Computer is receiving power but nothing happens when I press the power button

jackson.m7

Junior Member
Jun 25, 2018
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0
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Recently there was a thunderstorm in my area. The day before I was on my computer and it was working. I left it on and the power went out a little while after the storm started. I thought it would be no big deal because I've never had any issues with surges in my house and it's hooked up to a good quality surge protector. There was a pretty bad looking surge while the power was out, the lights flicked on very brightly and very quickly. A few days after the storm I try to turn on my PC and nothing happens.

Nothing happened to anything else in my house, most of which is just hooked up to those ancient beige power strips or nothing at all. I tried to narrow down the problem by using the power supply from my sister's computer (which works fine and it's hooked up to one of the beige strips) and the problem still occured. The orange SB_PWR light is lit on the motherboard and even the small white light on my Asus RX580 Strix. I tried breadboarding. Tried powering up using the short with a screw driver method and it didn't work. I cleared CMOS, nothing.

Something I else noticed is that after not having any power to the computer, then switching on the PSU, the SB_PWR light comes on. But then, only after I hit the power button the white led lights up on the GPU. That means the power button must be doing something. I just don't know at what point the startup gets stopped. And I'm not sure if it the motherboard or could it be the CPU? I'm planning on upgrading the CPU in the future anyways so maybe just do it now instead and see if that fixes it? If not send the board in and I end up with an upgraded system? Or is there a chance that the new CPU could be fried or something? If someone could answer my many questions that'd be awesome!

SPECS:
MOBO: Asus B350-F
CPU: Ryzen 3 1200
GPU: Asus RX 580 Strix
PSU: EVGA Supernova 750 B1
RAM: 1 x HyperX Fury DDR4 8GB
 

UsandThem

Elite Member
May 4, 2000
16,068
7,380
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And I'm not sure if it the motherboard or could it be the CPU? I'm planning on upgrading the CPU in the future anyways so maybe just do it now instead and see if that fixes it? If not send the board in and I end up with an upgraded system? Or is there a chance that the new CPU could be fried or something? If someone could answer my many questions that'd be awesome!

Unfortunately, it could be all of it, or it could be a few components. Power surges are very nasty and random in their destruction. You'll have to test each component separately with known working parts. From seeing various posts over the years like what happened to you, I've seen them sometimes take out the PSU, motherboard, GPU, and storage drives. However, I don't think I've seen one that took out the CPU before.

Your best bet might be to take it into a local PC repair shot if you don't have extra parts on hand to test everything, and let them figure out what is damaged.
 

UsandThem

Elite Member
May 4, 2000
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Also, what surge protector do you use for the PC? Some of them might look good, but are actually junk with very low joule ratings.

My PCs are on CyberPower USPs with pretty high joule ratings, but I still will unplug them if lightening is bad enough because really none of the consumer units can handle a very close lightening hit or nasty surge 100% of the time.
 

jackson.m7

Junior Member
Jun 25, 2018
3
0
1
Unfortunately, it could be all of it, or it could be a few components. Power surges are very nasty and random in their destruction. You'll have to test each component separately with known working parts. From seeing various posts over the years like what happened to you, I've seen them sometimes take out the PSU, motherboard, GPU, and storage drives. However, I don't think I've seen one that took out the CPU before.

Your best bet might be to take it into a local PC repair shot if you don't have extra parts on hand to test everything, and let them figure out what is damaged.

I’ve tested the PSU, HDD, SSD, and GPU all in separate machines and they all work fine. I live kinda in the middle of nowhere and we are moving soon so I won’t be able to take it into a repair shop for a little while.

Also, what surge protector do you use for the PC? Some of them might look good, but are actually junk with very low joule ratings.

My PCs are on CyberPower USPs with pretty high joule ratings, but I still will unplug them if lightening is bad enough because really none of the consumer units can handle a very close lightening hit or nasty surge 100% of the time.

It’s an APC Performance SurgeArrest. Got it a while ago and AFAIK, APC is a pretty good brand. But, like I mentioned before it’s strange that the only thing in our house that got damaged is also the only thing hooked up to a (I’m pretty sure) decent surge protector and my sisters PC (which is fine) is hooked up to one of those beige ones that literally doesn’t have any name on it, it was left plugged in after the surge too. I think I will get a high quality UPS at the new house though.
 

UsandThem

Elite Member
May 4, 2000
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Your motherboard states it has resettable fuses, so maybe those were triggered.

Look at your manual, and see how to reset them. Maybe that's your issue.
 

jackson.m7

Junior Member
Jun 25, 2018
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0
1
I couldn't find anything about fuses in the manual and there was nothing useful to me that I could find online. The only thing the manual mentioned that could be reset is the CMOS, which I tried.
 

UsandThem

Elite Member
May 4, 2000
16,068
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I couldn't find anything about fuses in the manual and there was nothing useful to me that I could find online. The only thing the manual mentioned that could be reset is the CMOS, which I tried.

Maybe send a support email to Asus, and ask them how to reset the fuses.
 

UsandThem

Elite Member
May 4, 2000
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Also, when you are clearing your CMOS, are you unplugging the PSU from the wall, and discharging it by letting it sit for a while (or holding down the power button)? It probably wouldn't hurt to do the "hail Mary" of also removing the battery. If that doesn't work, and if Asus can't tell you to reset the fuses (says it has them on the RAM and the LAN port), the board might just be toast.
 

LTC8K6

Lifer
Mar 10, 2004
28,520
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IIRC, those polymer PTC fuses reset themselves, you just have to leave the board powered down for a while until they decide to let the electrons flow again.