Is my PSU dead?

[ShaunOfNintendo]

Tried turning on my PC today and no luck.

Did some google-ing and I've boiled it down to being either a dead PSU or a dead Motherboard.

I've been told that I can test if the PSU is dead by taking a paperclip and making a bridge between the green wire and any one of the black wires on the 24 Pin connector for the PSU.

This first part is my problem, I don't know which one is the green wire...they're ALL black...well, on the outside atleast.

 

The PSU I have is a Corsair RM650x fully modular.

 

So what I'm trying to figure out is if there is a way for me to know for sure that it's either my PSU that's dead, or my Motherboard.

 

Thank you for your time.

[Axeonelite]

Easiest way would be trying another PSU on your Mobo. Otherwise shorting of those pins would be the only way to turn on the PSU. If your PSU has any lights on it make sure those are coming on. Likewise for your Mobo if it has any lights. Or even your power button. 

 

Also would help to know specs

[Ardacer]

Yep a paperclip works

 

Just check online to see which pin it actually is on that large mobo connector, it should be the same for all psu's so just cause yours is all black, the pin should be in it's proper place anyway, it won't move anywhere. Find the green one, it should be a "signal" or "start" pin something along these lines, it's not a voltage pin, and black pins are ground or zero, any one will work.

[ShaunOfNintendo]

So I managed to find a guide for the green cable

 

16 = Green

17 - 19 = Black

There are other black ones, but 19 worked for me.

Put in the paperclip in both 16 and 19, and BOOM it powered up.

So yeah, it's looking like my motherboard is dead (which is way worse)

If you guys know of any additional troubleshooting I should do but I reach my conclusion please do let me know.

Thanks!

[Ardacer]

 

34 minutes ago, ShaunOfNintendo said:

So I managed to find a guide for the green cable

 

16 = Green

17 - 19 = Black

There are other black ones, but 19 worked for me.

Put in the paperclip in both 16 and 19, and BOOM it powered up.

So yeah, it's looking like my motherboard is dead (which is way worse)

If you guys know of any additional troubleshooting I should do but I reach my conclusion please do let me know.

Thanks!

If you can't even turn it on, and it's not the case of dirty contacts or something like that, and if the headers are connected probably from case to mobo, it's probably a dead motherboard. Might be a broken button too, try connecting just the mobo and the PSU and powering it on by shorting the pins on the mobo.

[invisiblehand13]

Considering I just went through testing my psu doing the paperclip test AND even tested all the rail voltages with a multimeter I can definitively tell you that just because it "passes" the paperclip test does not mean that it is still good even if the voltages seem good and it powers on with the paperclip test so swapping with another psu would be my first suggestion especially since you can just pick up a cheapo unit at best buy and keep it for testing later on...good to have on hand I have discovered!

[ShaunOfNintendo]

On 9/29/2017 at 9:59 PM, Ardacer said:

 

If you can't even turn it on, and it's not the case of dirty contacts or something like that, and if the headers are connected probably from case to mobo, it's probably a dead motherboard. Might be a broken button too, try connecting just the mobo and the PSU and powering it on by shorting the pins on the mobo.

Did that. I noticed that when I switch on the power of my PSU, the power switch on my Mobo blinks for a second. Usually that stays lit up.

[invisiblehand13]

3 hours ago, ShaunOfNintendo said:

Did that. I noticed that when I switch on the power of my PSU, the power switch on my Mobo blinks for a second. Usually that stays lit up.

You got a local friend who can loan you a known to be good psu? Once you get a known to be good power supply on there you can narrow it down to the motherboard side of things at least 

[Ardacer]

1 hour ago, invisiblehand13 said:

You got a local friend who can loan you a known to be good psu? Once you get a known to be good power supply on there you can narrow it down to the motherboard side of things at least 

That would be good to try too. It's probably a dead mobo, though.

[ShaunOfNintendo]

So I was able to get a working PSU from a friend, ran the paperclip test on it first which it passed, plugged it into my motherboard and no luck...

 

I'm still asking around on other forums to make sure I can get the same answer from multiple people, but as it currently stands, everyone is leaning towards the motherboard being the problem.

 

For reference, I put up two videos showing the problem in its entirety

 

 

 

 

Thanks for all the help so far guys.

[Ardacer]

Most probable cause - arc somewhere on the mobo. A short.

Processor could be dead too, but they're tougher to kill than mobos, at least in my oppinion. Never had a dead proc, had many dead boards.

 

What exactly went down on the board is hard to say. CMOS battery, I don't think so.

[ShaunOfNintendo]

Hey guys.

 

First off, thanks a ton for all the feedback on this thread. Between posting on this forum and other I was able to come to a logical conclusion.

As most of you suspected, yes the motherboard is dead. Though as to weather or not it took other components with it, I don't know yet.

I had a replacement PSU arrive from Amazon just today so I could try to bench my system with with it (it was also a way for me to 100% confirm that the PSU wasn't the problem)

I connected my RAM and GPU to the board and wired them all up, turned on the PSU annnd...nothing...

 

My hope here is that this failure didn't take anything else with it, but I'm going to use this as an opportunity to do some upgrading. As easy as it would be for me to just get the same board, or a similar board, and be done with it, I have no idea is my CPU survived and I'd also just rather have a system that's a bit more modern.

 

Again, thank you all for your suggestions and tip, every answer was a useful one!