[SOLVED] Pc wont turn on via case power button or shorting the motherboard pins but mobo lights are lit.

[Armedandloaded]

Pc was perfectly working fine. I did a normal shutdown after new years eve celebration. When I woke up the following day, it's no longer turning on when I press the power button. Took a glimpse inside and saw the the motherboard lights were lit which indicates that my board is getting power from the PSU.

So I tried to remove the 8pin from the board and tried to short it using a screw driver. I know I'm shorting the right pins coz I was referring directly from the board's manual. I've tried doing this process for about 10mins but still no reaction. Cpu fan and other fans doesn't spin. Rams don't light up. I've asked my brother who stayed up the whole night, he said no one ever approached my pc. There were no lightning or thunder storms happened which could have caused damage. Did my motherboard short circuit for some reason?

Specs:
Moutherboard: ASUS PRIME 320M-K
Cpu: AMD Ryzen 3 3200G
PSU: Silverstone 500W TRU RATED.

If you guys need more info, just let me know.

 

[NameChanged38]

Very odd. You could start with pulling the power plug and CMOS battery, let it sit 10 minutes, but the symptoms you describe tell something deeper. First check your 24 pin ATX connector on both the motherboard and PSU (if modular) along with the additional CPU power cable. Next, try disconnecting devices one by one. USB devices, non-essential cables.

If none of those work, start ripping out components. Hard drives, addon cards, video card. Keep tearing it down further and further until you're left with the bare minimum. Motherboard, CPU, CPU power, RAM.

 

[Armedandloaded]

Very odd. You could start with pulling the power plug and CMOS battery, let it sit 10 minutes, but the symptoms you describe tell something deeper. First check your 24 pin ATX connector on both the motherboard and PSU (if modular) along with the additional CPU power cable. Next, try disconnecting devices one by one. USB devices, non-essential cables.

If none of those work, start ripping out components. Hard drives, addon cards, video card. Keep tearing it down further and further until you're left with the bare minimum. Motherboard, CPU, CPU power, RAM.

I appreciate you helping. Okay so I've removed non essential Components such as SSD/HDD, case fans, GPU and USB ports. I've also unseated again the 24pin from both ends but I don't think it's the issue because the motherboard LEDs are lit up which indicates that the board is getting power from PSU(?). Tried to short the board power pins but still no reaction.

I did checked the CPU Fan and 1 out of 4 screws were loose so I tightened it but still nothing is happening

Do you think my motherboard is causing the issue? Or 1 of the loose screws caused everything to fail?

Edit: I'm left with 1 RAM only.

 

[NameChanged38]

I appreciate you helping. Okay so I've removed non essential Components such as SSD/HDD, case fans, GPU and USB ports. I've also unseated again the 24pin from both ends but I don't think it's the issue because the motherboard LEDs are lit up which indicates that the board is getting power from PSU(?). Tried to short the board power pins but still no reaction.

I did checked the CPU Fan and 1 out of 4 screws were loose so I tightened it but still nothing is happening

Do you think my motherboard is causing the issue? Or 1 of the loose screws caused everything to fail?

Edit: I'm left with 1 RAM only.

Here is another trick to try. Just be warned - this isn't the safest thing to do. First, connect the 24 pin to the motherboard. Look for the green light. Flip off the PSUs power switch & unplug the PSU. Wait for the green light on the motherboard to go out. Next, disconnect your PSU from ALL devices including the 24 pin and CPU power cable so we're solely dealing with the PSU. Jump the pins and then plug in & flip on the PSU. See if it will power on. If it does, return the 24 pin and CPU power and we'll turn our attention back to the motherboard and remaining components.

 

[Armedandloaded]

I have unplugged the PSU from the wall and flipped the PSU switch with the 24pin connected. Lights didn't go out immediately as usual so I left it for 15mins just to be sure. I came back and all lights were out. Disconnected everything from the PSU and isolated it. Plugged back the cable and then flipped the switch on, the PSU did power on.

