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OK, so it's not the power supply
Have an old computer, (4-5 years) probably should toss it, but it still plays WOW well, so a household member was using it for that purpose.
Earlier in the week, the computer just shut it self off (power shut off)
It seemed to stay shut off for some period of time, not responding to the power button for several minutes. Then it suddenly would try to start up, fans would wind up for a few seconds and then shut itself off again.
Thought it was the power supply, so put in a new one this afternoon, and again, it shut itself off immediately upon start up.
Anyone have any suggestions? Otherwise it is likely going on the ash heap.
BTW, only has a 400W power supply, but that's what was in there since I got the box, so I replaced it with the same. I could go back and get a 520 if that really might help.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
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I have the problem. bought a new computer and then turned on the old computer, now it's working again.
I think it's the power supply too, but it suddenly turned on again. Sometime, it takes 4 hours to turn on, the power that is. I can tell when the power turns on because I plug a USB fan and the USB fan turns on first. What could it be?
This exact same thing happened to me about 3 weeks ago. Before the supply went out completely I experienced random restarts and the occasional power loss. Then one day it just randomly shut off and wouldn't reboot. I opened the housing up and saw that I was still getting lights on the mother board and when I hit the power button the fans would start to rotate for a split second and then nothing. I replaced the power supply and it has been fine since.
I do not think the 400W supply is an issue as far as power output since it has been fine to this point. I upgraded a video card that required more than the factory power supply could provide and it is because of that that I personally had to go with more, but if the one you have has been able to run everything and you haven't upgraded anything then the output itself isn't the issue. I won't claim to be very knowledgeable when it comes to this kind of stuff but I have been dabbling with building my own so I cannot say for sure that it is a faulty power supply, but this sounds exactly like my issue and replacing it fixed it for me.
Also it could be a dust issue causing your heat sinks to overheat and shutting the PC down. Not likely, but it could be something as simple as that. My wifes PC had a similar issue but we figured out it was the power cable and not the PSU.
RIP Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan and Paul Gray.
Ram or Motherboard.
If you have more than one Ram dimms try to remove them and try again with one by one Ram slotted.
But it seems more as a motherboard problem if its not the power supply.
^ This. I run into this kind of thing often. The bearing on the cpu fan might be bad and the fan locks up or hangs up just for a second or two. The heatsink might be full of dust and the fan can't pull the air through to cool it. You can manually spin the cpu fan and if you feel a click or hear one, time to replace the fan.
if the fans turn on and then when it should load BIOS it goes off it's probably the motherboard.
Also, you can check the PSU by pluging it in to the wall socket and then checking if it has the right output voltage.
Here's the reference of what it should output link
"Happiness is not a destination. It is a method of life."
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The fans turn on for only a split second, then it shuts down for a few minutes. I don't think it's a heat issue since right now it's starting cold and shutting down almost instantly.
I did replace the power supply but still have the same issue. Might just be time to put the old computer out to pasture and build another.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
I once had an odd issue where it was the socket, not the computer that was at fault. Old house, old wiring. Changed the socket it was plugged into, good to go.
When you changed the power supply, I am assuming it was not modular, so you had to reattach all the wires?
You could also try starting it up with the bare minimum - one stick of ram, one hdd, no pci anything. See how it does. TBH though I am not aware of any pci or sata device that could cause the issue you are describing.
With no beeping and shutting down before it has a change to heat up, I would always guess PSU or MOBO after checking the above. I strongly doubt your CPU gave out, but that could cause a similar issue. If your PC is staying on for more than a minute before shutting down, I think it is time to start looking at heat related problems - make sure your PSU and CPU are clean and have unblocked airflow.
Good luck.
Your first line of info is important. You could have a 4 wire PC fan, the black and red wires are for power, the other 2 are for metering the temp. If your pc starts and the system doesn't detect a signal from the fan, it shuts down that second on some motherboards. Now if u have another fan, you could try swapping out the fan and see if that takes care of it. If your really tech savvy, you could goggle how to test the points on your motherboard.
Check if the cpu heat sink is correctly pressing the CPU and it is clean.
That thing is more important to reduce CPU heat than the case fans. When it is missplaced, and doesn't press against the CPU as it should, the computer turns off almost instantly to prevent CPU damage.
Edit: Grammar.
It is impossible to troubleshoot this and give a definitive answer based on the information given. Nobody is wrong in their suggestions, so far.
Here is an order I suggest for checking the components:
1. Make sure the CPU is getting cooled. It only takes seconds for a CPU to overheat with no heat sink attached. Remove your heat sink and replace the thermal compound. Note any issues with the old compound.
2. Test with 1 DIMM at a time. Use your motherboard's manual to determine which DIMM slot needs to be populated for the system to POST.
3. Remove all connections from the motherboard other than the 24-pin connector, CPU power, and power button. If your motherboard has integrated graphics, remove your GPU card. If not, leave the GPU in. If it still doesn't power up, you know it has to be the motherboard or CPU.
4. If you can test the CPU and GPU in another system, do it. Make sure the socket type is the same for the CPU.
One might not think of this, but this is in all likelihood an issue pertaining to ram. One of your sticks may be faulty, or maybe none at all, and for some reason, it messed up anyways. But ram can cause your computer to exhibit these EXACT symptoms you are describing.
Do a test. Remove all but one of your sticks of ram. Try starting your computer. Do this multiple times with different sticks of ram.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
You make me like charity
I've seen bad RAM do both - give beep codes or utterly brick a system to the point the power switch does absolutely nothing. Seems to depend on the motherboard and nature of the fault.
Does the bios show up. If not replace CPU.
Is the hard drive working after startup but you have a blank screen. replace GPU.
Yes ram would give an error code if it is toast every time. Barring a short in the ram which would not allow system start up.
Have you done a hard reset of the bios? Take out battery and press the power button for 15 seconds when the computer is unplugged.
Not necessarily. I've seen bad RAM cause a wide range of issues. Anything from causing the system to not respond to the power button, random crashes, or simply being invisible to the system as if there were no DIMM in the slot. Troubleshooting bad RAM takes patience and you can't rely on it causing beep codes every time.