I know, I know. Tons of this specific question are on the Internet. It's quite common. However, I just want opinions or thoughts on the matter.
Alright. So, as the title says, my PC doesn't start up. When I push the power button on the case, the case LEDs light up, CPU fan, exhaust/intake fans, PSU fan, and GPU fans all start spinning (including my HDD), but nothing happens (my mouse and keyboard don't light up either). Sometimes fans would spin as hard as they can (sounding like a plane about to take off), and sometimes they would start then stop immediately. It alternates between the two randomly.
Now, I tried breadboarding and make-it-small, however, my main problem is, I don't have a motherboard speaker/buzzer, and I can't find one anywhere here. This makes it almost impossible for me to narrow down the culprit.
Despite this, I suspect 3 components: Motherboard, RAM, and PSU.
- My Motherboard is getting old and is starting to malfunction, I guess (50% of such cases the Motherboard is good for garbage);
- My RAM has been problematic ever since I got it, but I have always managed to get it to work. Besides, I had a faulty RAM before and my PC never acted like this;
- PSU is my main culprit. Why? Because of two things: it's a budget one (back when I built this PC I was one of the gullible people who thought "Brand+Cheap = Can't be bad, right?"), and it started misbehaving two weeks ago after a power outage (quite common here). The power went and came before I could react. Then my PSU started emitting a high-pitched electrical noise that soon turned to a long loud squeaking (whistle-like) noise. I tried the paperclip test, PSU ran okay (with the noise), but when I opened it, there was a weird smell I can't quite distinguish myself. It's not burning (I know the smell quite well, the hard way). That smell is there whenever I start the PC and lean close to the chassis. Other than that, everything looked okay. No burning marks, no leakage or weird liquids of any kind. On a similar thread here, someone pointed out that Multimeter tests don't tell you what the +12V rails really deliver if there's two (I have two, so the tests won't tell if one is failing), and to be honest, I monitored the voltages constantly, and my PSU was underdelivering (even below the +/-10% loose tolerance). I probably have a ticking bomb on my desk.
Why don't I just replace it then? Because of what I read on the Internet. I read so many threads, which their OPs changed everything (MoBo, CPU, PSU, and even GPU) then it turns out to be RAM, or changed PSU and it turned out to be the Motherboard (even when it was beeping) and vice versa. My budget is small right now, and I don't want to replace perfectly fine and functional parts of my PC for no reason. That's why I made this thread, to get more thoughts to help me decide.
Oh, God. This stretched itself more than I wanted. Anyway, appreciate any thoughts or opinions.
Alright. So, as the title says, my PC doesn't start up. When I push the power button on the case, the case LEDs light up, CPU fan, exhaust/intake fans, PSU fan, and GPU fans all start spinning (including my HDD), but nothing happens (my mouse and keyboard don't light up either). Sometimes fans would spin as hard as they can (sounding like a plane about to take off), and sometimes they would start then stop immediately. It alternates between the two randomly.
Now, I tried breadboarding and make-it-small, however, my main problem is, I don't have a motherboard speaker/buzzer, and I can't find one anywhere here. This makes it almost impossible for me to narrow down the culprit.
Despite this, I suspect 3 components: Motherboard, RAM, and PSU.
- My Motherboard is getting old and is starting to malfunction, I guess (50% of such cases the Motherboard is good for garbage);
- My RAM has been problematic ever since I got it, but I have always managed to get it to work. Besides, I had a faulty RAM before and my PC never acted like this;
- PSU is my main culprit. Why? Because of two things: it's a budget one (back when I built this PC I was one of the gullible people who thought "Brand+Cheap = Can't be bad, right?"), and it started misbehaving two weeks ago after a power outage (quite common here). The power went and came before I could react. Then my PSU started emitting a high-pitched electrical noise that soon turned to a long loud squeaking (whistle-like) noise. I tried the paperclip test, PSU ran okay (with the noise), but when I opened it, there was a weird smell I can't quite distinguish myself. It's not burning (I know the smell quite well, the hard way). That smell is there whenever I start the PC and lean close to the chassis. Other than that, everything looked okay. No burning marks, no leakage or weird liquids of any kind. On a similar thread here, someone pointed out that Multimeter tests don't tell you what the +12V rails really deliver if there's two (I have two, so the tests won't tell if one is failing), and to be honest, I monitored the voltages constantly, and my PSU was underdelivering (even below the +/-10% loose tolerance). I probably have a ticking bomb on my desk.
Why don't I just replace it then? Because of what I read on the Internet. I read so many threads, which their OPs changed everything (MoBo, CPU, PSU, and even GPU) then it turns out to be RAM, or changed PSU and it turned out to be the Motherboard (even when it was beeping) and vice versa. My budget is small right now, and I don't want to replace perfectly fine and functional parts of my PC for no reason. That's why I made this thread, to get more thoughts to help me decide.
Oh, God. This stretched itself more than I wanted. Anyway, appreciate any thoughts or opinions.
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