PC No Longer Posts

Sasquach said:
I'm also going to go with PSU dieded.

I experienced something similar.

It worked one day, died sometime in the middle of sleep mode and wouldnt wake. no post or nothing. MOBO lights were still on and pulsating though.

I left it alone for a day (turned off PSU), and it started right up again the next day.

Soon after same thing happened but nothing would make it wake anymore and when it finally did it didnt stay awake for very long. I put in a new PSU and havent had any issues since. Lucky for me none of the times it died was when i was using the PC, so it either died in sleep mode, or it died just idling.

I've had that PSU since building a Phenom II system way back when, so it most likely outlived its useful service life.
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I hope so. I don’t have a backup PSU to try. I did buy the tester Bill linked to see if that also points to the PSU. The thing is supposed to be on warranty. If the tester says it’s bad I am going to see if I can get a replacement. But the headache may not be worth the $120 a new one costs. Let’s see what happens when the tester arrives.
 
The handy little tool Bill recommending is reporting that the PSU is bad. It’s only 2 years old should I try and get a replacement? How is EVGA support? Or, is it just worth buying another instead? Anyone had any experience with them before?
 
SD-[Inc] said:
The handy little tool Bill recommending is reporting that the PSU is bad. It’s only 2 years old should I try and get a replacement? How is EVGA support? Or, is it just worth buying another instead? Anyone had any experience with them before?
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both

buy a better one now and RMA the other as a spare
 
New PSU arrived plugged it in and ….. No post…. :(

Same symptoms exactly. Not sure next steps. Maybe I can find a refurbished version of the exact same MB for cheap and try that? I am possibly one step from ending my PC gaming career on this one. If someone wants to make an offer on the whole setup let me know (it comes with 2 perfectly good power supplies!). Otherwise, I may just trudge along with a few more part replacements…. I hate these type of problems. Whenever I get them it is always the LAST part I replace that fixes the problem. :mad:
 
SD-[Inc] said:
New PSU arrived plugged it in and ….. No post…. :(

Same symptoms exactly. Not sure next steps. Maybe I can find a refurbished version of the exact same MB for cheap and try that? I am possibly one step from ending my PC gaming career on this one. If someone wants to make an offer on the whole setup let me know (it comes with 2 perfectly good power supplies!). Otherwise, I may just trudge along with a few more part replacements…. I hate these type of problems. Whenever I get them it is always the LAST part I replace that fixes the problem. :mad:
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well when it's fixed you stop :lol:

..
does the old PSU still test bad still ?

could be the MB & PSU one took out the other

think i would look for somewhere to take it to diagnose it cheap
 
It's tough when you don't have other parts on hand to troubleshoot with. I'd guess the problem is likely the board. It's not impossible it could be the CPU but much less likely.

Assuming the board is still under warranty, you could just order a cheap B450 to keep you going while you RMA the board. Doesn't really need to be great to last for a few weeks. I wouldn't pay for an expensive board if you can get that one replaced.
 
Is the MB installed in the case? If so, try taking it out. Possibly something shorting out….
 
Nagorak said:
It's tough when you don't have other parts on hand to troubleshoot with. I'd guess the problem is likely the board. It's not impossible it could be the CPU but much less likely.

Assuming the board is still under warranty, you could just order a cheap B450 to keep you going while you RMA the board. Doesn't really need to be great to last for a few weeks. I wouldn't pay for an expensive board if you can get that one replaced.
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This one is reasonable and if works I’d probably just keep it with the RMA as backup…

https://www.asus.com/us/motherboards-components/motherboards/tuf-gaming/tuf-gaming-b550-plus/

I want to play around just a bit more with the PSU Tester to find out if it was really operator error when I got the bad test result on my old PSU or not before shelling out another $150. That’s still a bit of a mystery. The possibilities are:

1. I really didn’t have a bad PSU, just operator error
2. My second PSU is bad also
3. Board and PSU are fried

I really hope the CPU isn’t the issue. Last time I went down the rabbit hole like this it was the CPU and that was the last thing I swapped. But the symptoms were totally different back then (and nastier). That time everything posted just fine. The problem was it would always blue screen randomly during Windows installation. That was a nightmare that turned out to be a defective CPU. In that case though, the processor was brand new. Never heard of a CPU wearing out after 2 years of usage. But, I have heard of capacitors failing over time on MB. So that still feels like the likely candidate.
 
SD-[Inc] said:
This one is reasonable and if works I’d probably just keep it with the RMA as backup…

https://www.asus.com/us/motherboards-components/motherboards/tuf-gaming/tuf-gaming-b550-plus/

I want to play around just a bit more with the PSU Tester to find out if it was really operator error when I got the bad test result on my old PSU or not before shelling out another $150. That’s still a bit of a mystery. The possibilities are:

1. I really didn’t have a bad PSU, just operator error
2. My second PSU is bad also
3. Board and PSU are fried
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Just to be complete:
4. The PSU tester is bad.


