Troubles with PC not powering up in a normal way.

[Lionezz]

Hi all,

I'm a damsel in distress who needs a spot of technical advice

My Pc got custom built june 2009 by a friend of mine.

Mobo : Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P
CPU : Intel i7-920 2.66
OS : Win7 ultimate 64-bit
PSU : Be quiet 850W


I read the Gigabyte guide, haven't applied any suggestions before posting this. Tbh have to read it again, not being a tech makes it all a bit hard to understand.

The PC isn't overclocked afaik and I haven't updated the BIOS nor have I reinstalled windows yet or reversed to a back-up/system restore. I do regular windows upgrades manually. I run an antivirus scan twice a week. Spybot and Antimalware I run manually once a week.

Some weeks ago, the first trouble started :

First it occured in windows : the energy scheme is set to high performance (no sleepmode) and the power on/off button is used to put the pc in sleepmode manually when I go afk for a bit longer.
Always worked fine. Then suddenly, when using it, the pc powered down. I checked settings, nothing had changed. I switched to a balanced scheme where the pc would go to sleepmode after 5 minutes, same thing : it powered down.

My first idea was that the power supply was faulty or some cables might be gotten dislodged due to moving the case, so I opened it and checked but afaics, all cables were still connected as they should.

Real life took over, I didn't have time to check it further, so I left it at that for the time being.

Then, some weeks later, I couldn't start the pc up in the morning. I finally got it back up after pushing the "clearing CMOS" button at the back. I'm not sure about the exact impact of this button whether it resets the same way as a jumper would, or that it just loads failsafe default settings. Afterwards, I hat to hit the power button on the pc a number of times before the machine actually did power up ; while hitting the on/off button, the blue led on the CMOS button went on and off.

I then got a new battery and replaced the one on the MoBo hoping it would do the trick.
Still didn't power up the way it should. When it finally got running, I entered the BIOS to set date and time and check the other main settings comparing with the manual (I don't know what I can change safely or not). On save+exit, the pc powered down and again did not want to start up until I hit the CLR CMOS button. Had to hit the start button several times again before actually powered up. I again entered the BIOS, to check on the date and it did save the date/time settings. I was wondering if I had to copy those BIOS settings to the CMOS using F12 but didn't.

I'm going to leave the PC powered up for the next 24h, then see what happens when I power it down again and restart.

For the record, once up and running, it stays stable, no power interrupt or any other issue.

Anyone has any suggestions what the cause of this might be and/or what the solution is ? I can't afford to buy a new one atm (or at least not the config I would like to have ^^), so I'd be grateful to know how to make this one survive another year

There is one other thing I've noticed, but that might not have anything to do with the power up trouble. I'm mentioning it anyway, to be complete.

I have an 150 Mbps cable connection, which come through the ISP's modem. I have a Linksys WRT610n (v2) router (also 1 Gb capable) attached to it and the in-built ethernet connector on the MoBo is also 1Gb capable. Cables are Cat5e.

Now, the router is supposed to have a blue led when the connection is 1Gb, but unfortunately it doesn't, it is green which means it's only a 10/100 connection. I am wondering if it's the bottleneck that makes loading games sometimes slower than expected.

The speedtest shows that I more or less get the 150 Mbps promised and also get the promised upload, but the latency is around 50, which seems a little bit off.

I wanted to check so this is what I did :

- Started the ISP modem
- When the modem was up, I started my router ; the led was blue
- Started the computer. Even before windows, the led on the router went back to green.
- Loaded windows and checked task manager, which says the connection is 1Gb.
- The ethernet connector on the MoBo is orange (= 1Gb according to manual)

So... why don't I get a blue connection led on my router ? Is it a sign it's a bottleneck and what can there be done about it ? I searched the router's settings but can't find anything that might help (maybe I overlook something), I switched the cable between router and PC for a shorter one, I checked the ethernet card settings but there's not much I dare change there (tried to force 1Gb duplex as well as auto negociation but both work fine, else I'm not sure what I could dis- or enable).


That's about it. If anyof you tech savvy guys could give me a clue where to look, I'd be grafeful.

Have a nice day

Lio

 

[Darkbreeze]

What is the model number of your BeQuiet unit?

 

[Lionezz]

Hi,

Ty for reacting.

It's a Dark Power Pro model, BQT-P7-PRO. The manual can be found here : download pdf

 

[Darkbreeze]

how many watts is your model

 

[Darkbreeze]

what's the model of your cable modem? If it's not a docsis 3.0 compatible modem capable also of 1gbps connections you won't get a 1gbps speed and light.

 

[Lionezz]

Hi,

The power unit is as mentioned in my first post, 850 Watts

The ISP's modem is DOCSIS 3.0 . But that problem is solved, seems to be an error in the documentation of the router where the colours were swapped the wrong way round.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Sorry, I didn't see the wattage spec in that post, my bad. Good deal on the network issue.

The first thing I'd do is update the BIOS. Years back updating the BIOS was only done when absolutely necessary because of the difficulty of doing so and also the risk involved with a bad flash. These days it's usually easier than a windows update, and generally you encounter fewer issues than one as well, especially during that rough patch of updates MS sent out. Anyhow, there is really no reason to not always have the most current BIOS update installed. Memory compatibility, CPU support, hardware management and peripheral support are all issues generally improved upon or addressed by BIOS updates.

Secondly, I'd download HWinfo, install and run it. In the first box that opens check mark the sensors box only and then take screenshots of the sensor readings. Take as many screenshots as are necessary to capture all the sensor readings and then post the images here. You can also do some fairly comprehensive basic testing using the methods here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ac7YMUcMjbw

Short of any of that working, I'd double check the connections on the power switch button on your front panel to make sure there are no loose, broken or pinched connections or wires. Also check them at the motherboard (The tiny wires coming from the front panel to the motherboard). Make certain the 20 or 24 pin ATX power connector on the mother board is completely and firmly locked down into it's socket. It can be loose just a hair and then have intermittent issues. Often a slight gap or not quite all the way connected electrical circuit will work if the circuit is able to initiate but will at first have trouble completing the circuit to all the flow of current.

Make the same check to the 4 or 8 pin CPU power cable and socket. And any graphics card connectors. Also make sure the PC is not sitting on carpet or anything than can obstruct the internal PSU airflow, just as SOP. Let me know if you have any success of lack thereof and we'll go from there. You might check to see if your PSU is still under warranty from the OEM as you may need to send it back to them for RMA if it tests bad, or get another. That's a pretty darn good PSU but even the best of the best can have failures or be shipped with a fault.