Troubleshooting system that won't start

[JoshGuru7]

One of my systems powered off in the middle of use and would not restart (after 2 years of use). With the case on I first thought that the power supply had failed or one of the cables had come loose, as there was no response or sounds of any sort when I tried to power it back on.

After opening the case, I saw that the blue LED on the motherboard (EVGA) was still lit whenever the power supply was turned on (and off when the power supply was clicked off). When I push the power button on the top of the case there is a momentary attempt to start - an amber light turns on, the fans all get a tiny burst of power (rear fan gets enough power to complete one turn, video card fans barely twitch), but there is no noise otherwise and I don't believe the power supply fan attempts to spin. A fraction of a second afterwards everything stops again.

I cleared the CMOS to no avail, and there are no beeps of any sort. Time hasn't improved the situation so I am ruling out heat, and and it hadn't been jostled in any way prior to the failure so a short seems unlikely.

The power supply (HX 1000) seems like an obvious culprit but the board is still at least getting some power. Does anybody have experience with a failed power supply continuing to provide a small amount of power? I'm also not sure how to troubleshoot the power supply further (I don't have a substitute handy), so any suggestions along that line would be appreciated as well.

Update: Well after taking it apart and assembling it outside of the case again, it tripped my circuit breaker when I turned it on. I think it's time to go PSU shopping.

 

[Puppies04]

Update: Well after taking it apart and assembling it outside of the case again, it tripped my circuit breaker when I turned it on. I think it's time to go PSU shopping.

I agree PSU's are more than capable of giving the syptoms you describe and would be the first thing i would look at testing/replacing.

 

[BoomerD]

How old is the PSU?

Corsair units usually carry a good warranty...and they're VERY good about honoring them.

Five year limited warranty with 24/7 on demand customer service

The Corsair forums are a good source of help as well:
http://forum.corsair.com/v3/forumdisplay.php?f=178

 

[JoshGuru7]

The problem was indeed the PSU. The 1000HX was about three years old, I replaced it with an AX850 (plenty for my 570 SLI config) and the problem was solved.

In case somebody stumbles across this via google with a similar problem, the circuit breaker tripping means there is a short in the system. This is most likely to be in a capacitor in the PSU, but can be partly isolated by removing all cards and memory. If the problem still exists, then it's probably time to go PSU shopping.