[SOLVED] Powers off after a few seconds

Apr 4, 2018
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So, my computer has been working fine for quite a while. I have made no changes lately. Today I noticed that it was off and trying to power on. It will run for a few seconds and then power off. I've seen the boot page show up once or twice. Usually it doesnt make it that far. All of my components are less than 5 years old. Maybe newer. I have replaced almost every component on my own over the years.

How can I troubleshoot this without just buying tons of parts? My gut says power supply, but I have no way to be certain.

Any direction would be helpful. I'm a savvy DIY kinda guy, but by no means a computer specialist. More of a jack of all trades.

Thanks

I have a High Power 1000w power supply.
Gigabyte ga-z97x-sli motherboard
I'm not sure what else you may need to know.

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Ok, I just tried my old power supply and it does the same thing...
 
Solution
The only way for the average person to convict the motherboard is by ruling out everything else, or trying a different motherboard. You can test the CPU using Intel's CPU diagnostic utility, but if there is a problem with the motherboard, it can show up as a faulty CPU anyhow.

And since you can't get it to run anyway, impossible to even try.

If you don't visually see anything wrong with the CPU, and have no reason to believe the CPU is to blame, then it probably isn't. It's incredibly rare for a CPU to "go bad" or be faulty, unless something physical has happened to it such as being dropped from a reasonable height that would cause internal damage, physically have bent or broken pins (AMD), or as a result of a major power surge or...
Usually, this would be hands down a power supply problem. It could certainly be a motherboard issue though. Is your CPU cooler working/running for those few seconds? If not, then that is why.

If it is working, fan spinning etc., then what is the model of your old power supply? Has your system been running overclocked at all during this period of time that it was running fine? You might want to take a flashlight and a magnification device and take a look at all the capacitors on the motherboard for any signs of bulging or leaking.

Testing the power supply with a multimeter would be a good idea as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ac7YMUcMjbw
 
Both of the fans mounted to the CPU heat sink are running. Perhaps the heat sink is loose? I've got a large CoolMaster one.

No overclocking. I feel like my machine is very over built for the tame use it gets. But my old power supply worked fine when pulled too. I just had to upgrade in order to power my second video card when I got it.

I will check the motherboard for leaks tomorrow. It's less than 2 years old.
 
You have a dual graphics card configuration? What is the model of your graphics card and are you running SLI/Crossfire or they are being used for separate purposes?

Still like to know the exact model of your "old" power supply as well as the brand?

Loose heatsink wouldn't usually cause the system to power off UNLESS you have the cooler too tight in one area and too loose in another, causing the CPU to become "cocked" in the socket, which happens, and usually results in some pins either not making contact or shorting somewhere. Be sure the cooler is not too tight, and is even all the way around. Too tight can cause a variety of problems. Too loose will only generally cause poor cooling.
 
Old power supply is raid max rx-500f. I haven't used that for a couple years.

And yes, I have two gtx570 cards in sli.

I'm clueless as to what I should check next at this point, but as I said, no changes have been made at all in the past year.
 
What is the exact model number of that Highpower unit? Is that a Sirtec Highpower Rocksolid 1000w or a High Power Plus gold 1000w? The exact model number as listed on the label directly on the PSU would be helpful. My concern is that both Raidmax and High power are extremely poor quality power supplies. I seriously doubt either of those units would be capable of reliably powering a single card for long much less two cards that use a lot more power.

GTX 570 requires minimum 800w and four six pin power connectors on most models when used in SLI. The Raidmax unit is not enough to run those cards in SLI no matter what, and the High power unit is probably not capable of sustaining or even producing 800w consistently. If it's the unit I think it is, it scored a 7 in Johnny Guru testing which is extremely, very, bad.
 
Ok, so I have tried another working power supply, no luck. It does the same thing.

I tried removing some of my ram (I normally run 4x4gb). No change.

I put my ssd in the other PC and it booted up fine.

At this point do we assume it is the motherboard?
 
Try removing one of the graphics cards, if no love, remove the other one and put the first one you removed in it's place. Be sure the remaining graphics card that is left installed is in the main x16 PCI slot closest to the CPU socket.

See if using either card individually makes any difference. If not, try a single card in the OTHER x16 PCI slot, then the next one. Could be related to something with the graphics configuration and you'd want to rule that out before trying to blame anything else.
 
