PC went from bad to worse

[partymarty]

My original post a few days back:

---

Hello,

 

I've built my sister a scrap pc a while back. She used it for school the entire year but now she decided she wanted to play Planet Coaster. She called me yesterday that while she's playing her PC randomly reboots.

Specs:

CPU: Core 2 quad Q9650

RAM: 2x1gb + 2x2gb DDR2 (I know it's not a ideal solution, but I just threw every thing I had laying around into that build)

HDD; 1TB 7200 rpm

SSD: 240gb Kingston

GPU: GTX 670 (some Palit or PNY model)

Case: A salvaged Dell case

PSU: Corsair VS450 PSU

 

I'm like 99% sure the PSU isn't providing enough wattage for the system.

I've tested the sytem on overheating issues, but there were no problems found there. In AIDA with only FPU checked, the cpu never went over 60 degrees C.

 

Do you guys think my assumption is right?

 

Kind regards  

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My dad got her a sparkle power fsp650-80GLC from Philips (where he works). With some instructions he was being able to built the PSU into her PC (he made photos for me, and everything is connected right) but when he wanted to boot it this happened:

- The PC gave a post.

- The PC showed him the screen where you can enter the bios

- The PC showed the Dell loading screen (The Dell screen where a white loading bar is filling, when the bar is filled the PC proceeds to start Windows).

Half way through the loading bar the pc just stops loading the bar any further, he's given the option to enter the bios with F2 but when he presses F2 nothing happens.

He can't enter the bios because the keyboard + mouse aren't doing anything (even when he turns the pc off and then ON again.

The PC does not have any PS2 ports, so the only way the keyboard and mouse can be connected are with USB.

 

What we've already tried:
- Inspecting the motherboard for any damage, there is no visible damage

- Putting the old PSU back into the system (same problem persists)

- Clearing the CMOS battery

 

I think his scrap PSU from Philips somehow killed a part of the motherboard. 

The pc comes my way in a few days and I have a spare 775 mobo + PSU + Q8200 + GPU... So I can test it when it's over here.

 

Anyone over here having an idea about what could have happened and how to fix it by giving my dad instructions on what to do?

 

[Smiles4Miles]

The psu definitely supplies enough power. And what is the motherboard? 

[partymarty]

Just now, Smiles4Miles said:

The psu definitely supplies enough power. And what is the motherboard? 

I've no clue. It's some kind of Dell OEM board with insanely limited IO options, it got:

Those 6 audio ports - 1 ethernet port - 4x USB 1.0 or 2.0 + VGA port/

[NelizMastr]

The problem with the VS450 isn't wattage but quality of the components, and it's not great to say the least.

 

I don't think the PSU killed the board. It was likely already on its last legs if it's the culprit. 

 

Start by taking out all non-critical components, like the GPU, disks and all the RAM sticks but one. Connect the monitor to the VGA port. If it works, start adding components one by one until it fails again. If it doesn't test each memory stick individually. Might be bad RAM. Still no change? RIP.

[partymarty]

1 minute ago, NelizMastr said:

The problem with the VS450 isn't wattage but quality of the components, and it's not great to say the least.

 

I don't think the PSU killed the board. It was likely already on its last legs if it's the culprit. 

 

Start by taking out all non-critical components, like the GPU, disks and all the RAM sticks but one. Connect the monitor to the VGA port. If it works, start adding components one by one until it fails again. If it doesn't test each memory stick individually. Might be bad RAM. Still no change? RIP.

This is what I'm going to do when I get the pc over at my house.

The strange part about the PSU thing is (in my opinion):

PC worked fine but only in games it would reboot itself because of the bad PSU, my dad fixed her a decent PSU and now suddenly it doesn't work at all anymore, even when he reverts the PSU swap.

Makes not that much sense to me...

I'm also having issues wrapping my head around why the PC stops booting further then half way through the DELL loading screen. Most of the time when components die the PC just stops working all together. 

[NelizMastr]

4 minutes ago, partymarty said:

This is what I'm going to do when I get the pc over at my house.

