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PC completely dead: Is it PSU, Mobo or Case?

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  • 03-11-2017 8:28pm
    #1
    €>sense
    Registered Users Posts: 146 ✭✭


    Hi all!

    Hoping for a bit of a steer. The PC is dead, no lights, no fans, nothing. Have switched sockets and cables, so pretty sure power is getting to the PSU.

    It has been giving trouble for about 9 months now. Over that time it was intermittently not responding to the power switch when powering on (Power switch always worked when powering off) i.e. it was all or nothing, either the switch powered up the computer and everything was fine even for hours and hours of gaming or it was dead.

    Some days it worked sometimes not. It got worse over time, but after a good deal of trial and error bizarrely I worked out that if I detached the power cable for a short while and turned the psu power switch off (not the case power switch) and left it for some time then it would work!

    This is not an overheating issue, as I am only talking about cold starts, so I can only conclude that the wait with the cable detached and the PSU power switch off allowed something to discharge.

    So for 9 months starting the PC was hit or miss, getting progressively worse, so that it was almost all miss with longer “discharge “ times required (going from 5 mins to an hour to a few hours) , until for the last few months, I detached the power cable going to bed guaranteeing a start the next day and simply leaving the pc on until bedtime.

    Until today, completely dead. No tricks are working, no matter how many hours left with PSU cable detached and the PSU power switch off.

    I think I can rule out the case and switch, so I think the issue is either PSU or mobo, but how do I work out which?

    Fractal design define R5
    PSU Seasonic G550 550 watt
    MSI H170A GAMING PRO mobo


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  • Options
    #2
    .G.
    Registered Users Posts: 5,415 ✭✭✭.G.


    Paper clip test for the PSU

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixcWCrYpw3Y


  • Options
    #3
    €>sense
    Registered Users Posts: 146 ✭✭€>sense


    OK

    Tried paper clip test and it worked, PSU fan started spinning when I hit the psu switch.

    But if I switch it off, the fan wont spin the second time, but will spin if left for a while before switching on.

    So I guess it’s a power supply issue - it’s surely not normal on that test for it not to work immediately after a successful test?

    I apparently am in warranty, anyone have experience returning a PSU to Seasonic? How long will it take, am a bit annoyed about having no pc for a few weeks, and may be down the cost of return postage too, PSUs are heavy!


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