I still have no faith in the power supply situation, as you have not been able to provide me with exact model numbers for anything and I can't overstress the importance of the differences between power supply models regardless of what the supposed "watts" might be, but if you feel confident that it's not the power supply (For the record, I'm not 100% satisfied that it isn't regardless that you've tried three of them. Three low quality power supplies don't prove much) then I'd say that pretty much only leaves the motherboard but I think I would take the time to bench test everything using the methods outlined in my tutorial.

 
Well, I guess I was just convinced once it did the exact same with with neither graphics card installed. And sorry, I missed one of your posts, again asking for the specific model. I can check later.

I will also do your motherboard diagnostic test.
 
Well, if I am in the market for a new motherboard, I just want something that can get me by. Looks like the one I had costs 220. I could opt to not use my two graphics cards and use a gtx950 I have access to. My current board uses a 1150 chipset (I think I said that right) and i have 4x4gb of ddr3 ram.

Any suggestions? For a board that will accommodate my parts? Or should I try to buy the same.


Upon talking with the babysitter, we may have had a power surge. A breaker went off...
 
Yeah, those High power units are pretty low quality. I've not seen any that reviewed even moderately well. I'm not sure it's quite as bad as Raidmax, but I would guess it probably is. I can't say that's your problem, obviously, but I will offer this. If it was my system, I'd get rid of both those power supplies and get a decent quality unit. I'm actually quite surprised you haven't had any damage to other hardware from using them long term, and in fact, you may have. That could even be part of your problem.

If you click below I outline the units currently available that are recommendable for most users.

Let's start with the biggest misconception out there, which is that if a unit has high watts it will be ok or is good. No. Just, no.

There are plenty of 750-1000w units out there that I wouldn't trust to power a light bulb and might in fact be more dangerous due to their supposedly high capacity due to poor or non-existent protections inside the unit.

If the platform isn't good to begin with, how many watts or amps it says it can support is irrelevant.

Higher 80plus certification doesn't mean anything, UNLESS it's on an already known to be high quality PSU platform. For example, a Seasonic Prime platinum unit is going to be a better product than a Seasonic Prime Gold unit, because we already know the Prime platform is very good, and platinum efficiency along with it shows there are some improvements internally to account for the higher efficiency.

In a case like that, it might be worth it. It's likely the unit will create less heat, it will probably have better performance in regard to ripple, noise and voltage regulation. It might shave a few pennies, or dollars, off the electric bill over the course of a year.

Other than that, it is not going to perform any better than the same platform with Gold efficiency. On the other hand, just because a unit has Titanium 80plus ratings doesn't mean the unit is any good at all. For example, there are Raidmax units with Titanium efficiency and I wouldn't trust one of those to power a light bulb. There are a lot of units like this out there.

If the platform isn't good to begin with, whether or not it has an 80plus certification or not is irrelevant.

Whatever you do, don't EVER buy a power supply based on whether it has RGB or lighting, or looks like it might be a quality unit. Some of the biggest hunks of junk out there look just as good as a Seasonic Prime Ultra Titanium, but I assure you, they are not. So far as I've seen there are really no excellent units out there that have RGB built in. Maybe one or two models, but rest assured you'll be be paying for the lighting, not for the quality of the power supply.

I don't know what country you reside in, and I know that sometimes it's hard to come by good units in some regions, but when possible, when it comes time to get that PSU, I'd stick to the following if you can.

Seasonic. Seasonic isn't just a brand, they are a PSU manufacturer, unlike many of the PSU brands you see they make their own power supply platforms AND a great many of the very good PSU models out there from other brands like Antec, Corsair and older XFX are made by Seasonic.

Just about anything made by Seasonic is good quality for the most part. There are really no bad Seasonic units and only a very few that are even somewhat mediocre. They do make a few less-good quality OEM style units, but mostly those are not going to be units you come across at most vendors, and they are still not bad. Also, the S12II and M12II 520 and 620w units are older, group regulated models. At one time they were among the best units you could buy. Now, they are outdated and not as good as almost any other Seasonic models. They are however still better than a LOT of newer designs by other manufacturers.

The Seasonic 520w and 620w S12II/M12II units CAN be used on newer Intel platforms, if you turn off C6/C7 in the bios, but I'd really recommend a newer platform whenever possible. Prices are usually pretty good on those though, so sometimes it's worth accepting the lack of DC-DC on the internal platform. Higher capacity versions of the High current gamer are not based on that platform, so they are fine. Those being the 750w and higher versions.

