PC won't post

[Slammy1]

When I hit the power button, the CPU fan will start to spin but it almost immediately powers down (no beeps).

It's an older SFF system (Asus Pundit-R) that belongs to a friend. He was having some issues with thermal runaway that seemed related to the PSU fan. The PSU fan for these systems is more like a case fan, so what I had him do was to blow it out on start up to see if we could correct the fan issue. I told him to do that at start up on watch speedfan to see if the issue corrects itself, but I get the impression he didn't do that more than once or twice (if that). He used it heavily and left it on for a long period, and when he turned it off it wouldn't come back on.

Is there anything other likely suspect? He's out of work, and I'd hate to have him buy a PSU (they seem cheap, but Asus' web site is down so I can't get an official cost) and then not work. TIA for any help.

 

[robisbell]

get a multimeter and check the voltage with and without a load. post the results.

 

[Denithor]

Can you just rig a working power supply to test? Don't even have to mount it in his case, just run the wires in and plug into the necessary parts (motherboard, video card) to test if it will even boot properly. If the BIOS will load then you can plug into hdd/optical and see if Windows will come correctly. If it does, get him a new unit and away he goes.

 

[Slammy1]

Thanks for the replies. I apologize that I didn't get back sooner but posted soon before going to work and just got home.

Yeah, perhaps it is time to get a multimeter. It may be problematic to read as it only seems to power for a second before shutting down, but I'll find uses.

I thought about connecting my PSU to the system to see what I get from it. It just seemed like a PITA to get around the case, but I'd have to pull everything to reinstall the PSU anyways I suppose. It's just 2 plugs to see if it posts.

Thanks again for the input.

EDIT: Ordered a new PSU, installed it, works perfectly.