Sounds like a safety feature is tripping.

The steps you are taking are normally the ones used to reset a PSU, however it shouldn't take hours. Minutes at most.

 

That would lead me to think your PSU is faulty. Either it was poorly built (does happen from time to time) or something has fried the PSU, like a power surge.

Try the different PSU and see what happens. I would assume it will work perfectly fine.

[KatetheSuperfish]

25 minutes ago, 0x1e said:

Sounds like a safety feature is tripping.

The steps you are taking are normally the ones used to reset a PSU, however it shouldn't take hours. Minutes at most.

 

That would lead me to think your PSU is faulty. Either it was poorly built (does happen from time to time) or something has fried the PSU, like a power surge.

Try the different PSU and see what happens. I would assume it will work perfectly fine.

At first I tried waitng 10 - 15 mins before re-plugging the power cord and starting up the PC. When that didn't work I waited 2 hours, then overnight before it powered up. Yes, it will be interesting to see if a different PSU will change things.

[KatetheSuperfish]

On 24/03/2016 at 9:37 PM, VaynardX said:

You have a good PSU but like all others have said, it could mean that the PSU is faulty. Anything related to booting problems almost always relates to either the PSU or the RAM.

 

On 24/03/2016 at 7:19 PM, Nex Cube said:

If I had to guess though, I would say your PSU is probably going bad.

 

On 24/03/2016 at 3:33 AM, SaladFingers said:

 

You are right about holding the power button with the computer unplugged, that's why it's done. It is weird though that this doesn't actually get it running but leaving it off for hours will. Is it running normally when it finally boots? To this point I actually don't think it has anything to do with RAM. 

 

It could very well be a faulty capacitor on the PSU. The strangest things can happen when capacitors are starting to go bad. Do try that other PSU to see if it works, and if so, get an RMA process going for your own (it probably still is under warranty).

 

On 25/03/2016 at 0:13 PM, 0x1e said:

Sounds like a safety feature is tripping.

The steps you are taking are normally the ones used to reset a PSU, however it shouldn't take hours. Minutes at most.

 

That would lead me to think your PSU is faulty. Either it was poorly built (does happen from time to time) or something has fried the PSU, like a power surge.

Try the different PSU and see what happens. I would assume it will work perfectly fine.

Well, I tried the PSU on loan from a friend. My PC powered on as it should each and every time I pressed the case's power switch. So, I guess its time to RMA my Cooler Master PSU. Thanks all for the assist.  

 

 

[SaladFingers]

On 3/23/2016 at 1:03 AM, KatetheSuperfish said:

Once it boots it works great. Even under load it performs well, temps are normal and shows no signs of being faulty. And it passed both memtest and the Asus PC Diagnostics memory stress test.

 

Yes, the PSU is under warranty. Just have to see what happens with the borrowed PSU.

 

So, you said strange things will happen when PSU capacitors go bad. Will a PC sometimes work well and appear all ok even though the PSU is dying?

 

*thanks for your help*

Yes, it can happen as you seem to have figured out already

 

5 hours ago, KatetheSuperfish said:

 

 

 

Well, I tried the PSU on loan from a friend. My PC powered on as it should each and every time I pressed the case's power switch. So, I guess its time to RMA my Cooler Master PSU. Thanks all for the assist.  

 

 

Yep, time to RMA, you had some bad luck with your unit. Always glad to help