Boot failure and squeaking noise on new PC

[tsheehan]

I recently got an Edge Z40 from Velocity Micro with the following components:

PSU 700 Watt Velocity Micro® Power Supply

Motherboard Asus® P8Z77-V LK Intel® Z77 based chipset, ATX Motherboard

Processor Intel® Core™i5-2500K processor, quad 3.30GHz cores, Hyperclocked to 4.0GHz

RAM 8GB DDR3-1600 Dual Channel Memory (4x2GB)

Graphics 1GB eVGA™NVIDIA® GTX650 GDDR5 video card (GeForce GTX 600 series)

HDD 1TB 7200rpm SATA 300 w/NCQ

At first I thought there was something wrong with it because my monitor did not detect it, but that was in fact because I had connected the monitor to the motherboard rather than the graphics card.

Now, after a few days of normal usage (no problems or noises whatsoever), it will not boot.
Turned on my surge protector and then the computer one morning and the LEDs inside the case light up and the computer immediately started making a high-pitched sound that I can only describe as the squeal a balloon makes when you stretch the neck and let air out. After a few seconds the computer shut down and stopped trying to boot. After that I think I pressed the power button a few times and the computer tried a few times, unsuccessfully, to boot, behaving the same way, but for shorter and shorter lengths of time. i.e. it would squeak less, and stop booting much more quickly. Now each time I try to turn it on, it squeaks for only a fraction of a second before stopping.

To try and diagnose the problem, I took the hard drive out of the case, and verified that the sound was not coming from there. I removed and turned all the fans to make sure there was nothing blocking them, or forcing them to squeak, all the capacitors on the mobo look fine, and nothing smells burnt.

My main suspect is the power supply, since one time that I tried turning it on, I immediately turned of the surge protector and then rocker on the PSU and then unplugged the power supply for good measure, and the squeaking continued for a second or two afterwards.

Thank you for any help you can provide in resolving this issue!

 

[ch33zw1z]

Sounds like you're getting one long POST error.

http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1155/P8Z77-V_LK/E7654_P8Z77-V_LK.pdf

There's the manual. the PC only requires Mobo, Power Supply, CPU, RAM, and GPU to complete POSt successfully.

Unplug anything you don't need, hard drive, cd/dvd rom, fans (leave CPU fan plugged in) and try again. Do not plug the Poewr supply into the Surge Protector, plug it directly into the wall outlet. You can even try a different outlet.

If problem persists, remove GPU and see if the error changes. If not, reinstall GPU and then remove the DIMM's and see if the error changes. If not, reinstall Dimm's and then reseat the CPU, take a good look at the gold pins in the socket before reinstalling hte CPU. Make sure you mount the CPU HSF correctly.

The squeaking persisted after pulling the plug because it take up to a minutes for the PSU caps to drain.

edit: I would suspect the PSU as well, since I have never heard of velocity micro, the PSU is probably shit. Build it from scratch next time

 

[Matt1970]

Squealing noise is most likely a capacitor in your power supply.

 

[tsheehan]

well against better judgement i opened up the PSU case to verify the source of the sound, before i was told that if a PSU blows, it could be really dangerous. In any case (no pun intended) it's closed now, and the sound is definitely coming from there, but not the fan. Did another test as well:

Tried turning on the PSU, only connecting it to the mobo, cpu, ram, and a chassis fan. the squealing was no longer brief, it continued for any number of seconds before stopping momentarily and starting again. turned it off and tried again with the PSU in. but the squeak, like before, lasts a fraction of a second and does not return until i completely power off the PSU, wait a few seconds, and try again. also, when the PSU is powered on (but not the rest of the computer) it emits a faint and extremely high pitch, that you can only detect from up close. is this normal or also a symptom of a broken PSU?

My current hypothesis is that the power supply works, but to such a small degree that it can only trudge for a few seconds with the CPU, mobo, and RAM, and gives up when the GPU is added to that. If so, is there any way to repair the PSU? like replacing a faulty capacitor or something? or is it better and safer to pay the extra buck and replace it with a more reliable one?

 

[Matt1970]

All signs are pointing to that power supply. It would be nice to try another power supply in there before you start shipping stuff off or buying parts but a lot of people don’t have that option.

 

[tsheehan]

I'll ask a friend of mine if he has a spare i can borrow, but since he dropped out of high school to earn money from gaming (he's that guy), i'm not sure how available he is. definitely my best bet for a spare PSU though

 

[ch33zw1z]

When you start troubleshooting issues on your own, you'll find that accruing spare parts is part of the gig.

 

[bigboxes]

For future reference, never open you psu if it's under warranty. Doing so voids said warranty. Live and learn. Like others have said, testing with another psu would be the proper thing to do.

 

[tsheehan]

well the thing is, Velocity Micro actually built the PC, with a generic PSU. I would have consulted my lifetime upgrade warranty to seek repairs, or a replacement PSU, but it was already voided by the fact that it was shipped to me internationally (assembled in Richmond, VA and I live in Belgium) the individual parts were not under warranty

 

[ch33zw1z]

well the thing is, Velocity Micro actually built the PC, with a generic PSU. I would have consulted my lifetime upgrade warranty to seek repairs, or a replacement PSU, but it was already voided by the fact that it was shipped to me internationally (assembled in Richmond, VA and I live in Belgium) the individual parts were not under warranty

then oh well right? now you can buy yourself a quality PSU. Make sure you get one that can power the VGA properly. Consult the Power Supplies forum for advice

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Since it's pretty obvious the PSU is defective, do not power your PC on again with that PSU. A defective PSU could damage other components.

BTW, since you are in Belgium, did you switch the PSU from 110V to 220V when you first got it?