Question Ongoing issue - PC will randomly have no POWER. This will then randomly fix itself and BOOT/POST and work fine. Any ideas?

[Jtull55]

Build:
Mobo = ROG STRIX B550-A GAMING
CPU = RYZEN 3600
GPU = Asus GTX 1050 Ti
PSU = Corsair RM750
RAM = Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) 3200MHz CL16 DDR4

Prefacing this by saying this has been an ongoing issue for about a good year. Life, lack of using the PC and general laziness has made me not try to resolve it once and for all.

What's happening?
Sporadically, my PC when it has been shut down (PSU cable still on of course) will not power on the next time I press the power button. The next thing is that, without doing anything at all besides waiting, it will then power on, boot, post - mostly everything is completely fine.

Waiting could mean a minute and trying again, an hour or weeks/months of nothing then randomly just trying for a laugh.

Only visibly "on" things are my peripherals like mouse light, keyboard LEDs and ethernet cable.

For a time, I literally just left it running 24/7 but that obviously isn't sustainable but it worked perfectly fine. No problems whatsoever. The only consistent issue that happens after it boots/posts is the time & date are completely out of whack, practically every time. I have automated time zone etc on so I know it's not that.

What have I done?
Earlier on (10 months ago roughly) I did the component-by-component troubleshooting. This yielded no results because I clearly remember being super annoyed, getting everything back in & BOOM - turned on. I turned it off, moved it into my computer room, got everything sorted and then no power..maybe 2 minutes after lol. Then an hour later, just checked it and bang- it turned on.

The PC was in bad condition in terms of dust etc and bad cable management (both my fault) and so I cleaned it completely and properly as well as trying to improve the cable situation. I had also removed the CMOS battery and waited the 10-20 minutes before putting back in, no change.

The parts themselves are a mix of fairly old and new things. The GPU is from quite far back, I think 2019. The Mobo, CPU & RAM were replacements bought in 2021 & PSU bought in 2022 due to higher power requirements. The case is from 2019 if that helps.

About 3 months ago I read it could be a BIOS issue which I've never updated. Did the whole format of flash drive to fat32 (im certain im remebering the name wrong), used my motherboards official renamer & zip file for most recent BIOS and put the complete flash drive in the BIOS flashback slot in the back I/O panel. Got the flashing green light woo! But, then it just wouldn't stop. Left it for hours and no change. So pretty sure I didn't do it right but I couldn't figure out how to fix it.

Today I've done the paperclip test on PSU - worked. I've tried to short the POWERSW pins with a screwdriver just to boot - didn't work. Lastly, I followed mobo manual and shorted the CLRTC pins to clear CMOS header and/or erase RTC RAM, didn't work. Also removed battery just in case, no change.

Questions:
Could the CMOS battery need to be completely replaced? Its a relatively new motherboard but all the issues I see match up.

Could the BIOS not being updated cause all this issue since i didn't do it properly? The PC worked afterwards (with the random no power issue ongoing).

Does the paperclip test working today mean that it is more then likely a motherboard issue?

What else can I try? I'll be honest I gave up a while ago since nothing I did helped and I spent money previously replacing but I'm determined now to get this resolved.

 

[Lutfij]

Sporadically, my PC when it has been shut down (PSU cable still on of course) will not power on the next time I press the power button
Sounds like a PSU that is overwhelmed or something in your build is overheating, preventing you from powering up before it cools down.

Today I've done the paperclip test on PSU - worked.
That test is flawed. It tells you that the PSU can output power but it doesn't tell how much power it can effectively output when powered up.

What is the make and model of your case? How are you cooling the processor?

I'd source(borrow, not buy) a reliably built PSU with at least 450W of power at the entire system's disposal and see if the issue is alleviated.

 

[Jtull55]

Sporadically, my PC when it has been shut down (PSU cable still on of course) will not power on the next time I press the power button
Sounds like a PSU that is overwhelmed or something in your build is overheating, preventing you from powering up before it cools down.

Today I've done the paperclip test on PSU - worked.
That test is flawed. It tells you that the PSU can output power but it doesn't tell how much power it can effectively output when powered up.

What is the make and model of your case? How are you cooling the processor?

I'd source(borrow, not buy) a reliably built PSU with at least 450W of power at the entire system's disposal and see if the issue is alleviated.

