Three symultaneous failures, need guru suggestions

[Skyzoomer]

Three failures happened simultaneously on my tower PC and I'm totally stumped on how they could have happened. Hope some gurus can offer ideas on how/why the failures could have happened.

CONFIGURATION :
ASRock Z75 Pro3 mobo, 8GB ram (2 sticks), 120GB SSD for system & programs, 1TB spinner HDD for data, Win7. Normally have my 2560 x 1440 monitor connected via dual DVI cable to a MSI HD6450 PCIe card since mobo does not support 2560x1440 res.

WHAT HAPPENED :
Everything was working fine. Went on a 9 day vacation so after a normal shutdown, I pulled the a/c plugs for my 2 power strips from the wall outlet in case of lightning while we were gone. Upon return, I plugged in the power strips and powered the PC on. Black screen with no BIOS splash screen.

PROBLEMS FOUND :
1. The MSI HD6450 card is bad on both VGA and DVI. Connected monitor to mobo VGA connector and it works that way, albeit not at the max 2560x1440 resolution.

2. One of the two RAM card was bad. Plugging only one card at a time, one card works fine. The other card results in cycling of power on and off endlessly.

3. The realtime clock was off. Removed the mobo battery but it checks strong with a battery tester that puts a load on the battery. Reinstalled the battery.

CONCLUSIONS SO FAR :
1. The PC was not booting into windows since the CMOS settings were lost. I had to change the boot setting from legacy to secure boot for the PC to boot into windows normally.

2. Ran for 5 days with only one RAM card and monitor connected to mobo VGA port with no problems. Shutdown every night and turned power switch off on both power strips per my normal procedure.

QUESTIONS:
1. If the mobo battery (CR2032) was not making good contact, why did the PC keep proper time for the last 2 years when I shutdown the PC every night and turn off the power switch on both of my power strips? If it was making good contact, why was the clock time off after 9 days of the power strips being unplugged?

2. Why would a graphics card go bad after 9 days of no use and the a/c power unplugged?

3. Wny would one RAM card go bad after 9 days of no use and the a/c power unplugged?

Any ideas or guesses?

Stumped,
Skyzoomer

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Simultaneous failures usually make me suspect power surges or something, but if it was unplugged... man that's a toughie. Inertia.

Was there somebody in your house while you were away? (A pet-sitter or something?) Might they have used the computer?

 

[Skyzoomer]

Simultaneous failures usually make me suspect power surges or something, but if it was unplugged... man that's a toughie. Inertia.

Was there somebody in your house while you were away? (A pet-sitter or something?) Might they have used the computer?

No one came into our home while we were gone. This has got to be the strangest failures with the equipment unplugged from the a/c outlet.

I can't figure out why the CMOS settings were lost when the mobo battery checks out good. We've been on similar length vacations before in the last 2 years and the CMOS setting were not lost.

Can losing the CMOS settings cause the graphics card to fail and one RAM card to fail?

Thanks,
Skyzoomer

 

[sm625]

The NSA doesnt like it when you pull the plug. They gotta actually send someone in there. They gotta stick around until the work is complete so they can unplug it when they are done. It just creates a big hassle. Leave your PC plugged in when you go on vacation. Seriously though, I dont know what the deal is. I lost a hard drive after coming back from being away for a couple days. I too had unplugged. I even switched the PSU off. I cant rationally explain why this happened.

 

[Skyzoomer]

Seriously though, I dont know what the deal is. I lost a hard drive after coming back from being away for a couple days. I too had unplugged. I even switched the PSU off. I cant rationally explain why this happened.

Weird stuff happening. At least yours was just one failure.

Thanks,
Skyzoomer

 

[dave_the_nerd]

No one came into our home while we were gone. This has got to be the strangest failures with the equipment unplugged from the a/c outlet.

I can't figure out why the CMOS settings were lost when the mobo battery checks out good. We've been on similar length vacations before in the last 2 years and the CMOS setting were not lost.

Can losing the CMOS settings cause the graphics card to fail and one RAM card to fail?

Thanks,
Skyzoomer

Maybe your battery checker is wrong. Replace the battery, reset the CMOS, and see if that helps with some of the other weirdness.

 

[Skyzoomer]

Maybe your battery checker is wrong. Replace the battery, reset the CMOS, and see if that helps with some of the other weirdness.