Most common currently, in order of preference, would be the Seasonic Focus series, then Focus plus, then Prime, then Prime ultra. It's worth mentioning that there are generally Gold, Platinum and Titanium versions within each, or most, of those series, but that does not necessarily mean that a Focus plus Platinum is necessarily better than a Prime Gold. It only means that it scored better in the 80plus efficiency testing, not that the platform is better.

Again, don't let yourself get tangled up in the idea that a higher 80plus rating specifically means that it is a better unit than another one with a lower rating, unless you know that it is a good platform from the start. All these Focus and Prime units are pretty good so you can somewhat focus on the 80plus rating when deciding which of them to choose.

Super Flower Super Flower is another PSU manufacturer. They also make most of the good units sold by EVGA like the G2, G3, P2 and T2 models.

Super Flower doesn't have a very broad availability for the units with their own brand name on them, and are not available in a lot of countries but for those where there is availability you want to look at the Leadex and Leadex II models. The Golden green platform is fairly decent too but is getting rather long in the tooth as a platform AND I've seen some reviews indicating a few shortcomings on units based on this platform.

Even so, it's a great deal better than a lot of other platforms out there so you could certainly do worse than a Golden green model. Units based on the Leadex and Leadex II platforms are much better though.

Corsair. The CX and CXm units are ok as a budget option, but I do not recommend pairing them with gaming cards. The newer 2017 models of CX and CXm are better than the older ones, but still not what we'd call terrific, so if it specifically says 2017 model, or it has a capacity other than an even 100, like 550w, 650w, 750w, etc., then it's likely at least better than those older ones. Aside from that, any of the TX, RMx, RMi, HX, HXi, AX or AXi units are good. Those are listed from best to worst, with the best being the AX and AXi units.

Antec. The True power classic units are made by Seasonic, and are very good, but are not modular. The High current gamer 520w and 620w, or any other PSU you see on the market that is 520w or 620w, are also made by Seasonic, based on the S12II and M12II platform for modern versions, and are pretty good units but again they are an older platform that is group regulated so if you go with a Haswell or newer Intel configuration you will want to avoid those because they do not support the C6/C7 Intel low power states.

The Antec High current gamer 750w and 850w units are very good and are not the older design, which came in 520w and 620w capacities and were good for back then but again, are an aging Seasonic platform that is not the best choice most of the time these days. Occasionally, these older units MIGHT be the best unit available and you could do worse than one of them, but a newer DC-DC platform is desirable when possible if it doesn't mean sacrificing quality elsewhere in the platform. There are however older and newer HCG models, so exact model number will likely be a factor if choosing one of these however both the older models and the newer models are good.

Antec Edge units are ok too, but reviews indicate that they have noisy fan profiles. I'd only choose this model if it is on sale or the aesthetics match up with your color scheme or design. Still a good power supply but maybe a little aggressive on the fan profile. This may have been cured on newer Edge models so reading professional tear down reviews is still the best idea.

Antec Earthwatts Gold units are very good also.

BeQuiet. BeQuiet does have a few decent models, BUT, you must be VERY selective about which of their models you put your trust in. From model to model their are huge differences in both quality and performance, even with the same series. If you cannot find a review for a BeQuiet unit on HardOCP, JonnyGuru or Tom's hardware that SPECIFICALLY says it is a very good unit, and does not have any significant issues in the "cons" category, I would avoid it. In fact, I'd probably avoid it anyhow unless there is a very great sale on one that has good reviews, because their units are generally more expensive than MUCH better units from Antec, Seasonic, EVGA and Corsair.

Super Flower. They are like Seasonic and they make power supplies for a variety of other companies, like EVGA. Super Flower units are usually pretty good. I'd stick to the Leadex, Leadex II and Golden Green models.

EVGA. They have BOTH good and not very good models.

Not very good are the W1, N1, B1, B3 (All models except the 650w model), BQ, BR, BT and G1 NEX models.

Good models are the B2, B3 650w, G2, G2L, G3, GQ, P2 and T2 models.

FSP. They used to be very mediocre, and are a PSU manufacturer like Seasonic and Super Flower, although not as well trusted based on historical performance. Currently the FSP Hydro G and Hydro X units are pretty good.

I would avoid Thermaltake and Cooler Master. They do have a few good units, but most of the models they sell are either poor or mediocre, and the ones they have that ARE good are usually way overpriced.

This is just ONE example of why I say that. Very new and modern CM unit. One of the worst scores ever seen on JG for a well known brand name product. Doesn't look to be much better than a Raidmax unit. Sad.


And most of the models I have linked to the reviews of at the following link are at least good, with most of them being fantastic.


