Computer randomly shut off and now has various issues POSTing

Lobby · December 29, 2017

My friend has started having issues getting their computer to POST, it doesn't even reach the BIOS, and I've been trying to help them.

A bit of background: When they built their computer over a year ago it had trouble POSTing then as well, the fans would spin up but never any video output. They ended up figuring out that it was a faulty RAM slot since removing RAM from that slot made the computer work, and so they have been running it like that since then.

So then a couple weeks ago when they were playing a game their computer suddenly shut itself off, no bluescreen or error message just straight off. When they tried to restart it they got the same POSTing issue which they used to have, fans would spin but it would never reach the BIOS. They were able to get the computer to the BIOS and to boot after, turning off the power supply switch, unplugged and replugged the power cable and then turned the power supply back on. The computer ran a game for about 20 minutes before the computer shut off again. Yet again the POSTing issue returned, but this time messing around which the power supply switch and cable did nothing.

We tried the obvious stuff such as: using inboard graphics instead of GPU, swapping memory sticks, etc but it still wouldn't ever get to the BIOS even though the fans always turned on. So my friend bought a new motherboard and we swapped it out. However, the problem still persisted after swapping out the motherboard. So we got hold of a motherboard speaker to do some better debugging.

The first time we started the computer it gave a beep code indicating no memory detected. So we removed one RAM stick, they believe it was the same slot as the one on the previous motherboard which was faulty, and were able to get a successful beep code. However, they got a message saying that the GPU was missing power, which is wasn't. They replugged the PCIe power cable at both ends and started it up once again. Yet again a successful beep code and we got into the BIOS. We booted up Windows and it all seemed to be working as normal.

We then restarted the computer to change some BIOS settings (such as default boot drive), but it started not POSTing again and this time we got no beep codes at all, but the fans would be spinning. We tried multiple times yet no beep code. So we removed the one remaining RAM stick and got the expected beep code indicating no memory detected. We turned the computer off, put the RAM stick back in but it kept giving the beep code indicating no memory detected.

So this is were we are up to and we're looking for any ideas people might have for what is wrong. I feel it may be a faulty PSU, but sadly my friend isn't easily able to try a different PSU and I'm also confused why that would be affecting RAM detection. I'm also highly suspicious of how the same RAM slot on both motherboards gives POSTing issues, and the lack of beep codes at one point was worrying.

My friends original computer specs are: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/bbmvf8 and the new motherboard is: https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/H110I-PLUS/.

dcgreen2k · December 29, 2017

Try changing the power supply.

TheGreatSora · December 29, 2017

check that all the power cables are in correctly mabye their is a loose one, second thing is try to change the whole power supply as it could have died i had a similar issue with my Cooler master v750 and switching it fixed it for me