No Power: fans twitch, mobo light flickers, USB & keyboard lights stay on.

[Slade703]

Hello. At some point during the day, our PC turned off, but the keyboard lights and the light on the USB stick that happened to be in the slot were on. (It's a DIY build w/components listed below. It's been working since Oct 2016 when we built it.) It would not turn back on using the power button on the front of the case. We turned the toggle on the PSU to off for about a minute, then toggled it to on, and turned the PC back on. It worked for a few hours and then turned off again. (No on-screen messages appeared while in use.) We repeated the PSU toggling, but this time the PC would not power up.

I notice that when I toggle the PSU from off to on and press the power switch on the case, the CPU fan and case fan move about a half of a rotation, or "twitch", and the Audio Boost light on the MSI 970 Gaming mobo flashes, but that's it. Nothing else visible or audible happens. (I have to wait for about 15 seconds with the PSU toggled off for the fan twitching and mobo light to flash.)

[Upon inspection, I do see an oily substance that appears to be coming from under a heatsink on the mobo...not sure if that is relevant.]

Any insight into what might be causing this and/or trouble shooting steps I can take to help diagnose the problem will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

PC components:
Motherboard: MSI 970 Gaming
CPU: AMD FX 8320
PSU: Inland ATX ILG-600R2 600W PSU
Graphics Card: XFX Radeon R9 380 2GB
RAM: EVGA 16GB DDR3-1600 (PC3-12800) CL 9 (two 8 GB modules)
HDD: Seagate 1TB SATA
Case: Corsair Carbide Series 100R Mid-Tower

 

[Mister_MO]

Your psu died, that happens with this kind of cheap rebranded psu. Try testing it with psu from friend and it should start up fine.

 

[Slade703]

Your psu died, that happens with this kind of cheap rebranded psu. Try testing it with psu from friend and it should start up fine.

Thank you for responding. While awaiting responses I decided to used my multimeter to check for power through the 24-pin connector and, as you astutely concluded, the PSU appears to be dead. (I didn't check before posting because the keyboard lights were on, etc. and I thought the answer might be more complicated.)

What brand and model of PSU would you recommend for a replacement?

 

[Mister_MO]

You wont normally measure voltage at 24pin except for 5volt standby, you need to ground ps_on (should be green wire) to enable other ones. For what psu take, some good brand is better as you don't change psu so much and it will last at least 5 years. Go with something like evga, be quiet, enermax, even corsair, coolermaster or seasonic aren't bad choices.

 

[Slade703]

You wont normally measure voltage at 24pin except for 5volt standby, you need to ground ps_on (should be green wire) to enable other ones. For what psu take, some good brand is better as you don't change psu so much and it will last at least 5 years. Go with something like evga, be quiet, enermax, even corsair, coolermaster or seasonic aren't bad choices.

Thanks again!