Computer Won't Boot

ryken

2[H]4U
Joined
Jan 28, 2009
Messages
3,106
I've been having some problems with my rig crashing lately. I powered it off to see if that helped, and now it won't power on at all. I've listed below the specs and the problems I've been having. Any help as far as what to test or what needs replacing would be really helpful, as I haven't the foggiest of what's going on.

Specs
Gigabyte GA-M57SLI-S4 Motherboard
AMD Phenom II X4 810
Sapphire HD 5850
4GB Nvidia-Branded RAM
160GB Seagate OS Drive (old)
Coolmax CUG-700B PSU

Problems
Ever since I installed the 5850, the AMD driver would randomly crash. It only happened every now and again, and it didn't really bother me because it would take me out of the game for 1 minute and then it would just pop back in. The system tray always popped up a balloon saying the driver had stopped responding. I got busy with school and never tried to fix it.

About 1/1.5 months ago, I bought FIFA 12 on sale. Game is great, but it would always crash about 20-30 minutes into the game. The crash was a complete cut to black screen with the audio hanging. No balloon pop-up. The only way to get it out was to do a hard reset. I thought this was a game specific problem as I had never seen it before.

Today I loaded Batman:AC, and it did the same crash about 20-30 minutes into the game. I did a hard reset, and reloaded the game with some system monitoring tools up. RAM was at 75%, CPU was about 75-80% at peak, and the GPU (which I thought was the culprit at the time) never hit 100% usage, and didn't rise about ~70C. After crashing again, I decided to try Team Fortress 2, as that had never seen one of these hard crashes. Sure enough, same gig.

I did a complete power down, and now it won't start back up. I press the power button and literally nothing happens. No fans, no LEDs, no beeps, nothing. I opened the case to make sure all the connections are solid. There is no visual indication that anything went wrong. No "pops", smoke, or obvious damage. There was some dust in the case, but it was actually pretty clean overall.

Do you guys have any idea what might be going on? Any tests I should/could run? Any help is really appreciated as I don't really know what to do. I know the parts are old, but the thing games just fine for me, and I'm wanting to spend the least amount of money as possible to get it going as there are some more pressing financial concerns at the moment.
 
Try a different PSU: that Coolmax isn't a good PSU. I highly recommend this as a replacement PSU:
$64 - Antec NEO ECO 520C 520W PSU
 
Try a different PSU: that Coolmax isn't a good PSU. I highly recommend this as a replacement PSU:
$64 - Antec NEO ECO 520C 520W PSU

That's kind of what I thought might be going on too. What do you think of the Corsair CX600? Jonny Guru gave the thumbs up to the CX430, and I have some credit at Amazon where I can get it for $61 with prime.
 
Any time a new video card causes system instability, the cause is almost always an insufficient power supply. Hopefully, you didn't destroy anything on your mobo or HDDs in the process. Either your PSU died, or something else did, or both.

Never skimp on a power supply, it's the most important component in your rig.

Being an Intel and nVidia fanboy, I'm not familiar with the power requirements of your system, but when you buy a new power supply buy one that will run 2 of your cards, or even 3, and then you should be safe AND futureproofed.

Don't let money be the sole determining factor in which PSU you buy.

Not familiar with the Corsair CX line either, but the HX750 is a very highly regarded PSU. The Corsair Gamer series also get good reviews. I'd go AT LEAST 700 watts, but that's just me :p
 
Any time a new video card causes system instability, the cause is almost always an insufficient power supply. Hopefully, you didn't destroy anything on your mobo or HDDs in the process. Either your PSU died, or something else did, or both.

Never skimp on a power supply, it's the most important component in your rig.

Being an Intel and nVidia fanboy, I'm not familiar with the power requirements of your system, but when you buy a new power supply buy one that will run 2 of your cards, or even 3, and then you should be safe AND futureproofed.

Don't let money be the sole determining factor in which PSU you buy.

Not familiar with the Corsair CX line either, but the HX750 is a very highly regarded PSU. The Corsair Gamer series also get good reviews. I'd go AT LEAST 700 watts, but that's just me :p

700W is almost twice what the OP needs. Only if you're running SLi or cfx will yo see a need for 600W+
 
Any time a new video card causes system instability, the cause is almost always an insufficient power supply. Hopefully, you didn't destroy anything on your mobo or HDDs in the process. Either your PSU died, or something else did, or both.

Never skimp on a power supply, it's the most important component in your rig.

Being an Intel and nVidia fanboy, I'm not familiar with the power requirements of your system, but when you buy a new power supply buy one that will run 2 of your cards, or even 3, and then you should be safe AND futureproofed.

Don't let money be the sole determining factor in which PSU you buy.

