My PC turned off while I was using it, and refuses to turn back on. The power light on the GPU is on, and so are the lights on all the connected USB devices, so it seems to be getting power.
When I press the power button, the CPU fan seems like it's starting to turn, and then immediately stops. The chasis fans don't move at all. The MOBO light also turns on for a second and then off, but the on/off light near the power button turns on and stays on, as if the PC is working, but it's not (all other lights are off and fans don't turn).
Any ideas on how I can pinpoint the problem and fix it?
3 Answers
This can be hard to troubleshoot without more information.
If you recently installed a new hardware component, not USB, try removing that first.
You can also open the case and check for dust. Dust is notorious for causing issues. Use an aircan (or shopvac in blow mode, just don't put it too close to the fans or risk burning out the fan!) to remove any dust from the fans, chips, etc.
If you have another PSU, try that next. Some of the newer classes (e.g. bronze vs. gold) of PSUs are finicky and can fail but still supply power.
The old tried and true method is: disconnect everything non-essential from the system and test it (that means removing all but video card, if it doesn't have a built-in, all hard drives, peripherals, etc).
Rinse and repeat by adding one component at a time if it boots until you find the culprit. But I'd bet dollars to donuts it's your PSU.
This method also helps fix if something got loose when you reconnect things. In some situations, I've found re-seating RAM to resolve similar issues as well, but it's most likely not the problem as it's getting power but not booting. With bad RAM or unseated RAM, it will boot then BSOD when Windows starts up.
Lastly, if your board has a design defect that can be a contributing factor (aka the M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 CPU seating defect which I naturally can't find the link on anymore). This also applies to bad caps. If after removing everything but PSU and videocard, the thing still doesn't boot, get a flashlight out and look at the motherboard caps to ensure none of them have blown.
And for edification: holding the power button for 12 seconds will power it off for ATX motherboards, in case you unplug the keyboard.
2Everything was perfect yesterday and this morning came the problem mentioned above.
However I found the problem was the power going to wall outlets was short in voltage and therefore the PC wouldn't turn on.
Perhaps check your voltage outputs on your outlets before playing around with hardware.
The issue ended up having to do with CPU cooling. It's strange because usually when it overheats you can turn it back on a few minutes later, and at worst it will overheat again.
In my case it took a few hours before I could turn it on again, and I saw that the CPU was running a bit hot even when idle. I reapplied new thermal paste and numbers were back to normal, haven't had another shutdown since.
