Is it my power supply that's the problem?

N

Necrophantasia

n00b
Joined
Nov 29, 2011
Messages
17
Hello!

I'm constructing a new PC, but I've never ever had so much trouble.

Spec:
Silverstone Sugo SG07
Asus Z68M-ITX
600W PSU 80+bronze rating from Silverstone as well.

What happened is as follows:

1. Put computer together.
2. Plug it, in and it posts and I get into the BIOS.
3. CPU temps reading around 38-39 degrees. MB around 32-33 degrees.
4. I leave it for about 10 minutes to see if the temperatures are stable. Computer turns off on its own.
5. PC will no longer turn on. It turns on for about 0.5 seconds and turns off immediately.

Troubleshooting: I disconnect EVERYTHING. Plug in power switch, 24 pin ATX connector from PSU, RAM, CPU, and the stock heat sink. I leave out the 4 pin ATX connector intentionally. Computer does not POST (of course), but the fans run.

I plug in the 4 pin connector, and everything is dead. PC won't turn on except for 0.5 seconds and immediately shuts down.

I repeated it a few times to make sure that this is the case.

What is the problem?
1. Power supply?
2. CPU?
3. motherboard?

Please help me! I'm building a PC while living in a foreign country, so I don't actually have any spare parts lying around to swap in and out. All I have is what's in my PC right now.
 
Last power supply that failed on me did pretty much the same thing.

The power LED on the MOBO was light up like normal.

Turning it on would spin all the fans including the CPU fan for a moment, the LED by the CPU would light and then everything would go dark.

I also had the smell of burning capacitor flooding the room when the PSU first went as well. The old one still stinks of it.

I imagine if it was the CPU you wouldn't get any power at all, though I dont know that for sure.

Have you tried reseating the RAM and CPU?
 
You can try jumping the power supply if you feel comfortable with that. I think it could be some mismatched or bad components. Try using just one stick of RAM and powering up.
 
That exact same thing happened to me when the mosfets for the CPU blew on the motherboard. It can turn on everything, but not post, with the CPU power disconnected. Once the CPU power was connected, it would no longer turn on. It would just power up for a split second and then remain off.

Based on my personal experience, I would say it's your motherboard. It can also be that your CPU somehow fried itself. Or your power supply is somehow failing to deliver power to the CPU (highly unlikely). Check your motherboard and see if one of the mosfets blew. If you have a heatsink on the mosfets, you would need to take the heatsink off. And it might be hard to tell, you may need a flashlight and a magnifying glass.
 
Thank you for the responses.

Im leaning towards my power supply being broken because of that sudden shut down I had. And I didn't hear any popping sounds or smell anything on the motherboard.

Also, the psu is the only thing that I have that's not from a known manufacturer (stupid reason, I know).

Nonetheless. I'll try giving the board a visual inspection. Im not convinced the CPU is the issue though.
 
Maybe I'm misunderstading you, but Silverstone is not an off-brand. They are reputable in the hardware world, so your broken unit (assuming it is broken) is just a matter of bad luck.
 
Necrophantasia said:
Also, the psu is the only thing that I have that's not from a known manufacturer.
Click to expand...

LOL! WHAT?!?! SilverStone?

What JoeBob said.

The Sugo comes with a rather decent PSU manufactured for SilverStone by FSP.
 
Hmm... I didn't know Silverstone made the PSU for this case. Since it's unmarked, I assumed it was just some generic made in China power supply. Good to know that it's actually a nice PSU.

I have no idea if it's really the PSU or the MB that's broken. At the moment, it really seems like it could be either.

In any case, I RMA'ed the PSU. Hopefully, it really is the PSU that's broken and not the motherboard, so I can hurry up and get my system running.
 
Necrophantasia said:
I assumed it was just some generic made in China power supply.
Click to expand...

While not generic... it is made in China. Then again, all but one brand is made in China. ;)

I noticed you did your test with the RAM installed. Take the RAM out. Seriously. You should be able to power up the board and keep it on with only the motherboard and CPU. No RAM, drives, etc. See what happens.
 
I would yank the mobo out of the case and power up everything outside of the case with one ram stick and nothing else plugged in to see if it stays on. Removing the mobo will eliminate any possible grounding issues or pinched cables you might not see. Also what heatsink do you have? Some allow for a lot of pressure that can actually damage a board if you are not careful. I would go ahead and clear the CMOS as well. Good luck!
 
