Won't turn on - Dead PSU or Motherboard?

[Cook1]

Was working fine yesterday, powered it off as we were getting bad storms here in Minnesota. Turned it on tonight, logged into Windows 10 and it turned itself off as I was away from the desk. Come back and it just won't turn on.

PSU = Corsair HX850 that I've had for 5ish+ years (for the majority of that time it ran an OC'd i7 860, full water loop, multiple hard drives and a GTX570)

Motherboard = Asus Maximus VI Hero that I've had for less then a year

I don't have a paperclip to try the PSU thing (never tried it before anyways). When the power is plugged in the start and reset button the board are lit, nothing else is and when I hit the start button nothing happens - no fans spin up, no leds turn on, nothing.

I've had bad boards in the past where the PC wouldn't boot, but in those cases the case fans still turned on.

What do you guys think?

 

[UsandThem]

Could be either or even both if it was hit by a power surge (do you use a UPS or surge protector?) The only way to know for sure is to do the paperclip test (buy one and go to Corsair's website or Youtube to see how it's done) or try another power supply.

 

[Cook1]

I use a UPS. I'll have to grab a paperclip tomorrow and watch some youtube videos tonight.

 

[sze5003]

You will have to do the paperclip test. Or try the Psu in another PC. I had a dead board 2 days ago that describes the same symptoms you have. Led lights would come on and no fans spin or anything.

 

[Cook1]

Well I couldn't wait until morning so went and got a paperclip.

The Result: I don't know...

The PSU turns on, but it's nearly silent. The fan does spin, but I had to take the PSU completely out of my case to determine that it is in fact turning on, that's how quiet it is.

Now, are PSU's normally so quiet? I can honestly say I'm not sure as when I power on I'm use to fans and pumps turning on as well and it's noisy, so can't say for sure.

 

[UsandThem]

Yeah, most of them (quality units) are pretty quiet. Some might make noise if under heavy load (coil whine/fan ramping up).

The HX850 was well rated at Jonny Guru, so it should be great unit. 7 year warranty.

Have you tried plugging it into another power outlet without the UPS? How old is the UPS and have you done a self test on it (using the manufacturer software) to make sure it wasn't somehow damaged in the storm?

 

[Cook1]

That's good to know about the PSU, had been running a full water loop for years so booting up was never a quiet thing.

UPS is 3ish years old and has other things plugged into it that are functioning just fine.

 

[sze5003]

I think my Psu is pretty quite. The hyper 212 evo and gpu make more noise than it. When I breadcrumbed the new board yesterday, the only way I could tell the Psu was on was by putting my hand by its rear fan.

See if you can try it in someone else's PC. If it works and powers up the components then it might be your board that is fried.

 

[UsandThem]

Well, I hate to tell you this, and you aren't going to like the answer, but figuring out what component is defective is a process of elimination; Starting with the most likely part based on what your computer is doing/not doing.

1. If you're sure the UPS/outlet is good.
2. And the power supply comes to life with the paperclip test.
3. Your motherboard is showing it is receiving power (button lights).

It could be: Most likely the power supply or motherboard.

Yes, the power supply shows signs of life, but that doesn't mean something in it is damaged (surge, bad or swollen cap, wiring). The paperclip test is not placing a load on it. It could have been it's time.

The motherboard. It could have just died. RMA rates are roughly 2% while under warranty (at least what they admit to while claiming best reliability among board makers). So there's always a chance that is what happened to yours.

My advice is to borrow a friend's power supply / have a computer shop test yours / or buy a relatively inexpensive power supply like a EVGA 100-W1-0500-KR ($37 Amazon) to test it yourself (I keep one for testing purposes).

If the new power supply boots your computer, you have your answer. If it doesn't, the problem is likely your motherboard. It is also possible your CPU could be shot (were you pushing it with a heavy overclock)? Although, with no beep or codes displayed at all, I would highly suspect the motherboard before CPU, but there's always a chance and just letting you know.

When testing it, remove all non-essential parts (video card, leave one stick of ram in).

http://visihow.com/Determine_if_Your_Motherboard_Is_Dead

 

[Cook1]

Decided I'm going to get a new PSU and motherboard. If it's the PSU then I have a good motherboard that I'll have to eventually turn into a folding rig or something. And if it's the motherboard I have old i7 and i3 systems that are missing a few parts one of it being a PSU.

 

[UsandThem]

They should both be under warranty, so you should be able to RMA whichever one is the problem when you get your new parts.

 

[Ketchup]

It's probably the power supply.

 

[Cook1]

Update

Bought a new PSU and Motherboard as I'm moving and don't have the time to troubleshoot everything so thought this would be the easy answer.

Went from the following parts to..

Corsair HX850w --> Corsair HX1000w
Asus Maximus VI Hero --> MSI Z97 Gaming 5

Did the install on Saturday night after a full day of moving heavy storage boxes and garage stuff. Plugged everything in and pressed power to nothing happening at all...no noises, no fans, no beeps, silence.

