Is it my power supply?

[mendozer87]

I've been trying to use my desktop for the first time in a year (keep desktop at parents house when i visit) and i noticed these problems in this order:

1. the power switch on the back was off. when i turn it on, the power supply comes on, not controllable by front power button.
2. i can't turn it off with front power button (even if i hold it for a long time)
3. seldomly the reset works and it boots up
4. it'll freeze then the screen goes black and the fan stays on.
5. I have two fans, the power supply, and an adjustable thermatech fan over my chipset. Both never turn off
6. after going into the BIOS to change things, it froze up and i had to turn it off by switching off the back power switch.

I'm thinking of these scenarios: my PSU is done; my BIOS is telling the psu to never turn off; my RAM is going bad.

Am I close with those guesses or does someone have a better idea?

thanks

 

[brinks]

I think it's either the motherboard or psu. Do you have another psu/computer to test if it's the psu?

 

[mendozer87]

I can go to my mom's office i think there's a spare psu there, or a tower. I haven't done any minor building in a year and major (whole computer) in like 6 years. I'm a bit rusty in these matters and I'll probably need some advice for what's compatible with my older stuff. So I can just swap out the psu in my tower and test it. If it's fine, then it's my power right?

 

[patonb]

Yup thats the first and best option.

We're here if you need any help.

 

[mendozer87]

i tried swapping out my psu with an older psu from a dell i had. i couldnt even take the psu out b/c of the antec frame's bar. I'd have to take out the mobo, which I didn't feel like doing today. Also, my psu is 350 W, the older one is 250. I don't remember why 350 was chosen, is there a way to tell the system's needed power?

on a side note, i cleaned out about a year of dust collection so will test run the computer again tonight

nope still cant get psu to turn off, other than flipping back switch. I reset the RAM, cleaned everything, etc. Does this mean its absolutely psu issue and I should just buy a replacement or could it be BIOS related?

i'm still getting beeping when i try to turn comp on, with black screen (long 2 sec beep with 4 sec rest repeating)

 

[patonb]

Beep codes are your answer:
Computer POST and beep codes

Also check you switches... Hmm, you don't shut down if you click shut down in windows?

 

[mendozer87]

well i cant even get it to turn on anymore. and when it did, it would run for about 10 mins then go black and shut off. I know the computer's off because monitor goes off as well as a light on the tower, but the fans dont turn off.

for the BIOS, I looked into these codes before. I don't know which BIOS i'm running. what's a "short beep"? Mine is a long 1 second beep with 4 seconds rest. so it's either an:

AMI - 1 short = RAM refresh failure
Award- not 1 long, 2 short = RAM failure
IBM - repeating short beep = no power, loose card, or short

so 2/3 say RAM and the other says maybe short. I'm going to try pulling one RAM stick out at a time and reboot. If all three fail to boot, I can conclude that it's the psu and not the RAM right? I can't imagine all three just crapped out

 

[Peter.Cort]

1. the power switch on the back was off. when i turn it on, the power supply comes on, not controllable by front power button.

If the whole computer turns on (which is what I think you mean by this) it's a setting in your motherboards bios that allows the computer to 'auto-on' after a power loss, which is a rather ambiguous setting. A 'power loss' can be anything from a power outage, power surge, or even if you just hard power off the pc.

2. i can't turn it off with front power button (even if i hold it for a long time)
3. seldomly the reset works and it boots up

Have you checked the button connections on the motherboard? To test if it's the power button or the board, find the 2 pins on the motherboard and just close the circuit by using a flathead screw driver on both pins. If it starts up/shuts off then it's the power button, same with the reset button.

4. it'll freeze then the screen goes black and the fan stays on.
5. I have two fans, the power supply, and an adjustable thermatech fan over my chipset. Both never turn off

What might be happening here, is the motherboard is touching the case somewhere. If you've ever dabbled in water cooling, to bleed the loop of air, you don't put everything in the case and run the thing, then stop to move it around, and start it up again. What you can do is connect the circuit in the PSU by connecting the main power and ground wires in the 12 pin ATX cable, and it'll push out power. Normally for this to happen when the 12 pin ATX cable is connected to the motherboard, the board is touching the case somewhere which will keep the PSU on. Or there is something that's gone wonky in the PSU that's causing the current to go even when the computer is 'switched' off.

6. after going into the BIOS to change things, it froze up and i had to turn it off by switching off the back power switch.

This seems consistant with the issue of the computer freezing when it turns on, which could be the mobo or the ram.

 

[mendozer87]

I finally got it to boot once after removing the second RAM stick and i went into my BIOS (Award, now i know) and checked some things out. But once was the only time. And now just typing this, the pc was off, but the fans were going. They just went slower and slower and shut off.

If the whole computer turns on (which is what I think you mean by this) it's a setting in your motherboards bios that allows the computer to 'auto-on' after a power loss, which is a rather ambiguous setting. A 'power loss' can be anything from a power outage, power surge, or even if you just hard power off the pc.

No windows isn't on. just the two fans.


Have you checked the button connections on the motherboard? To test if it's the power button or the board, find the 2 pins on the motherboard and just close the circuit by using a flathead screw driver on both pins. If it starts up/shuts off then it's the power button, same with the reset button.

There's a "I" and "II" unplugged, but the rest are in well. I don't know which is which at this point as there are a bunch coming from the front of the case for the LEDs.


What might be happening here, is the motherboard is touching the case somewhere. If you've ever dabbled in water cooling, to bleed the loop of air, you don't put everything in the case and run the thing, then stop to move it around, and start it up again. What you can do is connect the circuit in the PSU by connecting the main power and ground wires in the 12 pin ATX cable, and it'll push out power. Normally for this to happen when the 12 pin ATX cable is connected to the motherboard, the board is touching the case somewhere which will keep the PSU on. Or there is something that's gone wonky in the PSU that's causing the current to go even when the computer is 'switched' off.

water cooling? I've never done any of that. other than the obvious screw connections, nothing touches the mobo of the case. even the wires touch maybe graphics card, etc, but no hardware on the board itself.


This seems consistant with the issue of the computer freezing when it turns on, which could be the mobo or the ram.

oh and there's no auto on set in the BIOS. I launched again into BIOS and it worked, but the fan is still on after exiting. After exiting BIOS, nothing on the screen. First try to boot up after exiting: fail, no BIOS beep. second: fail. third: fail. After giving up for 5 minutes, the fan shut off again. Because it's now shutting off, I'm leaning away from psu issue to software or even RAM, but I could get it to boot a couple times without the middle RAM stick.

I'm curious why the fan slows and stops after 5 min of the pc being off.


plugging the third RAM stick in again on a whim let it boot up. but now I get this "secondary IDE channel no 80 conductor cable installed" upon my startup.

Other things to note: it says memory testing is OK, it says to enter CPU soft menu, where I didn't change anything before. anyways, i reset to defaults, and now i'm booting up fine. I did all my software updates, then it eventually shut down and then another 5 minutes for the fans. I find it so weird that they take that much longer to shut off. The BIOS settings aren't making it do that in terms of cpu temperature.

 

[Peter.Cort]

What could be happening is the capacitors aren't discharging their power when you shut it down or it's an issue between the mobo and psu and one of them isn't talking to the other saying that they don't need power and so the PSU is still sending current to the mobo.

Judging by that error, it sounds as if the mobo has gone off the deep end, because there's no reason that it should pop up with an IDE drive error on the secondary channel, that's just odd.