But, I have heard of capacitors failing over time on MB. So that still feels like the likely candidate.
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You should be testing the power supply without anything being plugged into it. The tester only is testing the main MB plug also. Depending on your supply there may be multiple coils that supply diffferent things... for example, the aux power plugs for the MB might be hosed even if the main ones are ok.

A voltmeter could tell you. What exactly did the PSU tester say was wrong?
 
koralis said:
Just to be complete:
4. The PSU tester is bad.




You should be testing the power supply without anything being plugged into it. The tester only is testing the main MB plug also. Depending on your supply there may be multiple coils that supply diffferent things... for example, the aux power plugs for the MB might be hosed even if the main ones are ok.

A voltmeter could tell you. What exactly did the PSU tester say was wrong?
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Right, it could be a bad tester. I've read more and according to the tester if a value blinks or the tester beeps the PSU is bad. The PG value was blinking and the tester was beeping. All voltages showed good. PG is Power Good Delay. I had no idea what that meant until I looked it up.

Power Good Delay is the amount of time it takes a power supply to start up completely and begin delivering the proper voltages to the connected devices. According to the Desktop Platform Form Factors Power Supply Guide [PDF], Power Good Delay (called PWR_OK delay in that document) should be 100–500 ms.
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The value that was blinking was 130MS. This sounds good according to the definition above? I am going to try it on a known working PSU and see what I get. I could be chasing red herrings here :(


PS. The tester tests the main ATX power and the CPU power too. That's all I am using right now. I unplugged everything else.
 
Well glad I kept digging. Pulled out my brand new PSU and put it on the tester. (Something I should have done before I put it in!). The tester reported the same bad values for PG. But the new PSU reported a blinking 0MS. That definitely is outside recommended specs. My son was nice enough to allow me to disassemble his working PC and his PSU tested a solid 300MS PG with no blinking at all. So the only real evidence I have now is the new PSU is also bad. I’ll try returning and trying another.

Sounds like PS Tester is good, new PSU is also bad. Definitely not buying a lottery ticket soon…
 
SD-[Inc] said:
Right, it could be a bad tester. I've read more and according to the tester if a value blinks or the tester beeps the PSU is bad. The PG value was blinking and the tester was beeping. All voltages showed good. PG is Power Good Delay. I had no idea what that meant until I looked it up.


The value that was blinking was 130MS. This sounds good according to the definition above? I am going to try it on a known working PSU and see what I get. I could be chasing red herrings here :(
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Definitely within the range of normal based on what you wrote before. It could be that the tester expects a range of 200-400 ms or something and flags other values. That doesn't mean it's bad though.


The tester reported the same bad values for PG. But the new PSU reported a blinking 0MS.
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Instantly good power doesn't seem like it should be a problem to me. Sounds ideal, in fact. I'm voting on lousy parameters in the tester.


Ah... here it is.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_good_signal

The ATX specification requires that the power-good signal ("PWR_OK") go high no sooner than 100 ms after the power rails have stabilized, and remain high for 16 ms after loss of AC power, and fall (to less than 0.4 V) at least 1 ms before the power rails fall out of specification (to 95% of their nominal value).
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So this isn't really about how fast the power stabilizes at the correct level. It's basically saying that the supply is "cheating" and just setting the PWR_OK signal high immediately, not after verifying that the voltage has stabilized + 100ms as the spec says.

This isn't to say that the supply isn't functional, it means that they're not adhering to the startuip specs and the tester is telling you that. Really, it's PROBABLY not a problem, but at 0ms it means that your motherboard could be undervolted initially untl the supply gets up to speed, or bounce with a startup voltage spike that gets used. Over time that could kill your electronics hence the point of the PWR_OK signal latch in the first place. What brand is this? I want to make sure I avoid it the next time I replace a supply. :)


The 130ms seems perfectly fine though. Again, seems like they're requiring a time that is longer than the ATX spec asks for.


Cheaper and/or lower quality power supplies do not follow the ATX specification of a separate monitoring circuit; they instead wire the power good output to one of the 5 V lines. This means the processor will never reset given bad power unless the 5 V line drops low enough to turn off the trigger, which could be too low for proper operation.
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Maybe they had some experience with supplies doing the same cheat, just implementing a fixed delay to fool the testers so they pushed out the values? (though if the supply is stable by the 130 ms, it doesn't really matter WHY they set the line high)


SO given that the numbers of your original supply seem to be in spec and the tester is being bitchy, it's looking more like a motherboard problem. have to tried powering up the motherboard outside of the case? Do that with a minimal configuration. Watch fans, etc.

