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PC Won't Power On...

ImRhys
By ImRhys
in Troubleshooting
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Hello LTT community,

 

I have a rather strange issue occurring with my build I built 3 years ago. I put it to sleep last night like I always do, and then when I woke up this morning it would not power on. The first thing I thought was that it was the PSU. I did the paperclip test and it seemed to confirm it. I went and got a new PSU and brought it home from the store. (Brand new). I plugged it all in, nothing. Still would not power on and was making a clicking noise.

 

PC Specs:

MSI Z97 Gaming 5

i7 4790k

Corsair RM 650x (the new PSU)

Hyper X Fury RAM 4 x 8GB

EVGA GTX 980

 

Troubleshooting I have done and achieved; 

- I took all components out and checked them for damage

- Checked for any black bits on the motherboard

- Checked my wall supply, it's not that.

 

Then I went onto change all the cables from the old PSU cables to the new PSU cables. Whilst doing this I replaced the CPU Cable and tried to turn it on and to my amazement I GOT POWER AND THE FANS STARTED TO SPIN!

 

At this point I started to put all my RAM back in (I had one stick in when I got the boot), I put my GFX Card back in, connected it all back up, plugged in the power cable... aaaaaand it's gone again, but this time it made some weird noises like things were working and then just cut off, not fan spin tho.

 

So I've taken it all apart again and tried to emulate the situation I managed to get the boot to occur in before and now I get a RED FLASH from the AUDIO BOOST part of the motherboard and that's it. The motherboard is MSI Gaming 5 Z97 - I don't know if this is some sort of Motherboard error code to tell me something isn't right, or if it's just a sign of life?

 

Anyone with any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

TL;DR (Kind of); Computer wouldn't power on and was hearing a clicking noise when pressing power button, bought a new power supply, plugged it in, didn't work same clicking noise. Changed cables around and found the CPU cable looked to be the issue, got a single boot, turned it off, plugged everything back in, wouldn't power on, and now I'm not getting a clicking noise I'm getting a RED FLASH on the AUDIO BOOST part of the motherboard.

 

Thanks LTT Community, I feel like crying right now I'm so frustrated, haha!

ImRhys 

<?php 
$newscrapyardwars == true; 

while($newscrapyardwars == true) {
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Posted

board might be dead but try a bios reset and make sure it has minimal hardware connected while testing it

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1 minute ago, emosun said:

board might be dead but try a bios reset and make sure it has minimal hardware connected while testing it

I got a boot after switching the CPU cable which is what makes me think the board is okay, however, I could be wrong. By Bios reset you mean reset CMOS? 

<?php 
$newscrapyardwars == true; 

while($newscrapyardwars == true) {
    echo "Scrapyard Wars Season 7 is here! WOOT! Thank-you Linus Media Group! ";
} 
?>

 

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2 minutes ago, ImRhys said:

By Bios reset you mean reset CMOS?

yeah

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1 minute ago, emosun said:

yeah

I've had a break through right before I did the CMOS, I disconnected both SATA power connectors, and VWALA the system has powered up, obviously this a error code because there is absolutely no drives connected. The error code on the LED is 99 whilst there is no SATA Power connected... So does this mean one of the drives are shorting out, or could it be the CPU AIO Cooler? :S - Now I'm really in a pickle. 

<?php 
$newscrapyardwars == true; 

while($newscrapyardwars == true) {
    echo "Scrapyard Wars Season 7 is here! WOOT! Thank-you Linus Media Group! ";
} 
?>

 

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UPDATE: I have two SATA connectors. I tried connecting one, and smelled a slight burn smell, connected the other and could still smell the smell. As soon as either of the SATA cables are plugged into the PSU, the system will not power on. 

 

Confused as to what this could be... 

<?php 
$newscrapyardwars == true; 

while($newscrapyardwars == true) {
    echo "Scrapyard Wars Season 7 is here! WOOT! Thank-you Linus Media Group! ";
} 
?>

 

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Just now, ImRhys said:

Confused as to what this could be...

the cables may be shorted , they were on your old psu right? dont reuse them

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Just now, emosun said:

the cables may be shorted , they were on your old psu right? dont reuse them

The SATA ones were, yeah. Let me change them all over. It smelled real bad, will reply in a tick. 

<?php 
$newscrapyardwars == true; 

while($newscrapyardwars == true) {
    echo "Scrapyard Wars Season 7 is here! WOOT! Thank-you Linus Media Group! ";
} 
?>

 

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19 hours ago, emosun said:

the cables may be shorted , they were on your old psu right? dont reuse them

Eureka!

 

Final Update and Resolution: The original power supply was dead, so I did need a new PSU (which I had bought and inputted into my PC before I made this thread). After my other update with the SATA cables, it looks like it was the problem. I replaced all SATA cables with the new SATA cables from the new PSU and am now NOT REUSING ANY CABLES from my old PSU, as it seemed to be the issue.

 

TL;DR: It was the old cables causing the short circuiting. They did burn when plugged into the new PSU, swapped the SATA cables and it worked. (Realistically I had to change every wire to the new wires for the new PSU for it to work in the end.

 

Thanks alot for the help everyone! :-)

 

This is why I love the LTT community. 

<?php 
$newscrapyardwars == true; 

while($newscrapyardwars == true) {
    echo "Scrapyard Wars Season 7 is here! WOOT! Thank-you Linus Media Group! ";
} 
?>

 

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5 minutes ago, ImRhys said:

It was the old cables causing the short circuiting.

it should be said that's not a common problem , infact it's pretty rare for cable to short circuit. but glad you at least narrowed it down.

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