Question How to diagnose intermittent power on issue

[kenneth.mathis.simpson]

Hi all, I have a desktop that has become a struggle to power on. It started as a small issue and slowly got worse. At first I could disconnect the power for 30s and start up and wouldn't see the problem for a few weeks, then later I would have to do that and disconnect all the peripherals every week or so. Recently I've had to hold the power button for *just* the right amount of time for it to power on every time - now it's a gamble as to whether it powers on at all. It's been going on for aboput a total of 9 months, and I just haven't gotten around to looking at it until now. A few months after the problem started I had a couple of SSD drives fail to be recognized, but figured it was due to age so pulled them. Now, with the prior drive failures and the problem slowly getting worse, I'm wondering if the PSU may be failing. No issues once it's running though - no BSOD, performance or cooling issues, no weird system glitches. Once it's powered on, it's perfectly fine, or seems to be. My other thought is maybe the case switch is faulty, or I have a dying capacitor somewhere. Or maybe the CMOS battery is dying - I'll look up what voltage it's supposed to have and see if I can locate it on the board. How can I test the PSU or switch to determine if they're the cause of the failure? I do a lot of automotive work and some basic appliance wiring but haven't really messed with anything like diagnosing an electrical desktop issue.

Blowing it out with compressed air has not helped the issue, so don't think it's an issue caused by dust buildup. I blow it out every few months with a hookup from my air compressor at around 50-60psi since I have two cats who shed a RIDICULOUS amount of fur. I get everywhere I can - PSU, GPU, CPU heatsink, mobo, inlet grates, peripheral hookups, any bit of exposed case I can get access to. Compressor does have an inline drier on the outlet, and it gets drained every usage to prevent water buildup.

I have noticed the problem has gotten a little worse after swapping my 1080 for a 3070, so again thinking failing PSU - 2 instances spaced about a month apart where it took several minutes to figure out how to power it on. However, I have not had the 3070 in for very long - maybe 1-2 months now. PSU and case are the same age, about 6-7 years old. The 3070 is secondhand and about a year old, the RAM and CPU about 4 years old, purchased secondhand about 2-3 years ago. Mobo is just now 2 years old. Nothing is or has been overclocked since I've had it, though I've had an issue with the ethernet port on the Mobo not working since I got it

Desktop specs:
CPU: i5-10400F
Mobo: MSI MPG Z490 Carbon WiFi
RAM: G-Skill Rpijaw 2x8GB DDR4
GPU: RTX 3070
PSU: EVGA GQ 650W Semi-Modular Gold 80+
Case: ThermalTake View 27 Snow
Drives: 2 M.2 NVME 1tb Samsung SSDs, I think 980 Evos, 1 & 3 years old, a Sata PNY 250gb drive that's about 3-5 years old, and a WD Blue 2TB that's about 4-5 years old
CPU cooler: Scythe Mugen 5

 

[Ralston18]

PSU:

Look in Reliability History/Monitor for error codes, warnings, and informational events that correspond with the cited problems.

Increasing numbers of errors and varying errors make the PSU a likely suspect.

You can also do some testing on the PSU if you have a multimeter and know how to use it. Or know someone who does.

FYI:

https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-manually-test-a-power-supply-with-a-multimeter-2626158

Also read the following link:

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-psus,4229.html

Not with the immediate requirement to purchase a new PSU. Mainly to simply learn more about PSUs and what is important.

Then use the information to help select a PSU if doing so is indeed necesssary.

Note: ensure, as always should be being done, that all important data is backed up away from problem system.