PC randomly won't turn on

[Robbie]

Hey all,

Long time no see, hope you are all well! I can't believe it's been about 2 years since I was last here when ordering my PC, good to see the same faces still around.

I've come to seek wisdom from the hivemind, recently I'm having a really weird issue and just wanted to put it here encase someone could give me any idea what might be wrong because I'm stumped!

So, story time:

The PC was working perfectly fine, one night I was doing a shut down - Windows was doing it usual "hey, there's updates, let me install them for you!" - The usual, so I pressed update and shutdown then went to bed. (I'm not sure this is relevant, but just something I noticed)

The next morning, I go to turn it on and nothing... Power button seems unresponsive, no lights turn on, no fans start. However all my accessories (keyboard, headset, microphone) are getting power which are all plugged into the motherboard. I do the usual turn off power, drain power from system, power back, still nothing. I also try different power cable and socket but no luck either. I unplug PC and put my old PC on my desk and it starts perfectly fine, so I'm guessing it's a PC fault here not my setup.

I contacted PCS, we try to reset CMOS but still doesn't get power or boot. We arrange for an RMA, it goes back and a few days after they have it they report that there's no issues! It turned on fine and they are doing 100 x reboots and testing (they also cleaned the inside of my PC, updated drivers and BIO - fantastic!) - they also fixed my LCD screen on my AIO which never worked from day 1 but I never managed to fix (they just replaced the screen).

So, after about a week in RMA it gets returned to me (nice and fast process at the moment). I get it back, put it on my desk and low and behold it starts! Perfect! I still don't know what the issue was but it's working so I don't care. I shut down that day, next day I press the power... it works too! Okay no worries, then the next day I do the same and boom same issue as previously - no lights, no fans. PC isn't trying to boot, it's giving power to accessories again and the AIO LCD just has it's default error sign (I assume this is normal when the PC isn't even on). I contacted the RMA tech who worked on it and he said it was strange and to return it again

Well.. I'm confused and have no idea what is happening, do you guys have any ideas please?

TLDR; things I've already tried:

- Reseat RAM
- Reset CMOS
- New power cable
- Alternative wall power socket
- Unplugged all accessories
- Checked all cables are secure (No reason they shouldn't be as all I did was shutdown one night and then try to turn on the next day!)
- Prayed and cried (not really, but willing to do so if it might help)

Thanks guys, my spec is below:

Case
FRACTAL MESHIFY 2 LIGHT TEMPERED GLASS
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D 16 Core CPU (4.2GHz-5.7GHz/144MB w/3D V-Cache/AM5)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX X670E-E GAMING WIFI (WIFI 6E, DDR5, PCIe 5.0) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair DOMINATOR PLATINUM RGB DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
NONE, I ALREADY HAVE A GRAPHICS CARD - It's a RX 7900xtx
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SEAGATE FIRECUDA 530 GEN 4 PCIe NVMe (up to 7300MB/R, 6900MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W RMx SERIES™ - MODULAR 80 PLUS GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR iCUE H150i ELITE LCD XT RGB CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
FAST TRACK 5 WORKING DAY DISPATCH
Welcome Book
PCSpecialist Welcome Book - United Kingdom & Republic of Ireland
Logo Branding
PCSpecialist Logo
Price: £0.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/XCCkgE2dTE/

 

[Robbie]

To add a bit more to my story, my PC was unplugged for 3 days - and then I rang PCS on Friday last week and while on the phone I plugged in the PC to do a final test before arranging another RMA and it turned on... I left it running all weekend and its been perfectly fine.

However, I'm sure it's going to have an issue again at some point when I do a shutdown and then try to cold boot. I can't just leave it running all day and night to not have a start-up issue

 

[BlessedSquirrel]

Really sorry we missed this, just finishing up work and will have a proper look

 

[Robbie]

No worries Spyder, but thanks appriciate it.

I turned it off last night, and it's powered up this evening. So a step in the right direction but I know probably one day this week it just won't boot again for whatever reason, I just don't know what I need to check/replace so I don't keep having the issue - it has to be PSU or MB but as I said it's worked all over the weekend fine and being power stressed.

I know I've rambled abit so I'll summarise:

When PC powers on everything works fine.
Issue - from cold boot, it will randomly not turn on - power to accessories but no power to start boot (no lights on motherboard or fans start - power buttons appear to do absolutely nothing).
Solution: Currently it seems to just be a waiting game of a few days and then it will boot again! Never seen anything like it before and I've worked in IT for 15 years

 

[BlessedSquirrel]

No worries Spyder, but thanks appriciate it.

I turned it off last night, and it's powered up this evening. So a step in the right direction but I know probably one day this week it just won't boot again for whatever reason, I just don't know what I need to check/replace so I don't keep having the issue - it has to be PSU or MB but as I said it's worked all over the weekend fine and being power stressed.

I know I've rambled abit so I'll summarise:

When PC powers on everything works fine.
Issue - from cold boot, it will randomly not turn on - power to accessories but no power to start boot (no lights on motherboard or fans start - power buttons appear to do absolutely nothing).
Solution: Currently it seems to just be a waiting game of a few days and then it will boot again! Never seen anything like it before and I've worked in IT for 15 years

That is an odd issue.

The way I’ve always seen it is:

Since it does work intermittently, and seems to run fine when it does, I would guess the mobo is ok

If there is no power after button pressed at all, no lights on board - PSU issue, likely the 24pin supply to the board itself, could be any of the rails

The fact the peripherals light, I think they run off the 5v rail but could be wrong there

If lights on the board come on, but it doesn’t proceed to boot - CPU issue, or power supply specifically to the cpu

Just wondering, in case it’s some weird issue with the button connection on the case shorting on the board intermittently, have you tried pressing the start button on the board at those times?

And realise you likely would have said if there was, but there’s definitely no q-code read out when it fails to power?

 

[Robbie]

That is an odd issue.

The way I’ve always seen it is:

Since it does work intermittently, and seems to run fine when it does, I would guess the mobo is ok

If there is no power after button pressed at all, no lights on board - PSU issue, likely the 24pin supply to the board itself, could be any of the rails

The fact the peripherals light, I think they run off the 5v rail but could be wrong there

If lights on the board come on, but it doesn’t proceed to boot - CPU issue, or power supply specifically to the cpu

thanks for the reply mate, yeah thats kinda where my thinking was going too. - yeah no power lights at all come on. I've checked the 24 pin and it seems to be on very tight so don't think anything is loose there.

Just wondering, in case it’s some weird issue with the button connection on the case shorting on the board intermittently, have you tried pressing the start button on the board at those times?

This was the first thing I tried whien issue initially happened, but even directly pressing the start button on the mb does nothing.

And realise you likely would have said if there was, but there’s definitely no q-code read out when it fails to power?

Nope, the q-code never turns on to give a reading.

 

[BlessedSquirrel]

thanks for the reply mate, yeah thats kinda where my thinking was going too. - yeah no power lights at all come on. I've checked the 24 pin and it seems to be on very tight so don't think anything is loose there.



This was the first thing I tried whien issue initially happened, but even directly pressing the start button on the mb does nothing.



Nope, the q-code never turns on to give a reading.

You can get a really decent PSU tester fairly reasonably to be conclusive, my guess is the 24pin has some kind of intermittent short that’s tripping protection mode, the question that remains is why protection mode isn't releasing after a cold start, that's the really odd thing. Perhaps it is quite a majorly flawed PSU. Or something entirely unrelated...

This one is industry recognised, and under £35, plus ATX 3 compatible

Dr. Power III

Designed from the ground-up, it supports every ATX power supply available today up to ATX12V v3.1.

uk.thermaltake.com