Question PC will not start-Complicated

[Thedlund]

Ok, I built my nephew a PC a year ago, since the build he hasn't had any issues with it, until about 2 weeks ago. Then the monitor would go to sleep while booting up, in the process of messing with it, I was able to get it to different spots in post and was able (with the USB start up) to get it running for about 10 minutes and then no warning it would just shut off. It seemed like the longer time (days) in between working on it the longer it would run. Please note that at this point all the fans run including the one on the PSU.

I had another power supply sitting around, so I swapped that out. With another PSU (my back up PSU) nothing turns on at all. I double checked the wiring, it all looks correct, it should be noted that this PSU had been acting up and had started to randomly shutdown. So, I figured that it had given up the ghost, and ran to Best Buy for another one, and it acts the same exact way where nothing turns on. Now if I switch to the original PSU it starts up, what could I be missing? I have done the paper clip test on all the PSU and they all work. I will post details on the components later, ran out of time today.

I really appreciate any insight as to what might be wrong or if there is something that I might have been doing wrong.

Thanks for reading my sad story.

 

[COLGeek]

When you swapped PSUs, did you only use the cables that came with each PSU (no swapping/re-using cables between PSUs)?

 

[Thedlund]

I did use the original one at 1st, but I did swap them out with the cables that were supplied with the new PSU.

 

[COLGeek]

Cables are not interchangeable between makes/models. If you used the wrong cable at any point, you may have permanently damaged your system.

 

[Thedlund]

When I read your reply, I thought that you were kidding, then I read it in several other post in the forum about not swapping cables. I have to say that blows my mind, I don't understand why they wouldn't be interchangeable. Isn't there some national standard/spec that covers the manufacturing of cable and plugs? If I used the same manufacturer, are they the same?

I did put the original PSU back in with its cable and the PC is still doing the same thing, so I think that the worst is that I might have damaged 2 PSU.

Regardless, here are the specs.

Motherboard-GIGABYTE B365M DS3H LGA 1151
Memory-Patriot Viper Steel 16GB (2 x 8GB)
PSU-EVGA 550 B5, 80 Plus BRONZE 550W
Video Card-MSI Gaming GeForce GTX 1650 128-Bit HDMI/DP 4GB GDRR6
Cooling System-CoolerMaster MasterLiquid ML240L
Case-Cooler Master MasterBox MB511 ARGB ATX Mid-Tower

Thanks again for the reply.

 

[COLGeek]

Nope. Not standard across the board, sometimes not even across brands.

You very well could have fried something, like the motherboard and things attached to it.

With a known good PSU, are there any signs of life? LEDs? Fans twitch or spin?

 

[Thedlund]

Sorry, for such a delayed response on this, we resolved this last year, but I wanted to share with what happened with the PC. When we built that system, we had to stay within budget and kind of at the last minute I switched MB, and ended up going with a one that didn't have a built-in video card as we would have an GPU, so that explains why I couldn't get any output from it.

We RMA'ed both the original PSU and MB, they reported that the PSU was in fact DOA and replaced it, the MB did have an issue, that they were able to repair, it wasn't with the connection points, I believe that it was a few resistors. Once we received those components back, I swapped in another GPU and the PC started fine. So, we RMA'ed the GPU and they replaced it, and the system is still running great.

I'm speculating that system had some type of power surge that damaged at least the PSU and GPU and maybe I damaged the MB due to not swapping out the cable. Just to error on the side of caution the surge suppressor was replaced.

Thanks again for all the help.