Not familiar with the Corsair CX line either, but the HX750 is a very highly regarded PSU. The Corsair Gamer series also get good reviews. I'd go AT LEAST 700 watts, but that's just me :p

I know. When I bought the PSU I was a bit of a noob and relied on a friend to help me. Unfortunately, he wasn't the most informative about power supplies. It was definitely a PSU problem. I did the paperclip test on it, and the fan doesn't move.

I understand that "never skimp on the psu" is an accepted truth around here, but money is an issue for me and I can't afford to buy a power supply that is way more than I need. I'll likely be running mid range single GPUs forever, and I have no interest in overclocking, so I'm looking for a quality mid-range unit.
 
The Antec suggested above will be a good unit for you.
 
The Antec suggested above will be a good unit for you.

I'm looking to use up some gift cards I have at Amazon from returning textbooks. The Neo Eco is $85 on Amazon right now, and I think there are some better units for that kind of money (right?). I'm looking to spend under $90, but it MUST be on amazon. Below is my research so far. I've included Amazon prices and Newegg (NE) prices, to see how they compare. I've also indicated whether modular, efficiency rating, and Amazon prime eligibility.

Corsair TX650 80-Bronze $90 w/ prime Amazon ($80 NE w/mil)
XFX PRO650 80-Bronze $92 no prime Amazon ($82 NE w/mil)
Antec EA-650 Green 80-Bronze $77 w/prime Amazon ($80 NE)
Antec HCG-620 80-Bronze $85 w/prime Amazon (modular) ($93 NE)
Antec Neo Eco 520W 80-Plus $85 no prime Amazon ($64 NE)
Corsair CX600 80-Plus $62 w/prime Amazon ($72 NE)
Seasonic M12II 520 80-Bronze $85 w/prime Amazon (modular) ($76 NE)

I'm thinking the Antec HCG-620 might be the better way to go. It's the same price as the Neo Eco (for me). They both have a single 12V rail, but the HCG has a little more power, is modular, and is 80-Bronze instead of 80-Plus.

The Seasonic M12II is also tempting given their reputation. It has 20A across two 12V rails, but is modular and 80-Bronze.

Finally, the Antec EA-650 Green puts 38A on each of its two 12V rails, is 80-Bronze, and cheaper than the above ones. It's not modular, but I have some extra room in the case for extra cabling.

What do you guys think? The Neo Eco doesn't seem to make sense to me at this price point. Am I wrong? If there are any other models I'm neglecting to look at, I'm open to suggestions, the key is the price on Amazon, however.
 
I'm thinking the Antec HCG-620 might be the better way to go. It's the same price as the Neo Eco (for me). They both have a single 12V rail, but the HCG has a little more power, is modular, and is 80-Bronze instead of 80-Plus.
FYI, you listed the non-modular version of that PSU. The modular version is HCG-620M
The Seasonic M12II is also tempting given their reputation. It has 20A across two 12V rails, but is modular and 80-Bronze.
You're reading the amperage wrong and there's also bit of hidden info. If you look again, that Seasonic has 480W allocated to the +12V rail. That means it has a total of 40A on the +12V rail. And no you do not add up the rails like that. In addition, Seasonic PSUs aren't actually multi-rail: They're usually single-rail.
Finally, the Antec EA-650 Green puts 38A on each of its two 12V rails, is 80-Bronze, and cheaper than the above ones. It's not modular, but I have some extra room in the case for extra cabling.
Again, you're reading the amperage wrong. If you look again, the EA650 has 650W allocated to the 12V rail. As such, it has 54A on the +12V rail.

Personally I'd rather have the higher quality Antec HCG-620M.
 
FYI, you listed the non-modular version of that PSU. The modular version is HCG-620M

You're reading the amperage wrong and there's also bit of hidden info. If you look again, that Seasonic has 480W allocated to the +12V rail. That means it has a total of 40A on the +12V rail. And no you do not add up the rails like that. In addition, Seasonic PSUs aren't actually multi-rail: They're usually single-rail.

Again, you're reading the amperage wrong. If you look again, the EA650 has 650W allocated to the 12V rail. As such, it has 54A on the +12V rail.

Personally I'd rather have the higher quality Antec HCG-620M.

I'm confused. From what you said, I'm thinking that you can't just add up the amperage on two rails and compare it to a single rail. Also, is it true that if they show max wattage for two rails that means it's really one rail??? Is there maybe an article I can read to help me understand all of this (I got through Physics 1 for engineers, but switched after one semester and never got the electrical stuff!).

Thanks for all your help. I ordered the HCG-620M on your recommendation.
 
I'm confused. From what you said, I'm thinking that you can't just add up the amperage on two rails and compare it to a single rail.
Thats correct.
Also, is it true that if they show max wattage for two rails that means it's really one rail???
No.
Is there maybe an article I can read to help me understand all of this (I got through Physics 1 for engineers, but switched after one semester and never got the electrical stuff!).
Yes:
http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1036
http://www.overclock.net/t/738097/psu-review-database
 
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