One thing I noticed right away about the Asus board that I liked that the MSI didn't have is a power and reset button right on the board. So I rechecked the front panel connectors (double checked the power switch and reset switch connections with the manual) unplugged and replugged everything and again silence.

So I unplug everything, do the paperclip test and the PSU spins up just fine - I should also note how silent it is. So my HX850w is just fine, I was concerned with how silent it was but had nothing to compare it to, now that I have the 1kw version I can say that they both run really quiet..which is nice.

But back onto my problem. Could I have a dead board? Yeah, this sort of thing does happen, but I would expect some type of sound or even a case fan running or something. So, my question now becomes, does this sound like the motherboard is shorting out on something?

I can honestly say that I've never ran into this issue before so want to confirm with those more knowledgeable before I spend more time on it.

 

[sze5003]

Update

Bought a new PSU and Motherboard as I'm moving and don't have the time to troubleshoot everything so thought this would be the easy answer.

Went from the following parts to..

Corsair HX850w --> Corsair HX1000w
Asus Maximus VI Hero --> MSI Z97 Gaming 5

Did the install on Saturday night after a full day of moving heavy storage boxes and garage stuff. Plugged everything in and pressed power to nothing happening at all...no noises, no fans, no beeps, silence.

One thing I noticed right away about the Asus board that I liked that the MSI didn't have is a power and reset button right on the board. So I rechecked the front panel connectors (double checked the power switch and reset switch connections with the manual) unplugged and replugged everything and again silence.

So I unplug everything, do the paperclip test and the PSU spins up just fine - I should also note how silent it is. So my HX850w is just fine, I was concerned with how silent it was but had nothing to compare it to, now that I have the 1kw version I can say that they both run really quiet..which is nice.

But back onto my problem. Could I have a dead board? Yeah, this sort of thing does happen, but I would expect some type of sound or even a case fan running or something. So, my question now becomes, does this sound like the motherboard is shorting out on something?

I can honestly say that I've never ran into this issue before so want to confirm with those more knowledgeable before I spend more time on it.

I had a post related to your issue too. I was using a z170 pro gaming board. It would light up and show the power light and that was all.

Did you install it in the case or did you breadcrumb build the board? If you placed it in the case check the stand offs and see if you have an extra one. It could be shorting out.

You should always set up a mobo outside the case to verify it works first. Sounds like a dead board.

 

[UsandThem]

You can test your PC outside of the case (put the motherboard on wood or even the motherboard box) to rule out a short.

Just connect the power supply to the motherboard with only the CPU and a stick of ram. You can short the two power pins on the board by touching a screwdriver to it.

Is this the same CPU you were using in your old system? If so, and still no post, maybe your CPU was damaged in the storm. Really, you will need to put in known working parts until you find out which one is bad.

Damage from storms are unpredictable. Sometimes they might only zap the power supply. Sometimes it could only be the board. Sometimes it can be the whole system. I've also seen people lose only their hard drives and nothing else.

 

[Cook1]

Thanks for the responses all.

Sounds like this is something that will take some dedicated time to figure out and fix so will have to be pushed back until I'm completely done with the move. I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't missing something easy or simple to look into.

And to answer a few questions from above...

* Yes I installed it in the case, I use an H100i for a cooler and had that already installed in the case - I should get just a simple air HSF for testing purposes. I'll double check the stand offs - crossing my fingers that it's something like this that I overlooked.

* Yup, it's the same CPU.

 

[Ketchup]

Make sure there is a connection on the fan1 board connection. Most boards won't power on without something connected there.

And as UsandThem suggested, power the board on by crossing the power button connectors, not just the power button, to rule out a problem with the button. Doing so outside of the case would also rule out a grounding issue.

Barring those, it sounds like the board. As you said, very unusual.

 

[sze5003]

It's rare that the CPU got fried when you had the storm but possible. Can you test that CPU in someone else's board? I would say dead boards are more common. Unless you shorted out the board trying to power it up in the case if there was something to short it with.

Also check the pins in the board just to be sure. If you bought the board locally I would swap it or get a new one before ruling out the processor.

 

[Cook1]

Couldn't help but mess around with it some tonight (hate having something like this just sit because I can't help but just think about it).

So, I took out my video card and the thing powered up just fine. Tried the other 2 PCIE slots just to make sure it wasn't a bad slot but that didn't help. I can get my hands on another video card tomorrow to verify that my current card is dead.

It does seem strange, current card I thought was pretty darn solid, EVGA GTX 970 FTW ACX 2.0, going to test it out with a GTX 570 tomorrow night. Hope it's something as simple as this because (1) I have a replacement card in the GTX 570 and (2) EVGA is good with their RMAs.

 

[UsandThem]

Yeah, when troubleshooting always remove all non-essential components, and then add them in one part at a time until you find the issue.

Glad you finally found the likely issue.