So now I've reconnected everything I disconnected from the PSU. Mother board lights are still on. Tried to short the board, no reaction still. Reconnected the 8pin again and pressed the power button - nothing. I'll wait for your next advise. Thanks!

 

[Karadjgne]

Breadboard the pc correctly. Pull Everything except cpu, cpu cooler, sick of ram in A2 and the EPS/mains power connectors. That means pull the keyboard, mouse, gpu, monitor, drive data/power, nvme, fans, everything and anything plugged in.

Boot. You aren't looking for anything other than a functioning boot cycle. If it still doesn't cycle, change out the ram sticks.

If the board has led diagnosis, look to see what it's hanging up on, usually there's a red, orange, white and green led in the upper right corner of the board. Then start plugging stuff back in, 1 component at a time, that means gpu, boot, 2bd ram, boot, mouse, boot, monitor, boot etc. Keep doing so until the boot cycle fails, unplug that last component and keep trying.

 

[Armedandloaded]

Breadboard the pc correctly. Pull Everything except cpu, cpu cooler, sick of ram in A2 and the EPS/mains power connectors. That means pull the keyboard, mouse, gpu, monitor, drive data/power, nvme, fans, everything and anything plugged in.

Boot. You aren't looking for anything other than a functioning boot cycle. If it still doesn't cycle, change out the ram sticks.

If the board has led diagnosis, look to see what it's hanging up on, usually there's a red, orange, white and green led in the upper right corner of the board. Then start plugging stuff back in, 1 component at a time, that means gpu, boot, 2bd ram, boot, mouse, boot, monitor, boot etc. Keep doing so until the boot cycle fails, unplug that last component and keep trying.

I appreciate the reply. I've pulled out the non essentials and left with bare minimum - cpu, cpu fan and 1 RAM at A2. motherboard lights are on but when I press the power button, nothing happens. RGB RAM doesn't light up nor the CPU fan.

I've no issues with replacing hardware I just need to determine which ones faulty please help

 

[Armedandloaded]

Here is another trick to try. Just be warned - this isn't the safest thing to do.

I didn't notice you put a hyper link there.

I've watched the video and did as told and BAAMMM! CPU fan spinned! So I carefully reconnected everything again except for the 24pin which currently has the paperclip on the 4th and 5th pin (per video instructions) and everything lit up!

So does this mean my motherboard is faulty? Or at least the 24pin port on it is bad? Thank you so much I learned a lot today. I would appreciate further advise

Edit: now my Ram isn't lighting up. Is this because it's supposed to get power from the 24pin which is currently disconnected from the PSU due to the paperclip shorting experiment?

 

[Karadjgne]

Hyperlink is the very first word, the one that says 'Here' in a color.

You missed the point of the breadboard 'when I push the power button'. You need to remove Everything . All connections, fans, ram, drives, everything except cpu, cooler, 1 ram stick and 2x power cables. You boot by shorting the 2 power on pins, they'll be labeled pwr_on ± or something similar. Then see how far the boot gets. If you have the diagnosis leds, where does the boot stop. Does it stop at cpu or vga or ram or give you a green light at 'good'.

It's a step by step detective process, either good or not. If the light stops at vga, you will need to hook up the monitor, if the light stops at ram, then swap sticks etc. Nobody can point towards a fix until you figure out exactly what's wrong and what isn't.

 

[Armedandloaded]

Hyperlink is the very first word, the one that says 'Here' in a color.

You missed the point of the breadboard 'when I push the power button'. You need to remove Everything . All connections, fans, ram, drives, everything except cpu, cooler, 1 ram stick and 2x power cables. You boot by shorting the 2 power on pins, they'll be labeled pwr_on ± or something similar. Then see how far the boot gets. If you have the diagnosis leds, where does the boot stop. Does it stop at cpu or vga or ram or give you a green light at 'good'.