Uhmm... just occurred to me, do you have a water-cooled system per chance? If the pump is stuck it could draw a lot of power and cause the power-supply to shut itself down similar to a short.
 
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koralis said:
Definitely within the range of normal based on what you wrote before. It could be that the tester expects a range of 200-400 ms or something and flags other values. That doesn't mean it's bad though.




Instantly good power doesn't seem like it should be a problem to me. Sounds ideal, in fact. I'm voting on lousy parameters in the tester.


Ah... here it is.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_good_signal



So this isn't really about how fast the power stabilizes at the correct level. It's basically saying that the supply is "cheating" and just setting the PWR_OK signal high immediately, not after verifying that the voltage has stabilized + 100ms as the spec says.

This isn't to say that the supply isn't functional, it means that they're not adhering to the startuip specs and the tester is telling you that. Really, it's PROBABLY not a problem, but at 0ms it means that your motherboard could be undervolted initially untl the supply gets up to speed, or bounce with a startup voltage spike that gets used. Over time that could kill your electronics hence the point of the PWR_OK signal latch in the first place. What brand is this? I want to make sure I avoid it the next time I replace a supply. :)


The 130ms seems perfectly fine though. Again, seems like they're requiring a time that is longer than the ATX spec asks for.




Maybe they had some experience with supplies doing the same cheat, just implementing a fixed delay to fool the testers so they pushed out the values? (though if the supply is stable by the 130 ms, it doesn't really matter WHY they set the line high)


SO given that the numbers of your original supply seem to be in spec and the tester is being bitchy, it's looking more like a motherboard problem. have to tried powering up the motherboard outside of the case? Do that with a minimal configuration. Watch fans, etc.

Uhmm... just occurred to me, do you have a water-cooled system per chance? If the pump is stuck it could draw a lot of power and cause the power-supply to shut itself down similar to a short.
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No. I question the PG setting too. Although, I did see something about too fast can cause MB to crash loop. I returned the PSU for another and if same results, back to trying a new MB. Although, given the only known working power supply tested perfectly fine is the only evidence I have so far. But, it was an older PSU so maybe the newer ones cheat? I dunno. This is just going to be a a long trial and error process…
 
I have saw in a few pc repair videos that the 3000 series cpu tend to fail more than others. I would buy a cheep cpu off craigs list and try it. or get a shop to test the system. Depends which way you want to go with it.
 
chigger_ns said:
I have saw in a few pc repair videos that the 3000 series cpu tend to fail more than others. I would buy a cheep cpu off craigs list and try it. or get a shop to test the system. Depends which way you want to go with it.
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I didn't really have trouble with 3000 series myself, but Ryzen 1000 did seem dodgy. One R9 1700 I bought at release just stopped posting after a week. Then the second one developed instability after a couple years, when it was placed into a new system (not impossible that there could have been something wrong with the motherboard that damaged the chip). Then my 5900X had uncorrectable WHEAs that was only fixed with a replacement.

The only relevance to the topic at hand is to second that AMD CPUs (or maybe newer CPUs in general?) seem a little bit more suspect in terms of reliability. So, I wouldn't necessarily assume the old axiom that "CPUs never die."
 
SD-[Inc] said:
Well glad I kept digging. Pulled out my brand new PSU and put it on the tester. (Something I should have done before I put it in!). The tester reported the same bad values for PG. But the new PSU reported a blinking 0MS. That definitely is outside recommended specs. My son was nice enough to allow me to disassemble his working PC and his PSU tested a solid 300MS PG with no blinking at all. So the only real evidence I have now is the new PSU is also bad. I’ll try returning and trying another.

Sounds like PS Tester is good, new PSU is also bad. Definitely not buying a lottery ticket soon…
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well thats just bad luck.

Would he be nice enough to go a bit further and let you install his PSU into your dead PC and see if it wakes up? obviously you wouldnt use it, but if you can turn it on (if it turns on) and let it load and then turn it off then you can confirm it was a PSU issue.
 
Sasquach said:
well thats just bad luck.

Would he be nice enough to go a bit further and let you install his PSU into your dead PC and see if it wakes up? obviously you wouldnt use it, but if you can turn it on (if it turns on) and let it load and then turn it off then you can confirm it was a PSU issue.
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I thought about that. Buts it’s a prebuilt PC and the PSU doesn’t even have the connection I need. It’s a little too old.
 
Hardwood said:
I have the same motherboard and very curious if you've solved this SD.
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Not yet. I returned the PSU for a replacement and UPS lost it in shipment. So now I need to go through a claims process with them. It might just be a total loss. The whole mess has demotivated me. I have to wait for another week before the package is declared lost. Just sitting on things for now.
 
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