For the case: it's a very dated model and I can't even find the specific model I don't think but I believe it's the CoolerMaster DeepCool ATX Full Tower. Found a model number: DC2016101816967. Bought in late 2018 it's the original case from my first build.

*Incorrect, Update at end has correct details for case*

The CPU fan is the stock air cooler provided with the Ryzen 3600 CPU. If the overheating that you mentioned is the problem then I'm guessing I'll have to get a beefier cooler & probably a new case with better fans/air flow right?



I'll also say I'm from Australia so summers can get ridiculously hot here so idk if that's what caused this as well.



I'll try and sort out a PSU as you mentioned and give it a go. Thanks for your advice!


Update: Used an older CoolMaster 650W PSU from a friend who said it worked fine, still no power or boot. Did paperclip test, since that's all I got to test the PSU and it worked on that one too.

Update: Found case: It's the DeepCool Tesseract SW Windowed ATX Mid Tower Case (BLUE) Purchased even earlier in 2016.

Update: The specific stock cooler is the Wraith Stealth AMD cooler that comes with the Ryzen 5 3600. Purchased in 2021.

 

[Bob.B]

Build:
Mobo = ROG STRIX B550-A GAMING
CPU = RYZEN 3600
GPU = Asus GTX 1050 Ti
PSU = Corsair RM750
RAM = Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) 3200MHz CL16 DDR4

Prefacing this by saying this has been an ongoing issue for about a good year. Life, lack of using the PC and general laziness has made me not try to resolve it once and for all.

What's happening?
Sporadically, my PC when it has been shut down (PSU cable still on of course) will not power on the next time I press the power button. The next thing is that, without doing anything at all besides waiting, it will then power on, boot, post - mostly everything is completely fine.

Waiting could mean a minute and trying again, an hour or weeks/months of nothing then randomly just trying for a laugh.

Only visibly "on" things are my peripherals like mouse light, keyboard LEDs and ethernet cable.

For a time, I literally just left it running 24/7 but that obviously isn't sustainable but it worked perfectly fine. No problems whatsoever. The only consistent issue that happens after it boots/posts is the time & date are completely out of whack, practically every time. I have automated time zone etc on so I know it's not that.

What have I done?
Earlier on (10 months ago roughly) I did the component-by-component troubleshooting. This yielded no results because I clearly remember being super annoyed, getting everything back in & BOOM - turned on. I turned it off, moved it into my computer room, got everything sorted and then no power..maybe 2 minutes after lol. Then an hour later, just checked it and bang- it turned on.

The PC was in bad condition in terms of dust etc and bad cable management (both my fault) and so I cleaned it completely and properly as well as trying to improve the cable situation. I had also removed the CMOS battery and waited the 10-20 minutes before putting back in, no change.

The parts themselves are a mix of fairly old and new things. The GPU is from quite far back, I think 2019. The Mobo, CPU & RAM were replacements bought in 2021 & PSU bought in 2022 due to higher power requirements. The case is from 2019 if that helps.

About 3 months ago I read it could be a BIOS issue which I've never updated. Did the whole format of flash drive to fat32 (im certain im remebering the name wrong), used my motherboards official renamer & zip file for most recent BIOS and put the complete flash drive in the BIOS flashback slot in the back I/O panel. Got the flashing green light woo! But, then it just wouldn't stop. Left it for hours and no change. So pretty sure I didn't do it right but I couldn't figure out how to fix it.

Today I've done the paperclip test on PSU - worked. I've tried to short the POWERSW pins with a screwdriver just to boot - didn't work. Lastly, I followed mobo manual and shorted the CLRTC pins to clear CMOS header and/or erase RTC RAM, didn't work. Also removed battery just in case, no change.

Questions:
Could the CMOS battery need to be completely replaced? Its a relatively new motherboard but all the issues I see match up.

Could the BIOS not being updated cause all this issue since i didn't do it properly? The PC worked afterwards (with the random no power issue ongoing).

Does the paperclip test working today mean that it is more then likely a motherboard issue?

What else can I try? I'll be honest I gave up a while ago since nothing I did helped and I spent money previously replacing but I'm determined now to get this resolved.

Replace the bios bat......cheap test.