Thanks for helping out.

I know that the battery checker is working fine but I did already buy a replacement CR2032 battery. I plan to replace the battery when my replacement RAM is received and I install the RAM. Cheap insurance.

Still can't figure out how a bad battery causing a reset CMOS could cause one RAM card and my HD6450 graphics card to go bad though.

Just to establish background, I was a computer tech in my day job so I do know how to ground myself before I handle anything in the PC. So I'm confident that static electricity did not cause the damage to the graphics card or the RAM card.

Plus the fact that when I powered the PC on after our vacation (without opening the PC yet), the graphics card DVI out was bad and not even showing the BIOS splash screen on power on boot. Switched from DVI to VGA on the graphics card without opening the PC yet and VGA was bad also. So that definitely eliminates any human induced static damage to the graphics card.

Totally weird, weird, weird.

Thanks again,
Skyzoomer

 

[VeryCharBroiled]

you mentioned unplugging 2 outlet strips, was everything connected to the computer on them? network stuff, monitor, sound etc? maybe something came in via a cable from a still plugged in piece of equipment?

 

[VirtualLarry]

maybe something came in via a cable from a still plugged in piece of equipment?

That makes the most sense. And with the main PC PSU unplugged, there would have been no safe ground path, so whatever power surge would have discharged through components.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Ooh, I like that. Actually had that happen once at work - a lightning strike a half mile away fried the building's entire cable TV system - amps, splitters, cable modem, a couple VCRs... it was epic.

 

[Skyzoomer]

you mentioned unplugging 2 outlet strips, was everything connected to the computer on them? network stuff, monitor, sound etc? maybe something came in via a cable from a still plugged in piece of equipment?

Only other connection to the PC was the ethernet cable which remained plugged in.

Path of ethernet cable is:

(My PC) ---ethernet cable---
(my router) ---ethernet cable---
(provider's router) ---ethernet cable---
(provider's modem) --- (provider's fiber optic device) --- (provider's fiber optic cable)

Disconnecting two power strips disconnected PC, monitor, my router, 3 wall warts for external hard drives, and charger for my laptop. So in list above, the top two items (my PC and my router) were unplugged from the a/c wall outlet. All provider's equipment were left plugged in and powered on.

Nothing else was damaged except components inside of my tower PC.

EDIT: Oh yeah, the mini-phone plug for stereo cable to my audio amplifier was plugged into the PC's motherboard. The stereo amp's power cable is plugged into one of the power strips that was unplugged from a/c power.

Thanks,
Skyzoomer

 

[pooptastic]

you mentioned unplugging 2 outlet strips, was everything connected to the computer on them? network stuff, monitor, sound etc? maybe something came in via a cable from a still plugged in piece of equipment?

Might be it. Especially since i bet you use the onboard motherboard's ethernet port instead of a card of some type.

Comment on reddit about a similar ethernet power surge: https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQu...ning_strike_damage_a_computer_through/cio0vh5

 

[BarkingGhostar]

I suffered lightning damage ~20 years ago and it came into the premise via the phone line. Just because Ethernet is meant to be a low-voltage design doesn't mean lightning can't use the conductor outside of that design. I've since lost standalone Ethernet cards and Ethernet interfaces on the motherboard.

When I leave the home for more than a day I unplug all conductors from the workstation.

 

[videogames101]

Ethernet lightning is definitely a possibility. Seen whole PC's fried.

 

[MongGrel]

Ethernet lightning is definitely a possibility. Seen whole PC's fried.

Definitely can happen.

Had an old 286 even get taken out buy a lightning strike decades ago over ethernet, it went even farther and took out a couple of cards in a CNC Wire EDM from a switch box over a RS-232 connection.

And there was some reasonably high level lighting protection in that building at the time.

Lightning will go where it wants to if it has a path.

 

[Skyzoomer]

Pooptastic, BarkingGhostar, Videogames101 and MongGrel,

Thanks for your inputs.

My neighbor said there wasn't any lighting wile we were away on vacation. But even if there was, the lightning would have had to go through:

provider's fiberoptic cable > provider's fiberoptic device > provider's modem > provider's router > my router > ethernet connection to the motherboard.