Certainly there ARE some good units out there that you won't see above among those I've listed, but they are few and far between, much as a hidden nugget of gold you find in a crevice among otherwise ordinary rocks and don't EVER assume a unit is good just because of the brand.

If you cannot find an IN DEPTH, REPUTABLE review on Tom's hardware, JonnyGuru, HardOCP, Hardware secrets (Old reviews by Gabe Torres), Kitguru (Only Aris reviews), TechPowerUP, SilentPC crew or a similar site that does much more than simply a review of the unboxing and basic tests that don't include reliable results for ripple, noise, voltage regulation and a complete teardown of the unit including identification of the internal platform, then the unit is a big fat question mark.

I recommend not trusting such units as companies generally always send out review samples of any unit they feel is going to get a good review, and don't send them out if they know they are going to get hammered by the reviewer. No review usually equals poor quality. Usually.

Other models that should never be trusted OR USED AT ALL, under any circumstances, include A-Top, Apevia, Apex (Supercase/Allied), Artic, Ace, Aerocool (There might be one model worth using, but I'd still avoid them.), Aspire (Turbocase), Atadc, Atrix, Broadway com corp, Chieftech, Circle, CIT, Coolmax, Deer, Diablotek, Dynapower, Dynex, Eagletech, Enlight, Evo labs, EZ cool, Feedtek, Foxconn, G7, HEC/Compucase Orion, HEDY, High power, iBall, iStar computer co., Jeantec, JPac, Just PC, Kolink, LC Power, Linkworld electronics, Logisys, Macron, MSI, NmediaPC, Norwood Micro (CompUSA), Okia, Powercool, Powmax, Pulsepower, Q-tec, Raidmax, RaveRocketfish, Segotep, SFC, Sharkoon, Shuttle, Skyhawk, Spire, Startech, Storm, Sumvision, Tesla, Trust, Ultra, Wintech, Winpower, Xilence (Until I see a reputable review of a model showing different), xTreme (Cyberpower), Youngbear and Zebronics.

If it were ME, I think I'd do the power supply first, because that might be the entire problem. It also might not be the only, or even the main problem, but you sure don't want to run any of those power supplies IF you do end up replacing the motherboard ANYWAY, so it's very much a wise idea to do that first. Up to you of course, but I don't think it's wise connecting a potentially damaging power supply to a brand new or even used board that you've spent money on.

And if you're going to run both those cards together, you're going to want a unit that is at least 850w since there are really no decent 800w units on the market anymore for the most part.

http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page362.htm


It might also be a very good idea if possible to test both those cards in another system.
 
Is there a way to tell if it is the MB vs the CPU?

I went through the steps in the article above. Maybe I missed how to discern between a failed mb vs CPU.

At this point I think I have ruled out ram, psu (though still may need an upgrade), and ssd...
 
The only way for the average person to convict the motherboard is by ruling out everything else, or trying a different motherboard. You can test the CPU using Intel's CPU diagnostic utility, but if there is a problem with the motherboard, it can show up as a faulty CPU anyhow.

And since you can't get it to run anyway, impossible to even try.

If you don't visually see anything wrong with the CPU, and have no reason to believe the CPU is to blame, then it probably isn't. It's incredibly rare for a CPU to "go bad" or be faulty, unless something physical has happened to it such as being dropped from a reasonable height that would cause internal damage, physically have bent or broken pins (AMD), or as a result of a major power surge or something shorting it out, such as bent pins on the motherboard. Those can in some cases short out a CPU. And of course an unrealistic, over the top overclock that's been misconfigured with too much voltage for a while. CPUs just don't "die" for no reason. They just don't. Well, they do, but it's incredibly rare unless something else has failed and caused it.

My bet is that it is the power supply, motherboard or something else, and if you benched it according to the instructions in my guide, and had nothing else connected except the CPU, motherboard, PSU and memory, no drives, no graphics card (Using the iGPU instead), and only a single stick of memory (Trying both to be sure it isn't just one of them), then it pretty much has to be the motherboard or power supply and the power supply is the weakest link in this equation because you have a fairly decent motherboard but a crappy power supply, and an old power supply that is an unknown quantity.

Usually, unless you have good reason to believe something else is at fault, if there is a choice between the power supply which is old or crappy and a motherboard that isn't all that old, we usually try a known good power supply first, since generally they are less expensive and more often are the problem anyhow. It could still be the motherboard, but you need a good power supply anyway so I'd go that route FIRST.
 
Solution