- Oct 24, 2013
- 24
- 0
- 10,520
Hi everyone! I'll try to make this short, but no promises. 😉
I posted here last year about my girlfriend's computer randomly restarting despite her having a new PSU. The values in the BIOS were a bit off, with 4.8V in the 5V rail, even though we still don't know if it was related to the problem in the first place. In the end, we were advised to get a replacement PSU, and we also got a new CPU, motherboard and RAM sticks, and the random reboots problem got solved, albeit with the 4.8V still showing in the new BIOS. Oh well, it works, right?
Unfortunately, about two months ago, her computer started not booting anymore when pressing the Power button. At first, you'd just have to press it a couple of times for it to work; then it went to half a dozen times; then to more. It wouldn't happen all the time, though, and once the computer started, there was no further problem to report.
We went on vacation for ten days during which she didn't use her computer, and when we came back, the computer just didn't want to boot anymore. After much cursing, we brought it to a repairman who said that not only the new PSU is done for, but either the new motherboard or the new CPU (or perhaps both!) were also not working properly anymore. He couldn't tell what had gone wrong, though!
We could start asking for all of the components to be replaced under warranty, but I've got the feeling that it wouldn't solve the underlying problem. We're really not sure what's going on; could it be an electricity problem? The reason I ask is 1/ because of the 4.8V issue (how come it showed up as such in two different BIOS with two different PSUs?), and 2/ because the power in our room has had problems on other outlets in the past, including possibly frying a mobile phone and turning on and off a touch lamp randomly.
Perhaps more telling, I also had, on my own computer, rebooting problems when I first moved into this room, over two years ago. I had to change the PSU, which made me switch from my French power board to a UK one. I don't know if that has to do with the issue though, because both my French and UK power boards are surge-protected. However, my girlfriend's computer is also surge-protected, although we don't know well because... we don't know much about surge protection I guess?
In case it also matters, some of the components in her computer are from Australia, where she is originally from, including the screen, which is plugged in using an adapter. The screen seems fine though.
So, as you can see, I'm at a loss when it comes to diagnosing the problem and I'm afraid to rebuild it and see the same problem show up after a few months again. Could it be a power problem, and if so, is there a definite way of both diagnosing it and safeguarding against it? Could it be the problems come from a different issue altogether?
As for the specs of said computer:
Z170-GAMING K3
i5-6500
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4
GTX 560 Ti (which, in addition to being old, causes weird visual artifacts on the screen sometimes; it's always done so, though... but still probably overdue for an upgrade)
Corsair RM-750i
Windows 10
Thank you so very much for any help you could give us!
I posted here last year about my girlfriend's computer randomly restarting despite her having a new PSU. The values in the BIOS were a bit off, with 4.8V in the 5V rail, even though we still don't know if it was related to the problem in the first place. In the end, we were advised to get a replacement PSU, and we also got a new CPU, motherboard and RAM sticks, and the random reboots problem got solved, albeit with the 4.8V still showing in the new BIOS. Oh well, it works, right?
Unfortunately, about two months ago, her computer started not booting anymore when pressing the Power button. At first, you'd just have to press it a couple of times for it to work; then it went to half a dozen times; then to more. It wouldn't happen all the time, though, and once the computer started, there was no further problem to report.
We went on vacation for ten days during which she didn't use her computer, and when we came back, the computer just didn't want to boot anymore. After much cursing, we brought it to a repairman who said that not only the new PSU is done for, but either the new motherboard or the new CPU (or perhaps both!) were also not working properly anymore. He couldn't tell what had gone wrong, though!
We could start asking for all of the components to be replaced under warranty, but I've got the feeling that it wouldn't solve the underlying problem. We're really not sure what's going on; could it be an electricity problem? The reason I ask is 1/ because of the 4.8V issue (how come it showed up as such in two different BIOS with two different PSUs?), and 2/ because the power in our room has had problems on other outlets in the past, including possibly frying a mobile phone and turning on and off a touch lamp randomly.
Perhaps more telling, I also had, on my own computer, rebooting problems when I first moved into this room, over two years ago. I had to change the PSU, which made me switch from my French power board to a UK one. I don't know if that has to do with the issue though, because both my French and UK power boards are surge-protected. However, my girlfriend's computer is also surge-protected, although we don't know well because... we don't know much about surge protection I guess?
In case it also matters, some of the components in her computer are from Australia, where she is originally from, including the screen, which is plugged in using an adapter. The screen seems fine though.
So, as you can see, I'm at a loss when it comes to diagnosing the problem and I'm afraid to rebuild it and see the same problem show up after a few months again. Could it be a power problem, and if so, is there a definite way of both diagnosing it and safeguarding against it? Could it be the problems come from a different issue altogether?
As for the specs of said computer:
Z170-GAMING K3
i5-6500
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4
GTX 560 Ti (which, in addition to being old, causes weird visual artifacts on the screen sometimes; it's always done so, though... but still probably overdue for an upgrade)
Corsair RM-750i
Windows 10
Thank you so very much for any help you could give us!
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