Question PC won't power on unless unplugged for prelonged period of time

[Bevvels]

Hey all.

I'm having a problem with my PC not powering on after it's been shut down, additionally it won't wake from sleep either. The PC performs as expected when it's running, no glitches, no crashing, it runs perfectly.

If I shut it down, pressing the power button does nothing, the PC is completely unresponsive as if I was pressing the power button without it plugged in.. no response whatsoever.

When put into sleep mode, it sleeps as expected, the power button on my case pulses to indicate it's in sleep, but when I try to wake it, it's completely unresponsive. If I press the spacebar, nothing. Move/click the mouse, nothing. If I press the power button on the case, nothing. If I long press the power button on the case to try and shut it down, nothing. I have to switch it off at the PSU.

The PC starts occasionally when it feels like it, usually after being unplugged for a long period of time, sometimes >30 mins, sometimes it won't start after many hours and I have to wait till the next day. Sometimes it doesn't even start the next day.. there's no pattern here. It does seem to be getting slightly worse over time.

Here's a strange one. If I repeatedly flip the PSU switch and press the power button within a split second after, then eventually (maybe after doing it 4-8 times) it'll power on. Might be a clue here?

Here's what I've tried...

I cleaned everything (blew out the dust) and went through a process of elimination. Pulled the GPU, pulled the RAM, pulled the drives and then tried powering on after reinstalling each component. No change. I also took the PC into a different room to get it off the power outlet in my office just to eliminate the wall socket as a potential problem.

I thought it might be related to "fast boot", but when I checked in bios, fast boot was already disabled.

I thought it might be a problem with the power switch on the case, I tried the screwdriver trick on the switch pins on the mobo and it didn't start.

The PSU might be the obvious thing to point a finger at, but the PC runs perfectly fine when it finally decides to turn on. Additionally, if it was the PSU, it seems weird that it would have an issue coming out of sleep?

I'm stumped and no thanks to Covid, I can't take it to a store and have it diagnosed at the moment.

Any assistance is very much appreciated.

PC Details: (Built in April 2018)
Ryzen 2700x
Asrock Taichi X470
Teamgroup Dark Pro 3200mhz 32gb (4x8gb)
Gigabyte Windforce GTX980
NZXT 340 Elite
Antec Edge 650W 80 Plus Gold Fully Modular Power Supply

 

[Colif]

Try turning this off - https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/4189-turn-off-fast-startup-windows-10-a.html

it could be old drivers not built to work with win 10 new power modes
Can you download and run Driverview - http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/driverview.html

All it does is looks at drivers installed; it won't install any

When you run it, go into view tab and set it to hide all Microsoft drivers, will make list shorter.

Now its up to you, you can look through the drivers and try to find old drivers, or you can take a screenshot from (and including)Driver name to (and including)Creation date.

upload it to an image sharing website and show link here

All I would do is look at driver versions (or dates if you lucky to have any) to see what might have newer versions.

 

[Bevvels]

@Colif Thanks for the reply.

I followed the instructions in the link you posted and turned off 'fast startup' (it was on).

I installed Nirsoft Driverview as suggested and there were a few outdated drivers, so installed IObit Driver Booster and updated a total of 18 drivers. I also updated my GPU driver through Nvidia Geforce Experience.

I restarted my PC to ensure any driver updates were fully completed, then I hit Shutdown. I waited about 30 seconds and then pressed the power button..... nothing 😖😢

I had to do my six fingered esoteric handshake to get it started again. Rapidly switching the PSU on and off while pressing the power button. It didn't work after half a dozen tries, so I pulled the plug, waited a minute, plugged it back in and gave it the esoteric handshake again.. after about 4 tries it started.

I've added a link to a screenshot of Driverview before and after driver updates >> Screenshot of Driverview <<

Thanks again for your assistance Colif, it's certainly appreciated.

 

[Colif]

so installed IObit Driver Booster and updated a total of 18 drivers.

wish you hadn't done that. Driver booster can and will install the wrong drivers. I can't believe you had 18 outdated drivers on the PC.
Its only good point is it should have created a restore point before installing any.

Honestly, you be best running system restore now and rolling system back to before it installed any. Prefer to do it manually
type "restore" then open "create a restore point"
create a new Restore Point now for C-drive
then open the newest restore point that is prior to the drivers being installed.

 

[Bevvels]

Ahh damn.. sorry Colif! I'm going to roll back the changes now and go through the process of updating the drivers manually.

I'll report back when the process is complete.

P.s. Excuse the late replies, I'm in Australia so we're probably dealing with a time difference.

 

[Bevvels]

Okay so system restore went smoothly. Turns out there weren't 18 outdated drivers, that was Driver Booster trying to earn it's keep. There were just 3 outdated drivers which included:

• Intel Corporation - Bluetooth - 20.100.7.1
• Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - System - 2.0.1.0
• Advanced Micro Devices, Inc - System - 5.12.0.38

Everything's up to date now. I also double checked that 'fast start' was still disabled in case system restore had reset it. Unfortunately, the problem persists. I shutdown the computer and it wouldn't turn back on :-S