Computer automatically powered down, doesn't start

[blackhawkgs]

Think I might have an idea of what it is, but would like some secondhand opinions.

Was just looking through a folder when suddenly my computer shut down. Screen went black and 10-20 seconds later the computer turned off.

Pressing power isn't getting me anywhere. Doesn't start anything; fans don't spin, harddrive doesn't make a noise, etc.

I don't think it's a PSU issue. Despite not starting up, my connected PS4 controller and USB audio device still light up when the PSU is flipped on. And I tried a few things like placing RAM in different slots, starting with one RAM stick and not the other, and tried booting up without the GPU and just going through the motherboard. Still doesn't budge.

At this point, I would have to think something is wrong with the motherboard. Because, if power is getting through, I should at least get some default motherboard messages, correct? I'm just out of ideas on things to try.

It was strange that it took 10-20 seconds to power down, like it was some automated shutdown. Doesn't strike me as a hardware failure, but I don't know at this point. Been like this for a day now.

Build::
CPU- i7 4770
GPU- Radeon R9 290X
Mobo- ASRock Z87 Pro4
PSU- Corsair HX850
RAM- GSkill Ripjaws x2 8GB
Notes:: No overclocking or anything fancy.

 

[AmplifiedLlama]

Think I might have an idea of what it is, but would like some secondhand opinions.

Was just looking through a folder when suddenly my computer shut down. Screen went black and 10-20 seconds later the computer turned off.

Pressing power isn't getting me anywhere. Doesn't start anything; fans don't spin, harddrive doesn't make a noise, etc.

I don't think it's a PSU issue. Despite not starting up, my connected PS4 controller and USB audio device still light up when the PSU is flipped on. And I tried a few things like placing RAM in different slots, starting with one RAM stick and not the other, and tried booting up without the GPU and just going through the motherboard. Still doesn't budge.

At this point, I would have to think something is wrong with the motherboard. Because, if power is getting through, I should at least get some default motherboard messages, correct? I'm just out of ideas on things to try.

It was strange that it took 10-20 seconds to power down, like it was some automated shutdown. Doesn't strike me as a hardware failure, but I don't know at this point. Been like this for a day now.

Build::
CPU- i7 4770
GPU- Radeon R9 290X
Mobo- ASRock Z87 Pro4
PSU- Corsair HX850
RAM- GSkill Ripjaws x2 8GB

This might sound a little obvious, but I've also had issues like this, check the motherboard's power lead to make sure it's connected well on both ends.

 

[blackhawkgs]

This might sound a little obvious, but I've also had issues like this, check the motherboard's power lead to make sure it's connected well on both ends.

Yeah, I just checked power connections to the motherboard and everything is snug and tight.

 

[AmplifiedLlama]

This might sound a little obvious, but I've also had issues like this, check the motherboard's power lead to make sure it's connected well on both ends.

Yeah, I just checked power connections to the motherboard and everything is snug and tight.

That's really weird then, all I can think of is checking every lead.

Also it could possibly be a bad CMOS battery?

 

[blackhawkgs]

This might sound a little obvious, but I've also had issues like this, check the motherboard's power lead to make sure it's connected well on both ends.

Yeah, I just checked power connections to the motherboard and everything is snug and tight.

That's really weird then, all I can think of is checking every lead.
Does your motherboard have a manual start button on it? Or you could possibly short it, to see if there is a loose connection with the start button? But that wouldn't explain why it powered down.

Also it could possibly be a bad CMOS battery?

No manual start button. And you kind of lost me at CMOS battery. How would I check for issues with that? I wouldn't think that would stop everything from starting, but I don't know too much about that.

 

[AmplifiedLlama]

This might sound a little obvious, but I've also had issues like this, check the motherboard's power lead to make sure it's connected well on both ends.

Yeah, I just checked power connections to the motherboard and everything is snug and tight.

That's really weird then, all I can think of is checking every lead.
Does your motherboard have a manual start button on it? Or you could possibly short it, to see if there is a loose connection with the start button? But that wouldn't explain why it powered down.

Also it could possibly be a bad CMOS battery?

No manual start button. And you kind of lost me at CMOS battery. How would I check for issues with that? I wouldn't think that would stop everything from starting, but I don't know too much about that.

