Odd Scenario - Please help in diagnosis and solution

L

lmnop

Weaksauce
Joined
Jul 12, 2006
Messages
74
Hello all. I am a bit of an odd situation and I am a little desperate to get it resolved.

I have a PC that I built in 2006. I boot it up 2 nights a week to play an old video game and I have been doing this without ANY issues for the past 4 years. For various reasons, I need/want to keep this setup to play this particular game.

A couple weeks ago I physically moved the PC in question and that is when the problem began. The first time I attempted to boot it up after the move, the fans spun up for about 1 second/1 rotation, then everything died down. I took the cover off and noticed a 3-pin connector with 1 blue and 1 black wire was disconnected from the mother board in the for the PSU FAN connector. I reconnected this and it booted up.

However, later that night and going forward over the past couple weeks, the PC will NOT boot up when I hit the power button on the front panel. Same thing will happen, press power, fans spin for 1 second/1 rotation, system goes down. Subsequent presses of the power button produce no action/no fan spin. I see nothing on the monitor and there are no beeps.

The only way I can get the system to boot up is to do the following procedure: Turn the PSU off using the rocker switch on the PSU itself; Hold the front panel power button for 10-15 seconds; Turn on the PSU via the switch in the back; Hit the power button normally. System boots up and everything runs fine for the duration of the night, 4-5 hours. I can restart and the system stays fine. After being on for 4-5 hours I even powered it down for a couple minutes and then powered it back on and it came up fine. However, this morning I tried to power it on normally and it did not come on.

I never had ANY of the problems described above prior to moving the machine. When the machine was moved, I would say it was done carefully. It was upright the entire time, may have encountered a few bumps.

What could this be? Is it a bad PSU, or a bad cap on the motherboard somewhere? I triple checked all connectors. I even cleared the BIOS (not sure why). The only thing that works seemed to be the procedure described above. When I do that the machine has been working as expected. Since I do have to hold the power button like that while the PSU is off, it seems like a capacitor type of thing? But I really don't know what to look for, which is why I seek help, and I also don't know if its fixable/addressable.



Machine specs: ASUS M2N-E motherboard, ANTEC TruePower 2.0 550W PSU, AMD Athlon 4200+, 2GB Corsair XMS2, nVidia 7900GT.

TL;DR: Have an older PC from 2006. Physically moved its location (somewhat gentle, upright whole time). Now when booting the PC for first time, fans will spin for 1 second/revolution, then everything stops. Subsequent pushes of power button do nothing. To start PC successfully I can turn off PSU via switch on back, hold power button on front panel for 10-15 secs, turn PSU switch back on, hit power button and it boots normal.

Any input is appreciated. Thanks
 
If the system were mine, I would first try to see if it is a grounding issue and remove the motherboard from the case. The second thing I might try would be the BIOS battery.
 
Just rebuild it and give it a good clean in the process.

There will be all manner of dust, small particles and possibly some corrosion in the electrical joints.
Once they move slightly some of them can develop a bad connection.
Its not surprising.
 
While Nenu is right that the system could use a solid cleaning and rebuild, part of your issue is probably related to that PSU:

The Truepower I and II series as well as the Smartpower series were well known for their above average death rates due to a poor choice in caps and cooling design. In more specific terms, Antec/CWT specified/used caps (Fuhjyyu caps) that did not respond well to heat. Unfortunately, Antec made the decision to have the PSU fan only ramp at really high temps in an effort to keep the PSU quiet. However, just medium to high temps were enough to screw up the caps so really high temps were murderous. Over time, this degraded the quality and performance of those PSU series.

So I recommend replacing the PSU, especially if you hear a squeal, whine, or any odd noise coming from the PSU. Those are usually the first signs of those particular PSU lines dying. So if you do hear a squeal, whine, or any odd noise, that's enough grounds to replace the PSU.
 
I had this same 1 second thing happen to my system about 3 years ago. I ended up buying a psu tester for $5 on eBay and determined that my PSU was fine but my motherboard was failing.

I never tried what you did with the power held to empty capacitors.. wish I had of and could have give you an idea.

Good luck!
 
Thanks for the quick responses, everyone. I think I will try a thorough rebuild/clean as my first step as suggested. Unplug everything, take everything out, blow it out, and rebuild. I won't go as far as to take the heatsink/fan off the CPU.

I have not heard any unusual noises coming from the PSU prior to the move, nor now after the move and issues. It is quiet and once it boots up, everything works fine as far as I can tell. Again, I felt that the moving of the PC was relatively gentle, but I guess the slightest bump could have done something.

I do have a "spare" PSU I could try if the clean/rebuild does not help. I purchased a Corsair AX750 for the PC I built in 2011, but the AX750 had very audible coil whine with my setup. I ended up just getting a different PSU and keeping the AX750 as a backup. I don't remember what scenarios I tried, but I thought I determined it had something to do with my GPU, GTX 570. Maybe when using onboard video it did not whine, but with the card in it did, and under stress testing/load it whined louder. Worst case scenario I can try the AX750 to replace the TruePower 2.0, provided it fits in the case, Antec P180B, and does not whine/isn't defective.

I will report back after I have done the cleaning in the next couple days.
 
lmnop said:
Worst case scenario I can try the AX750 to replace the TruePower 2.0, provided it fits in the case, Antec P180B, and does not whine/isn't defective.
Click to expand...
That's the best case scenario. An AX750 with coil whine is still a far far better PSU than Truepower 2.0 even if that Truepower 2.0 was brand new. That's how relatively low quality those Truepower 2.0 PSUs these days.

Years ago, I mentioned hearing a buzzing or faint whine coming from the Antec Truepower 2.0 I had at the time to Antec Customer Support. That was more than enough reason for them to issue a RMA and actually upgrade me to a whole better quality PSU. That happened to several other users as well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top