It's a step by step detective process, either good or not. If the light stops at vga, you will need to hook up the monitor, if the light stops at ram, then swap sticks etc. Nobody can point towards a fix until you figure out exactly what's wrong and what isn't.

Unfortunately my board doesn't have the diagnosis lights. Ive tried pulling out everything and left only 1 Ram, cpu, cpu fan and the power cable connected. tried to boot by shorting the 2 power pins as shown on my board's manual but it doesn't boot at all which was my main concern. Cpu fan doesnt spin - no sign of power.

The only progress I've made so far was when I jumpered my PSU by following the instructions on the video that was hyperlinked on the previous comment. I stuck the paper clip on the 4th and and 5th Pin on the 24pin and flipped the PSU switch on, the CPU fan started to spin. So I've started to reconnect the devices 1x1 and stopped at the Ram which didn't light up. Is it because the Ram was supposed to get its power from the 24pin which is currently disconnected from the mobo? (it's disconnected because the only way to get power is by jump starting the PSU with the paperclip). Can you confirm this?

 

[Karadjgne]

Yes, the 24pin and 4+4pin cpu should be attached to the motherboard. The 4/5 paperclip test just confirms that the psu actually starts up, doesn't confirm it'll work with a load. So far it's pointing to either a bios issue or a motherboard issue. Hopefully by this point you've pulled the battery and given it 15minutes or so before reseating it, to clear the bios back to factory default settings. It might take several boots for the bios to train the ram.

 

[Armedandloaded]

Yes, the 24pin and 4+4pin cpu should be attached to the motherboard. The 4/5 paperclip test just confirms that the psu actually starts up, doesn't confirm it'll work with a load. So far it's pointing to either a bios issue or a motherboard issue. Hopefully by this point you've pulled the battery and given it 15minutes or so before reseating it, to clear the bios back to factory default settings. It might take several boots for the bios to train the ram.

Yeah I've removed the battery and left it for about 20mins and put it back in, still no boot. I really think it's a bad motherboard. I might just bring this to the shop unless you have other steps for me to do or check? I appreciate you helping.

 

[Karadjgne]

No other steps I can think of. Does sound a lot like the motherboard just up and quit on you.

 

[UziKhan]

I have unfortunately found myself in the same spot, except if I keep pins 4 & 5 shorted everything works perfectly i.e. I have post, windows boots and works as intended, I have perfect temps, system takes load, runs games just like normal.

I normally leave the computer running 24/7 and no sleep either, just screen sleep, so I am wondering if I could just leave it shorted permanently? the only way to turn it off would be to turn off at the wall

Ruled out everything, CMOS reset, battery out 20-30 minutes, even updated the bios (on shorted 4&5 pins)

any thoughts? yays/neys? why?

 

[Karadjgne]

Back in the day, ATX wasn't the standard. AT was. Those cases had power buttons, on/off just like the ones on the back of a psu. With ATX came momentary switches, smart switches almost since you can change their purpose to reset, on/off, 5 second holds etc. Which moved the actual switch to the mobo. You push that button, it grounds out and completes the circuit, and a relay holds the connection closed, pc powers on. Windows commands cancel the power to the relay, it opens, power off.

You have a busted relay from the sounds of it. Shorting pin #4/5 and keeping it shorted is now no different to the old AT mobo's. Windows may or may not override that, not sure, if you command the OS to shutdown. The OS is still just software, not hardware, so shutdown might be a 2 step process , first OS then pull plug.

Or.

The issue is in the psu. When you ground the pins, the psu sees the grounded condition and flows power to the mobo. Via relays. If the psu is busted, if the sense wire isn't working as it should, then no flow without that ground condition.

Either way, I can only see it as a source of inconvenience, not damage potential, the damage is already done, somewhere.

 

[UziKhan]

Thanks 🙏

and I tested, shutting windows is exactly as you said, OS goes down but the fans and RGB etc continue until I switch it off at the PSU

I think I’m sufficiently convinced to run it permanently shorted - not worth the additional time spent on it.

thanks