The CMOS battery is a round battery, should be in the lower part of your motherboard, it is basically RAM for your bios, so maybe try taking that out for a while to reset your BIOS back to factory state. I wouldn't replace it but maybe resetting the BIOS settings could fix the issue? What get's me stumped is that there is power going to it.
http://ccm.net/faq/625-replacing-the-battery-of-your-motherboard-cmos-battery

 

[blackhawkgs]

This might sound a little obvious, but I've also had issues like this, check the motherboard's power lead to make sure it's connected well on both ends.

Yeah, I just checked power connections to the motherboard and everything is snug and tight.

That's really weird then, all I can think of is checking every lead.
Does your motherboard have a manual start button on it? Or you could possibly short it, to see if there is a loose connection with the start button? But that wouldn't explain why it powered down.

Also it could possibly be a bad CMOS battery?

No manual start button. And you kind of lost me at CMOS battery. How would I check for issues with that? I wouldn't think that would stop everything from starting, but I don't know too much about that.

The CMOS battery is a round battery, should be in the lower part of your motherboard, it is basically RAM for your bios, so maybe try taking that out for a while to reset your BIOS back to factory state. I wouldn't replace it but maybe resetting the BIOS settings could fix the issue? What get's me stumped is that there is power going to it.
http://ccm.net/faq/625-replacing-the-battery-of-your-motherboard-cmos-battery

Ok, going through the manual and I found a Clear CMOS Jumper which "clears and resets the system
parameters to default setup". I don't see the ability to remove the battery itself, but this seems to accomplish the same thing... I assume? I'll give this a shot in a moment.

 

[AmplifiedLlama]

This might sound a little obvious, but I've also had issues like this, check the motherboard's power lead to make sure it's connected well on both ends.

Yeah, I just checked power connections to the motherboard and everything is snug and tight.

That's really weird then, all I can think of is checking every lead.
Does your motherboard have a manual start button on it? Or you could possibly short it, to see if there is a loose connection with the start button? But that wouldn't explain why it powered down.

Also it could possibly be a bad CMOS battery?

No manual start button. And you kind of lost me at CMOS battery. How would I check for issues with that? I wouldn't think that would stop everything from starting, but I don't know too much about that.

The CMOS battery is a round battery, should be in the lower part of your motherboard, it is basically RAM for your bios, so maybe try taking that out for a while to reset your BIOS back to factory state. I wouldn't replace it but maybe resetting the BIOS settings could fix the issue? What get's me stumped is that there is power going to it.
http://ccm.net/faq/625-replacing-the-battery-of-your-motherboard-cmos-battery

Ok, going through the manual and I found a Clear CMOS Jumper which "clears and resets the system
parameters to default setup". I don't see the ability to remove the battery itself, but this seems to accomplish the same thing... I assume? I'll give this a shot in a moment.

Yeah that sounds right, some motherboards don't allow you to change the battery. Hopefully that will fix the issue. Also, when you reset it, plug the VGA or HDMI into the integrated graphics port.

 

[blackhawkgs]

Ok, going through the manual and I found a Clear CMOS Jumper which "clears and resets the system
parameters to default setup". I don't see the ability to remove the battery itself, but this seems to accomplish the same thing... I assume? I'll give this a shot in a moment.

Yeah that sounds right, some motherboards don't allow you to change the battery. Hopefully that will fix the issue. Also, when you reset it, plug the VGA or HDMI into the integrated graphics port.

Didn't yield any results 🙁 Tried the CMOS clearing method explained in the manual, and even found a way to take out the CMOS battery itself for a few minutes, then put back in. Still no dice.

Power is definitely going through, I still have USB devices powered via the board, but no fans are spinning and nothing is starting... it's baffling.

 

[AmplifiedLlama]

Ok, going through the manual and I found a Clear CMOS Jumper which "clears and resets the system
parameters to default setup". I don't see the ability to remove the battery itself, but this seems to accomplish the same thing... I assume? I'll give this a shot in a moment.

Yeah that sounds right, some motherboards don't allow you to change the battery. Hopefully that will fix the issue. Also, when you reset it, plug the VGA or HDMI into the integrated graphics port.

Didn't yield any results 🙁 Tried the CMOS clearing method explained in the manual, and even found a way to take out the CMOS battery itself for a few minutes, then put back in. Still no dice.

Power is definitely going through, I still have USB devices powered via the board, but no fans are spinning and nothing is starting... it's baffling.

That's almost everything I can think of, we are both kind of in the same boat. I can start my computer, but I get no display what so ever, and I also had the same shutdown as you. Kinda weird. I'm thinking of getting a new motherboard, which means I will need to get a new CPU aswell, hopefully with your issue you wont have to do that. But considering what happened with yours, it could possibly be something wrong with your PSU, have you got a spare you could try?

