Question Issue with desktop freezing after being shipped across the country

nk565

Reputable
May 23, 2016
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4,510
I recently shipped a desktop across the country through UPS. They packed it, and when it arrived it didn’t appear anything was broken but a ton of motherboard screws had come loose and a few of the power cables to various components had been pulled out (including latched ones like the ATX 24 pin). It looked well packed, so I’m not sure how this went so badly.

Anyways, I reconnected everything. Initially the computer would turn on and immediately fully shut off. This seemed that the ATX 24 pin powering the motherboard wasn’t in fully, after pushing it in more I haven't seen that issue. The recurring issue now is that the computer will just entirely freeze. This can be within a few minutes of starting, or a few days. The only pattern is that a stress test will trigger it, making me think it's a CPU power issue. There’s nothing obviously wrong with the cables or the ports, but my thoughts are that there’s likely a bad connection. The problem seems to be fixed by me pushing the cables in (although again, I can’t feel or see a difference), but eventually it stops working until I push them in again. I really don’t think it's a software issue though, I didn't have any problems before it shipped. I’ve seen other posts that say the heat can loosen up bad connections further which may be why it’s okay for a while before going bad again.

My question is whether or not people agree with this assessment, and whether i’m likely to be able to fix this problem by replacing the cables. Also is it possible i’ll need to replace the whole motherboard? I’m not concerned with the price. UPS insured it so I will be putting in a claim on whatever parts need to be replaced. Also please let me know if there's another component i'm missing that I should be checking.
 
I recently shipped a desktop across the country through UPS. They packed it, and when it arrived it didn’t appear anything was broken but a ton of motherboard screws had come loose and a few of the power cables to various components had been pulled out (including latched ones like the ATX 24 pin). It looked well packed, so I’m not sure how this went so badly.

Anyways, I reconnected everything. Initially the computer would turn on and immediately fully shut off. This seemed that the ATX 24 pin powering the motherboard wasn’t in fully, after pushing it in more I haven't seen that issue. The recurring issue now is that the computer will just entirely freeze. This can be within a few minutes of starting, or a few days. The only pattern is that a stress test will trigger it, making me think it's a CPU power issue. There’s nothing obviously wrong with the cables or the ports, but my thoughts are that there’s likely a bad connection. The problem seems to be fixed by me pushing the cables in (although again, I can’t feel or see a difference), but eventually it stops working until I push them in again. I really don’t think it's a software issue though, I didn't have any problems before it shipped. I’ve seen other posts that say the heat can loosen up bad connections further which may be why it’s okay for a while before going bad again.

My question is whether or not people agree with this assessment, and whether i’m likely to be able to fix this problem by replacing the cables. Also is it possible i’ll need to replace the whole motherboard? I’m not concerned with the price. UPS insured it so I will be putting in a claim on whatever parts need to be replaced. Also please let me know if there's another component i'm missing that I should be checking.

This is a tricky problem to diagnose - I have had similar issues with a machine freezing up unexpectedly. For me it turned out to be a bad connection to a Sata drive - moving the drive cable to a different port on the motherboard fixed the issue.

I would suggest removing everything you can get away with and running the machine with just 1 drive, 1 stick of ram and use the integrated gpu (if it has one) and see if it behaves. If that is ok, then start adding components back in one at a time and see if the problem comes back.
 

nk565

Reputable
May 23, 2016
3
0
4,510
This is a tricky problem to diagnose - I have had similar issues with a machine freezing up unexpectedly. For me it turned out to be a bad connection to a Sata drive - moving the drive cable to a different port on the motherboard fixed the issue.

I would suggest removing everything you can get away with and running the machine with just 1 drive, 1 stick of ram and use the integrated gpu (if it has one) and see if it behaves. If that is ok, then start adding components back in one at a time and see if the problem comes back.

Thanks for the suggestion. For the most part I'm already running under those conditions. I don't have an integrated GPU, and I only have 1 M.2 SSD in there. I do have two sticks of RAM, but I'm not convinced those are the issue. Removing one so far hasn't made a difference.