Zarathustra[H]
Extremely [H]
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2000
- Messages
- 38,878
Hey all,
So I am no spring chicken when it comes to this stuff, but it has been a while since I had to troubleshoot a mystery problem where a system just refuses to work, so I figured I'd access the [H] hivemind for some suggestions and to validate my approach.
Last Thursday I came home after work, pressed the power button on my my Desktop and it is behaving like a paper weight, and refusing to turn on. The system had been working just fine since my Threadripper upgrade in December. The case had not been opened and nothing apparent changed since it was in a functional state.
Initially thinking it might have been a motherboard issue, I started discussing it here and got some good feedback from Mega6 and pendragon1
I opened it up on my workbench and did an initial examination. Nothing visual apparently wrong. No water leaks anywhere, in general looks pretty good, apart from its refusal to power on. I then plugged in the PSU, the main RGB LED on the motherboard briefly flashed on, and then turned off immediately. The on-motherboard power button remained lit up until I pressed it, at which point it went out, and the power never came on.
Based on this, I suspected the PSU. I removed the PSU from the case, and hooked it up to a known working PC. This PC also failed to start up. I thought I had found my culprit.
I RMA'd the PSU to Seasonic. Last night the new one came in.
Just to make sure I was on the right path, I first hooked up the replacement PSU to the same known good PC which had failed to boot last time. It powered on normally. Great! I now spent the time to re-route the cables and install everything in my main desktop. Plugged it in, flipped the rocker switch from 0 to 1, and the same thing as before happened. Main RGB LED flashed on, and then turned off. Power button remained lit until I pressed it and then went out. System refuses to power on.
Damn. Looks like the PSU was a misdiagnosis. It looks like my system has a short somehwere and the PSU's short protection circuitry is kicking in. I wonder if I tested the old PSU on the known good PC too quickly, before the short protection circuit reset after tripping.
Alright. So now what? First suspect. I have a hand soldered board for manual PWM fan control which has worked well, but could be a source of error, and I don't really need it anymore now that I have an Aquaero. So I pulled it out (and damaged one of the clips that holds the front panel to my case in the process )
Still no bueno.
Next steps:
1.) Reseat RAM and test?
2.) Remove all PCIe boards except GPU and see if it will start without them?
3.) Remove GPU and replace with known good GPU and see if it will start?
4.) If none of the above work, RMA the motherboard?
What a pain in the butt. I haven't had a non-functional system like this in YEARS.
I'd appreciate any suggestions, or input in my troubleshooting!
So I am no spring chicken when it comes to this stuff, but it has been a while since I had to troubleshoot a mystery problem where a system just refuses to work, so I figured I'd access the [H] hivemind for some suggestions and to validate my approach.
Last Thursday I came home after work, pressed the power button on my my Desktop and it is behaving like a paper weight, and refusing to turn on. The system had been working just fine since my Threadripper upgrade in December. The case had not been opened and nothing apparent changed since it was in a functional state.
Initially thinking it might have been a motherboard issue, I started discussing it here and got some good feedback from Mega6 and pendragon1
I opened it up on my workbench and did an initial examination. Nothing visual apparently wrong. No water leaks anywhere, in general looks pretty good, apart from its refusal to power on. I then plugged in the PSU, the main RGB LED on the motherboard briefly flashed on, and then turned off immediately. The on-motherboard power button remained lit up until I pressed it, at which point it went out, and the power never came on.
Based on this, I suspected the PSU. I removed the PSU from the case, and hooked it up to a known working PC. This PC also failed to start up. I thought I had found my culprit.
I RMA'd the PSU to Seasonic. Last night the new one came in.
Just to make sure I was on the right path, I first hooked up the replacement PSU to the same known good PC which had failed to boot last time. It powered on normally. Great! I now spent the time to re-route the cables and install everything in my main desktop. Plugged it in, flipped the rocker switch from 0 to 1, and the same thing as before happened. Main RGB LED flashed on, and then turned off. Power button remained lit until I pressed it and then went out. System refuses to power on.
Damn. Looks like the PSU was a misdiagnosis. It looks like my system has a short somehwere and the PSU's short protection circuitry is kicking in. I wonder if I tested the old PSU on the known good PC too quickly, before the short protection circuit reset after tripping.
Alright. So now what? First suspect. I have a hand soldered board for manual PWM fan control which has worked well, but could be a source of error, and I don't really need it anymore now that I have an Aquaero. So I pulled it out (and damaged one of the clips that holds the front panel to my case in the process )
Still no bueno.
Next steps:
1.) Reseat RAM and test?
2.) Remove all PCIe boards except GPU and see if it will start without them?
3.) Remove GPU and replace with known good GPU and see if it will start?
4.) If none of the above work, RMA the motherboard?
What a pain in the butt. I haven't had a non-functional system like this in YEARS.
I'd appreciate any suggestions, or input in my troubleshooting!