Pc Wont Turn On

[LieutenantDansLegs]

I built my computer a little over 3 months ago, and one night the motherboard up and died, stopped working, all the signs, etc, after a week or so, i got a replacement motherboard, redid the computer, turned on, heard a loud zap an hour later, and again the motherboard was dead. There were no damaging signs to any of the componants other than the computer did what it did beforw. So now, I bought a completely different motherboard and power supply, redid the computer, no noise, fans on, green light on mobo, but none of my peripherals turn on. There are no beeps, no physical signs of damage, as far as we can tell all the cords are plugged in correctly. We have no idea whats wrong, and need some help. Thank you.

 

[MarkW]

List every item you have in the case. Brand, model number, capacities.

 

[LieutenantDansLegs]

My specs are:
-Crucial technology 8gb ballistixs sport series
-Hitachi 1tb
-AMD FX 4300 Viscera quad core 3.8ghz (4.0 ghz turbo)
-Corsair cx500m 500 watt
-Cooler master hyper 212 evo heatsink
-EVGA gtx 960
-Windows 7 64 bit
-Asus M5A97 R 2.0 970 Am3 +

 

[MarkW]

Are you sure its the motherboard? And not the power supply?

We lowered the Tier rating on the Corsair CX series power supplies 2 weeks ago to Tier 4, which says we do not recommend those power supplies for use in any gaming system. They start out testing out really well when new, but far too many of those units start failing in a year or two. The reason appears to be that they used some cheap capacitors in them (and probably other cheap parts) to keep the cost low. Three months is sooner than most of them fail, but its not unheard of.

Unfortunately, a lot of people will point you to the paper clip test, but with these units, even after a capacitor has begun to fail, the paper clip test still works.

If I were in your shoes, I would buy a high quality power supply, and replace the Corsair CX. From a cost perspective, it is the cheapest change you can make to find out if it really is the motherboard or the power supply.

I believe that Seasonic makes the best power supplies on the planet. So I like to refer people to their units. I will link a unit here that is slightly higher capacity than what you have now, but it is also a far higher quality unit.

SeaSonic S12II 520 Bronze 520W ATX12V V2.3 / EPS 12V V2.91 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply $59.99 @ Newegg

We do have a Power Supply Listing here on Toms. It breaks down most power supplies into Tiers 1 through 5, and we only recommend buying a Tier 1 or 2 power supply. By comparison, we have the Corsair CX series at Tier 4. In any case, not all power supplies made are on this listing. Any Seasonic and XFX units can be assumed to be either Tier 1 or 2. Both are made by Seasonic.

Tom's Power Supply Listing

 

[LieutenantDansLegs]

Just got this psu, brand new

 

[MarkW]

"heard a loud zap an hour later" <--- Motherboards normally die quietly.

Something made that noise. And there should be visible after effects on whatever it was that zapped, and odors that should be smellable.

Power supplies seem to sometimes exit with a show. Noise, smoke, pops, fire... those kinds of things.

Check the power cables and connectors.

Do you see anything on the motherboard that looks burnt?

If you take the power supply out of the case and sniff it, do you smell anything that might indicate that something fried in there?

 

[LieutenantDansLegs]

"heard a loud zap an hour later" <--- Motherboards normally die quietly.

Something made that noise. And there should be visible after effects on whatever it was that zapped, and odors that should be smellable.

Power supplies seem to sometimes exit with a show. Noise, smoke, pops, fire... those kinds of things.

Check the power cables and connectors.

Do you see anything on the motherboard that looks burnt?

If you take the power supply out of the case and sniff it, do you smell anything that might indicate that something fried in there?

My friend said on his old mothebroard, he noticed that the battery was half way out. The situation still is that we put a new PSU and Motherboard in there and we are getting no results.

 

[MarkW]

But it was working for an hour? And then the zap?

 

[LieutenantDansLegs]

But it was working for an hour? And then the zap?

No, the first time we built his PC it worked for about 3 months then it just died. Wouldn't turn on or anything.
Second time we rebuilt his PC we put in a replacement motherboard, after an hour there was a zap then it died.
Third time, today that we built it we put in a new motherboard from a different manufacturer as well as a brand new power supply. Those two items just came in the mail today and after we finished building the PC it wouldn't turn on either. The fans would spin and the lights on the mobo would turn on but his mouse and keyboard would not light up and we got no display on the monitor. It was as if power was being fed to the system but there was nothing happening.

 

[MarkW]

Wow. That is some seriously bad luck there.

Something is causing all of these problems. Right now, I have no clue what it is. But what I would do, is disconnect everything that can be while leaving 1 stick of memory, the CPU, and the monitor. If the CPU has onboard graphics, use them, and remove any video card that you have. Bare bones, power up and see what happens. What you want to see is if you get some kind of message on the monitor. If the motherboard works, you should get some kind of message about something that could not be found (mouse, keyboard, hard drive). It not, then the problem lies somewhere in those items that are connected obviously. The problem is in finding the item that is killing everything.

If you do get the message, shut it down, and add back 1 item. And then power up, and see if it complains about not finding the next item. At some point, it should either stop working, or you will reach the point where the problem has magically vanished and everything is working.

 

[LieutenantDansLegs]

Wow. That is some seriously bad luck there.

Something is causing all of these problems. Right now, I have no clue what it is. But what I would do, is disconnect everything that can be while leaving 1 stick of memory, the CPU, and the monitor. If the CPU has onboard graphics, use them, and remove any video card that you have. Bare bones, power up and see what happens. What you want to see is if you get some kind of message on the monitor. If the motherboard works, you should get some kind of message about something that could not be found (mouse, keyboard, hard drive). It not, then the problem lies somewhere in those items that are connected obviously. The problem is in finding the item that is killing everything.

If you do get the message, shut it down, and add back 1 item. And then power up, and see if it complains about not finding the next item. At some point, it should either stop working, or you will reach the point where the problem has magically vanished and everything is working.

Yea, we have tried pretty much everything light of taking out the motherboard and running it like that. One stick of ram, in different slots, no gpu, no gpu or harddrive, no harddrive, etc. We currently believe that the cpu could be causing the problem, however there are no beeps, and no sign of damage to the cpu itself. Would the cpu be causing these symptoms?

 

[MarkW]

No beeps would point to the CPU. It is what generates the beeps. But a defective motherboard could be stopping it from doing so too.

I think if I was in your shoes, I could contact the vendor and tell them what has been going on, and tell them that you want to return both the motherboard and the CPU because you have no way to determine which of the two is the bad item, and both could be bad. Most of the time, they will work with you if it is a reputable vendor.