Copyright said:
I would yank the mobo out of the case and power up everything outside of the case with one ram stick and nothing else plugged in to see if it stays on. Removing the mobo will eliminate any possible grounding issues or pinched cables you might not see. Also what heatsink do you have? Some allow for a lot of pressure that can actually damage a board if you are not careful. I would go ahead and clear the CMOS as well. Good luck!
Click to expand...

Prior to RMA'ing the PSU, I tried all of that to no avail. I don't have an extra PSU so I can be sure the PSU is the problem, but from what it looks like in this thread it's probably more likely that my MB is the problem :(.
 
FML.

Ok, for the problem is not with the PSU. I RMA'ed it and they were actually able to verify that it works fine.

Guess now I get to RMA the motherboard. Building a pc from scratch without spare parts lying around is really a tough gig.
 
Indeed. I know how you feel. My system is the only i7 x58 system in my house, even among all my cousins, so if anything fails, I can't swap parts. All of the other systems in my household are all AM2+/AM3, so if one fails I can quickly troubleshoot it.
 
ive been in this situation before. good thing i live 10mins from a microcenter :x

good luck!
 
Thanks for all the help guys. You guys are fantastic.

Alas, I replaced the motherboard. Now the computer turns on but I get no video output no matter what I do. I guess both the processor and the motherboard were broken. The time when my computer actually turned out properly seems like a distant dream.

Again, thanks guys. I think I'm just going to return everything. I'm never going to build a computer again.
 
Don't give up because something bad happened once. Building computers is fun ;) you just gotta get used to troubleshooting. And bad things do happen.
 
Necrophantasia said:
Thanks for all the help guys. You guys are fantastic.

Alas, I replaced the motherboard. Now the computer turns on but I get no video output no matter what I do. I guess both the processor and the motherboard were broken. The time when my computer actually turned out properly seems like a distant dream.

Again, thanks guys. I think I'm just going to return everything. I'm never going to build a computer again.
Click to expand...

Don't give up. Sometimes you have to go through the knocks, even though it sucks. Believe me, if the worst problem you're having is faulty computer components, some people in the world would give their *LIFE* to have that as the worst concern, when some people don't even get to live without being killed by someone else, or have to live with a crippling disease. Be lucky you're in the condition that you're in.

You don't get a "beep" when you turn on the motherboard, right?

No video output only means one of these things, usually:

1) CPU is dead (but this is the least likely possibility; the CPU can only be dead if whatever killed the motherboard fried the CPU; but RMA that to eliminate that as the factor, but in your case, the possibility is higher than normal).
2) Video card is dead (some dead video cards can prevent a motherboard from even making it to POST; I've seen it happen. It shouldn't happen (you should at least get the VGA error beep or something) but it does.
3) Motherboard BIOS or some component is dead
4) ATX +12v 4 pin isn't plugged in.
5) Faulty RAM, RAM dimm is dead, or bad Ram socket.
 
Wow, thank you for all your support.

I guess I should keep working at this computer. My motherboard is a mini-ITX board, so it doesn't come equipped with the a speaker. All I'm observing now is:

1. No POST.
2. No video output whatsoever.
3. All fans spinning up normally and the computer is actually "on" for a change.


1) CPU is possibly dead. The previous board did have an issue with the 4pin power connector so maybe whatever circuit issues there also destroyed the CPU.
2) Can't be. I'm not getting video output with either the onboard graphics from the Z68 nor my Radeon HD 6950.
3) Hopefully not :(. I just got this new board from the manufacturer. I don't have anything plugged in, not even the RAM.
4) It's definitely plugged in.
5) I tried all the configurations possible. I have 2 sticks of RAM. I tried both of the sticks in either socket, and also with no RAM in at all. I still get nothing.
 
No video output from onboard graphics is a likely indicator of your CPU also being dead, as the onboard graphics is integrated on the CPU.

mini-ITX has nothing to do with having a speaker whatsoever. Motherboards have a header called "speaker," and usually your case should either have a speaker wire to plug into that, or a separate mini-speaker to plug into the board.
 
Thanks so much again guys.

I finally got the PC working. Turns out it wasn't the PSU at all!

Motherboard was defective, and that may have indirectly led to the CPU to fail. I was finally able to replace both items, and now I have a working computer :D.

Thanks again, especially you Tsumi!
 
Good job man! Building a PC has its ups and downs but when you get it right it is so worth it!
 
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