Since none of the above (including motherboard's ethernet circuitry) was damaged and all of them work fine, I don't see how lightning could have caused

PCIe graphics card
1 of 2 ram cards
loss of CMOS settings

to go bad. I think we can rule out lightning as a possible cause.

Thanks,
Skyzoomer

 

[SMOGZINN]

Could you have had a literal bug in the system? I've seen a spider short out a MB by getting behind it and building a web. Nearly impossible to detect until you dismount the MB and see where it burned.

 

[videogames101]

Pooptastic, BarkingGhostar, Videogames101 and MongGrel,

Thanks for your inputs.

My neighbor said there wasn't any lighting wile we were away on vacation. But even if there was, the lightning would have had to go through:

provider's fiberoptic cable > provider's fiberoptic device > provider's modem > provider's router > my router > ethernet connection to the motherboard.

Since none of the above (including motherboard's ethernet circuitry) was damaged and all of them work fine, I don't see how lightning could have caused

PCIe graphics card
1 of 2 ram cards
loss of CMOS settings

to go bad. I think we can rule out lightning as a possible cause.

Thanks,
Skyzoomer

The thing is that not much can damage an IC -period- besides electrical discharge. So if it wasn't plugged in, where did the charge come from? I'm not sure where else to look

 

[Charmonium]

Were the power strips turned on when you plugged them in? It would make sense if you forgot since you were powering everything down before you left so maybe you just pulled the plugs and didn't realize that when you came back home.

Still, if you got a surge from connecting the PSU directly to the wall, I would expect there to be some damage to the PSU. Although I guess it would possible to get a current that was w/in the specs of the PSU but too much for the components.

Aside from that, do you see any singeing on the motherboard? If blew out all of those components I would expect to see some evidence of the damage - heat damage on the m/b, blown capacitor, fried resistor, something.

As for the cpu clock, those are notoriously inaccurate. The one on this machine probably adds 5 or 10 minutes per month, but I have the machine on 24/7. If you're relying just on the button cell, that might make a difference. Plus a lot of m/b can gain or lose much more time.

 

[John Connor]

Sounds like a surge being generated when you power on the power strips. I wouldn't bother pulling power after the computer is off unless you won't be home for some time like you mention.

What is the make and model of the power strip?

 

[Skyzoomer]

Smogzinn, Videogames101, Charmonium and John,

Thanks for your responses.

I don't think the power strips caused the problem because my NORMAL shutdown procedure every night is:

1. Do a windows shutdown.
2. Turn the on/off switch on both power strips to the off position.

The next morning, my power up procedure is:

3. Turn the on/off switch on both power strips to the on position.
4. Press the power on button on my tower PC.
5. Boots up into Windows 7.

When I went on vacation, I did steps 1 and 2 and then pulled both plugs of the 2 power strips out of the a/c outlet. Upon returning from vacation, I plugged both power strips back into the a/c outlet and then did steps 3 to 5.

BTW, when I say the a/c outlet, it is really a rectangular surge suppressor that plugs directly into the two convenience outlets of the house (no cords). That surge suppressor has 6 a/c outlets but I only use two outlets. I've pulled the power strip cords out from that surge suppressor many, many times over the years, when ever there was a lightning storm or every time we went on vacation. Nothing bad happened before.

BTW, MY TOWER PC IS NOW FULLY WORKING:

I received the two replacement ram cards and a new graphics card. I replaced the motherboard's battery, installed the two ram cards and booted into Win7 using the motherboard's VGA port to my monitor. Entered the correct date and time. All working so I installed the new graphics card and connected my monitor to its dual DVI port to get 2560x1440 res for my monitor. Everything is now working normally like it did before.

So nothing on the motherboard is damaged which eliminates a short caused by an insect.

I guess I'll have to just go on from here and hope something similar doesn't happen on our next vacation (which will be a 10 day vacation). So I'll be pulling the power strip plugs out from the a/c outlet again. (gulp.... )

Thanks all,
Skyzoomer

 

[monkstah]

Wow that just sounds absolutely crazy. I'm glad it appears to be working now without an issue.

 

[MtnMan]

Was everything disconnected for the 9 days. Were monitors connected to AC during this time. Or any directly connected device (printer, switch, router, scanner, etc.) still connected to AC? Phone line?