The strange part about the PSU thing is (in my opinion):

PC worked fine but only in games it would reboot itself because of the bad PSU, my dad fixed her a decent PSU and now suddenly it doesn't work at all anymore, even when he reverts the PSU swap.

Makes not that much sense to me...

I'm also having issues wrapping my head around why the PC stops booting further then half way through the DELL loading screen. Most of the time when components die the PC just stops working all together. 

Could've been static discharge as well, considering the weather we've been having. Not working ESD safe can easily cause this. The Dell loading screen stopping half way indicates it can't complete POST, so somewhere a device is not responding or flaky. If components were completely dead, you wouldn't see anything, correct. Bad RAM can behave in weird ways, though  

[partymarty]

Just now, NelizMastr said:

Could've been static discharge as well, considering the weather we've been having. Not working ESD safe can easily cause this.

This is a very valid point! Haven't thought about that one yet. Thanks!

I'm going to do some standard hardware troubleshooting and I will post back to you guys when I've found out what it was  

[Ace McPlane]

4 hours ago, partymarty said:

This is a very valid point! Haven't thought about that one yet. Thanks!

I'm going to do some standard hardware troubleshooting and I will post back to you guys when I've found out what it was  

Honestly, by the sounds of it, the ram is the weakest link.

I'd suspect it's the problem so test with one stick at a time and test each slot too.

[partymarty]

3 hours ago, stateofpsychosis said:

Honestly, by the sounds of it, the ram is the weakest link.

I'd suspect it's the problem so test with one stick at a time and test each slot too.

You were right. My dad took out 3/4 of the ram sticks and it booted into Windows.  

Thanks!

[Ace McPlane]

33 minutes ago, partymarty said:

You were right. My dad took out 3/4 of the ram sticks and it booted into Windows.  

Thanks!

No prob and don't assume it's a dead ram stick yet. Try putting it back in and see if it's posts. Sometimes they're just no seated right, but if it doesn't work again when snapped in all the way, yea it's dead.

[partymarty]

12 hours ago, stateofpsychosis said:

No prob and don't assume it's a dead ram stick yet. Try putting it back in and see if it's posts. Sometimes they're just no seated right, but if it doesn't work again when snapped in all the way, yea it's dead.

We got everything working again... Only the pc won't see the SSD anymore in the bios. The pc does see the HDD but when we connect the cables from the HDD to the SSD it still won't see the device. 

 

Todat I'm going to test if the SSD died during the process. I really hope it didn't

[Ace McPlane]

6 hours ago, partymarty said:

We got everything working again... Only the pc won't see the SSD anymore in the bios. The pc does see the HDD but when we connect the cables from the HDD to the SSD it still won't see the device. 

 

Todat I'm going to test if the SSD died during the process. I really hope it didn't

from the HHD to the SSD? That's not correct. The sata data cables go from the motherboard sata to the hard drive and SSD with separate cables. They can share the same Sata power cable though.

[partymarty]

19 hours ago, stateofpsychosis said:

from the HHD to the SSD? That's not correct. The sata data cables go from the motherboard sata to the hard drive and SSD with separate cables. They can share the same Sata power cable though.

I'm working at a pc repair shop  So I know that plugging side A of the Sata data cable on the SSD and side B on the HDD won't work  

The pc saw the HDD but didn't recognise the SSD, so I unplugged the cables from the HDD and connected them to the SSD to make sure that the cables were good.

 

Yesterday I went to my parents home and did some troubleshooting on the pc. I resolved the issue, but damn the problem was strange.

The board has 4 sata connectors and with the SSD +HDD+DVD player connected, the bios said this:

Sata 0 - NONE

Sata 1 - NONE

Sata 2 - HDD

Sata 3 - Dvd player

 

When I pressed Enter on Sata 0 it said Capacity = 120gb. When I did the same for Sata 1 it said Capacity = 0.

So the bios saw the SSD all the time, but it somehow named it "NONE".

 

I've never seen this before. But after all the pc's works again like a charm.