Newly upgraded PC powered off, won't power on. Motherboard or power supply?

May 7, 2018
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Hey all, I'm relatively new to the whole "building your own PC" thing but I'll do my best to describe the issue.

I bought a pre-built PC in December of 2016 from MSI. Specifically this one: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883152194

It served me pretty well, but I wanted more out of it than I was getting, so I upgraded to a GTX 1080, a Zotac mini-- just a few months ago.

Well it was still not running the way I wanted it to, so i bought this Asus motherboard:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813119036

to go with this i7 processor/ optane combo: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117922

And this RAM: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820215165

I also installed a WD blue m.2 SSD, I'm using 2 Dell 1440p monitors, I've got 2 external hard drives connected to it, although only one draws power from the PC, the other one is plugged into the wall, a web cam and an external audio DAC with audio technica mic, plus razer keyboard and mouse. I don't think that would max out my 500w power supply, but maybe I'm wrong. It could also be a low quality power supply, given that some of the components that came with my PC seemed to pretty pretty cheap/sketch.

I installed all of this about 3 weeks ago and things have been running pretty well, minus some delay from when I hit the power button, the LED's come on, then the fans come on, then my displays turn on. I haven't had any issues until yesterday when my PC went black in an instant. I was checking my phone and didn't have anything running but a couple of tabs in chrome and a word document. I pressed the power button and got no response- no fans, no sounds, no nothing. So, naturally, I took the case apart and I saw that the orange/amber LED that indicates power going to the motherboard was turning on and off in 4 second intervals instead of maintaining the steady glow that it does when everything is working. My first thought was the power supply, but I did the paperclip test where you put one end in the green and the other in a black wire and turn the power supply on- and the power supply turned on just as it was supposed to. But when I plugged it into the motherboard and tried it the power supply did nothing. This is with everything taken out of the motherboard, CPU and all.

So today I took out the new motherboard and put my old one back in, and I'm having the same issue: the LED will turn on for a second, then turn back off and the power supply does nothing. Asus support said it was probably my power supply, but I wanted a second opinion.

Thanks in advance!!!

Update: got a new power supply (750w) and I am having the exact same issue: the motherboard LED blinks on and off, and nothing happens when I try and power the system on. Sounds like the motherboard, yeah? Anything I can try before I reach out to ASUS for an RMA?
 
What brand is your 500W PSU? because the 500w will not tell you the whole story about the PSU.

Remove the gtx1080, use onboard iGPU to see the PC works or not, if it works, keep in mind the PSU maybe gone, because the gtx1080 may overdraw the power from the PSU, you know what to do. Buy the PSU like:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151093&ignorebbr=1
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438095&ignorebbr=1
 
Solution
May 7, 2018
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I honestly have no idea what brand it is, unfortunately. Since its a prebuilt I didn't choose the parts, and I can't find it listed anywhere online, and the way it's bolted together, I can't figure out how to even get my eyes on the PSU.
I'm in the middle of finals right now (great timing, right?) so if I have a free moment I'll see if I can get anything to work, but when my PC shut down, it wasn't sending power to anything- no keyboard or mouse lights or anything.
 
Since its a prebuilt I didn't choose the parts, and I can't find it listed anywhere online, and the way it's bolted together, I can't figure out how to even get my eyes on the PSU.
If you didn't buy other PSU for gtx1080 before, according to MSI site, the PC came with only 350W 80+ PSU, if it is ture, you are lucky to use it for a while.
https://www.msi.com/Desktop/Nightblade-X2B/Specification

You just open the case, you will see the PSU.
 
May 7, 2018
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It looks like there is a discrepancy between MSI's site and Newegg's listing of the PC. On Newegg's site (which is where I bought it from) the PSU is listed as 500w. Perhaps Newegg was wrong. I'll take another look at my PC and see if I can get to the power supply. The case is structured such that the PSU is caged in with my HDD around it. I'll see if I can break it open and verify the wattage.

Thank you so much for your help!

Edit:
I had to call MSI customer support because the way the case is bolted together, I legitimately could not access the PSU. The MSI rep said I would have to send my PC in for them to work on which would be $250 USD, and my only other option was to move my components over to a new case and buy a new PSU. Oh, and the PSU that came with my PC was a 350w, not 500w as it is listed on Newegg's website. UGGGHHHHH time to go find a new case and PSU.
 

DSzymborski

Titan
Moderator


One thing to remember about PSUs is that since the era of the Pentium III, the simple maximum wattage for the PSU doesn't actually mean all that much. What matters how much +12V power is available, because that's what powers all the power-hungry components these days. You can find a garbage PSU that claims to be 500W only really have half (or even less) of that actually available, making it a de facto 250W or worse PSU.

Now 350W is too low to be running a 1080 on and it might not even be a real 350W anyway (would need to see the label for that). PSUs with modern designs generate the rails so a 500W PSU made in that way can deliver all or almost all of the 500W on the +12V rail.
 
I posted two PSU in my 1st reply, but I post them again.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151093&ignorebbr=1
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438095&ignorebbr=1

For the case, an ATX-mid tower or even a Micro ATX should be fine, but make sure the case can support the gtx1080, also the case can support the bottom mount power supply too, that will have better airflow. If you want other features, like side window, or LED light or even RGB too, etc. Something like https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811517036&ignorebbr=1 or https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA6ZP78W0088
 
May 7, 2018
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Thank you for your advice!!
 
May 7, 2018
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Thank you for your help and advice!!