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Power cuts out 1-2 secs after releasing power button

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decrescendo

Member
TL;DR: Any thoughts on what is causing the power to my machine to cut out approximately 1 to 2 seconds after I release the power button? The fans all spin up before that time but shortly after releasing the power button they all stop.

Back story:
I have been trying to revive my Windows XP desktop build from 2006 and I continue to have issues. I tore the whole thing apart a few weeks back and rebuilt it and it continues to have same boot problems as it did back in 2008-2010.

I've always had some spooky issues with this machine but this has been the worst one.

My mobo is an ASUS M2N-E NF570 Ultra AM2 ATX and I'm using an Antec power supply. I want to say at some point I saw something on a forum about some sort of incompatibility between these 2 pieces of hardware but I'm not sure.
 
T_Yamamoto said:
Yes. The top of the cap is popped and ooze like stuff is coming out
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I definitely am not noticing that on the board anywhere.

Do the capacitors immediately hold some charge that keeps the board running 1-2 seconds into boot?

Could this be related to grounding?
 
Capacitors can hold a charge for years, until discharged. You can actually be electrocuted (theoretically...not sure it's ever happened) by the large voltage/wattage capacitors. You won't find any of these in your computer, but you can still get a pretty good shock.
 
alkemyst said:
It's ultimately heat related usually.

Make sure all fans are working, you aren't overclocking, etc.
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I've never attempted to overclock this system and I see the case fan and the CPU fan spinning up for the 1-2 seconds that the build appears to have power.
 
Hmm, dying power supply? Or maybe there's something's wrong with your power button or its connection so that the motherboard things you're holding the power button down, even though you released the button?
 
Could be a PSU or a mobo issue. Nothing else would be related to power delivery, really. Could also be compatibility, sometimes a particular motherboard just doesn't like a particular PSU, I've heard of it being an issue with Corsair CX430 and some H61 chipset mobos.

I highly doubt it's temperature unless there's a faulty sensor which reports a super high reading that shuts the PC down immediately to avoid damage

Could you try the build with a different PSU
 
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Is it even possible for a PSU to overheat in just a few seconds? Sure they can generate a lot of heat but they should be able to operate for at least a little while.
 
Yeah, given the short time frame, I doubt that it is overheating. I would suspect the PSU or the mobo being bad though.

Try pulling the mobo out of the case and booting with only the base essentials (mobo, CPU, 1 DIMM, PSU, and GPU if there's no IGP). That'll eliminate a lot of potential issues right there. If it does come up, then it's a simple matter of replacing components until it fails to boot again.

If you end up needing to swap parts, a PSU is cheaper and easier to replace and would still be useful even if it wasn't the problem. If it turns out the mobo is the problem, then I wouldn't even bother messing with it because of the machine's age.
 
This is going to sound like a silly question but...

Have you checked that you've connected the case cables (i.e. power, reset etc) correctly to the motherboard?
You could try to "switch on" using a flat-head screwdriver to short the power pins on the motherboard header. I've not tried that in many a year, but it was useful when I was building while the case was still in shipping.
 
Could be the power supply takes a second or two before it detects a short, and then cuts out due to overcurrent. May also be one of your accessories overloading the supply after it initializes. Your best bet is to unplug anything nonessential and try to power on again, until you can isolate the problem. Could be anything such as a HDD, memory, PCI card, Unused cable shorted to the case, etc.
 
I'd be sure to have a fan plugged into the mobo header where the cpu fan goes- some motherboards will shutdown if they dont detect a cpu fan

Also, as said above, remove the mobo and try it on a cardboard box and start it by shorting the power pins with a screwdriver, to insure no shorts and the possibility of your startup button on the case being defective.(not releasing)

I'd also take the psu out of the case when testing the mobo on a cardboard box.

And of course, you might as well clear the CMOS while you're at it.
 
I had the same problem described by the OP and in my case the problem was that I had fed the PSU power supply for the motherboard underneath the motherboard and it was a tight fit so it must have put pressure on the motherboard which prevented the PC from starting.

I removed the PSU power supply for the motherboard and routed it around the motherboard instead and the PC worked faultlessly.

Another consideration is to make sure that the on/off and reset buttons are seated properly and the connectors for these are placed correctly on the motherboard. I did also come across a reset button which initially would continuously reboot the PC until I took the above action, so watch out for this.
 
Sheepdisease said:
I had the same problem described by the OP and in my case the problem was that I had fed the PSU power supply for the motherboard underneath the motherboard and it was a tight fit so it must have put pressure on the motherboard which prevented the PC from starting.

I removed the PSU power supply for the motherboard and routed it around the motherboard instead and the PC worked faultlessly.

Another consideration is to make sure that the on/off and reset buttons are seated properly and the connectors for these are placed correctly on the motherboard. I did also come across a reset button which initially would continuously reboot the PC until I took the above action, so watch out for this.
Click to expand...

How do people find ancient posts to reply to? And why?
 
I found this thread using Google because I encountered a similar problem and thought I would share my findings in case anyone else also looked on Google for this problem and wanted to know the possible solutions.

Just because the thread is old does not mean the information contained within is redundant.
 
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