 

[blackhawkgs]

That's almost everything I can think of, we are both kind of in the same boat. I can start my computer, but I get no display what so ever, and I also had the same shutdown as you. Kinda weird. I'm thinking of getting a new motherboard, which means I will need to get a new CPU aswell, hopefully with your issue you wont have to do that. But considering what happened with yours, it could possibly be something wrong with your PSU, have you got a spare you could try?

Thanks for your help regardless. Yeah, I can buy a new motherboard and probably won't need to buy a CPU, but I'd like to narrow things down before I drop that money. Oy, this sucks.

Unfortunately I don't have spare PSU to try (but I might see what I can dig up when I get off work.) Would that even be a possibility though if I have USB devices lighting up that are connected via the motherboard? That seems to indicate to me that power is going through.

 

[blackhawkgs]

Think I can narrow it down a bit more.

Went out and bought a new power supply. Popped it in and had the same result; USB devices light up and indicate power is going through, but nothing boots or starts. Tried a few variations for starting up, some without the GPU, etc. No dice.

Pretty much has to be the motherboard at this point. I don't even know what else to check.

 

[AmplifiedLlama]

That's almost everything I can think of, we are both kind of in the same boat. I can start my computer, but I get no display what so ever, and I also had the same shutdown as you. Kinda weird. I'm thinking of getting a new motherboard, which means I will need to get a new CPU aswell, hopefully with your issue you wont have to do that. But considering what happened with yours, it could possibly be something wrong with your PSU, have you got a spare you could try?

Thanks for your help regardless. Yeah, I can buy a new motherboard and probably won't need to buy a CPU, but I'd like to narrow things down before I drop that money. Oy, this sucks.

Unfortunately I don't have spare PSU to try (but I might see what I can dig up when I get off work.) Would that even be a possibility though if I have USB devices lighting up that are connected via the motherboard? That seems to indicate to me that power is going through.

If you haven't got a spare, I'd recommend testing the PSU. To test the PSU, use a multi-meter and follow this tutorial, it should give you an indication if there is power on each pin, just to rule out that it isn't an issue with the PSU.

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofthetrade/ht/power-supply-test-multimeter.htm - tutorial
http://corbietech.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/ATX_24pin001a1.png - lead diagram

Good luck!

 

[blackhawkgs]

Thanks for your help regardless. Yeah, I can buy a new motherboard and probably won't need to buy a CPU, but I'd like to narrow things down before I drop that money. Oy, this sucks.

Unfortunately I don't have spare PSU to try (but I might see what I can dig up when I get off work.) Would that even be a possibility though if I have USB devices lighting up that are connected via the motherboard? That seems to indicate to me that power is going through.

If you haven't got a spare, I'd recommend testing the PSU. To test the PSU, use a multi-meter and follow this tutorial, it should give you an indication if there is power on each pin, just to rule out that it isn't an issue with the PSU.

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofthetrade/ht/power-supply-test-multimeter.htm - tutorial
http://corbietech.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/ATX_24pin001a1.png - lead diagram

Good luck!

Think you missed my response above, but I went out and bought a new PSU, plugged it in, and have the same issue occurring. So I can pretty much rule out PSU at this point.

 

[AmplifiedLlama]

Thanks for your help regardless. Yeah, I can buy a new motherboard and probably won't need to buy a CPU, but I'd like to narrow things down before I drop that money. Oy, this sucks.

Unfortunately I don't have spare PSU to try (but I might see what I can dig up when I get off work.) Would that even be a possibility though if I have USB devices lighting up that are connected via the motherboard? That seems to indicate to me that power is going through.

If you haven't got a spare, I'd recommend testing the PSU. To test the PSU, use a multi-meter and follow this tutorial, it should give you an indication if there is power on each pin, just to rule out that it isn't an issue with the PSU.

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofthetrade/ht/power-supply-test-multimeter.htm - tutorial
http://corbietech.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/ATX_24pin001a1.png - lead diagram

Good luck!

Think you missed my response above, but I went out and bought a new PSU, plugged it in, and have the same issue occurring. So I can pretty much rule out PSU at this point.

Sorry, yes I did miss the post.
And sorry for the late reply, was on holiday.

I just realized you have 2 sticks of RAM, take out 1, see if you can boot. If not, try the other. If that does nothing then the only thing left is the motherboard.