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PC Won't Start unless PSU is reset, possible motherboard issue (Video Attached)

nofacekiller
Level 8
Here's a video (1 min) showing the issue:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1k3Tk2c6ONNtCoNUTi8l-ShPgVzdZt6Kk/view?usp=sharing

Brought it into MicroCenter to get the PC diagnosed, they thought it was my cable extensions and well...those are gone and the problem is still there. I really can't figure out what's going on with this darn thing. I called Asus, they don't even care to look at the video. The problem is intermittent, only happens once every few days, so there's a high likelihood that Asus won't be able to reproduce the issue. Moreover, they won't simply replace the motherboard, they insist on repairing it, and well...if they can't reproduce it or look at the video to see what's going on, I'll probably just get sent back the same motherboard with no fixes.

I tested my PSU with the included testing tool (included with EVGA PSUs), and it seems to be working fine. Not sure what to do or what's causing this.
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4 REPLIES 4

KMagic
Level 9
Id be curious to know your system specs. Particularly what PSU you are running. Also is that a 3090 or 3080 strix? Did the issue start after installing that card? Any other change you made to the system around the same time the issue started? An issue like this will be hard to diagnose, but my hunch is to focus on 2 main things. The motherboard, and the power supply. These are the only 2 items that could really cause the pc to not respond to a power button, given the system has power, and given the power button itself does not have a short or poor connection (wouldn't hurt to check the power button and its connection on the mobo before you do anything else for this reason). Once the system is running, does it pass all stress tests and run without any issue? If it does, then I really have to look at the motherboard hard. You can rule out any drives, RAM, Video card, and likely CPU. None of those components should cause an issue like this. This is down to power delivery somewhere. Have you looked the motherboard over good for any leaking or bloated capacitors? I feel like capacitor issues dont come up as much as they used to, especially on quality motherboards like you have, but I would still look them over. Cheap capacitors can fail over time. The will bloat and eventually begin to leak, and when this happens it can cause all kinds of weird power issues, until eventually the electronic device will fail completely. I really woldnt expect that to be the issue here given motherboard makers use high quality capacitors, but I mention this because it can cause this type of behavior in electronics when it does occur. The only true way to truly know for sure what the issue is here is going to be to start swapping out the potential problem parts. I would start with the Power supply if you have a 2nd one laying around. If the power supply checks out then you will need to swap out motherboards. Yea, diagnosing this is going to be a headache, but there is no easy answer. I will be shocked if the issue isn't the motherboard or power supply. Know what Powersupply you have, and its capacity, and its age would be helpful. If you have a high wattage, name brand, high end power supply then I really tend to lean more to suspecting the motherboard. Things you could try before tearing the whole system down would be flashing the motherboard bios to the latest version. I would be surprised if this fixes the issue though.

If you already run a UPS on your system, then ignore everything beyond this point, as I am about to sell you on why you should run a UPS and how it can prevent possible issues like this from occurring.

You seem to have a nice system build here, likely a good investment you've made. If thats a 3090 strix then you got $2,000 right there. Do you run a UPS on it? (Uninterruptable Power Supply, AKA Battery Back Up) Do you plug it in through a cheap power strip? Is the PC plugged directly into the wall? If you have a multi meter it could be advantageous to check the voltage at the wall plug. If you do not run a UPS I would highly highly suggest you get one. I see a lot of people spend big money building a nice system, wiring it all nicely, watching every degree of temperature, but then running the whole system on a $12 power strip from Walmart, or plugging it straight into the wall with no surge or power protection at all. Many system builders really dont understand how dirty or poor the power can be at your electrical plug, and often dont own the tools to actually test it. Having a good UPS run the system not only means that if your power ever flickers the system will continue to stay up, but a good ups monitors the power coming in and will essentially step in if the voltage spikes or sags out of tolerance levels. It helps ensure clean steady power to the system, which is important. If power completely goes out, the UPC will keep the system running on battery power and allow you to safely shut the system down. Not only does the UPS provide you all the protection from poor power delivery that could be right at your wall outlet, but they often come with lightweight software that you can install and it allows you to monitor all the parameters of power going into your system, including telling you what the voltage is coming in from the wall. Any sags, spikes, or issues will be logged and you can review those logs to see if you potentially have a power problem at your house that you would need to investigate. I sound like a salesman at this point, but I work in IT. In the places I work UPS are on every single machine, and Ive seen their benefits. I have a similar build as you at home (Lian li o11dXL case, strix 3090, looks similar to the system in your video) and I run my system on a UPS. I have several thousand dollars in that pc case so it makes sense to protect it with good power delivery. If you want to look at a good one I would recommend this: https://www.amazon.com/CyberPower-CP1500PFCLCD-Sinewave-Outlets-Mini-Tower/dp/B00429N19W/ref=sr_1_1_...

If you have no UPS on the system you are literally at the whims of whatever comes in through the wiring in your house. If the voltage spikes dangerously high, for whatever reason, your system eats it. A power surge can damage something and you likely will never know it occurred. A power surge could be caused by a thunderstorm going through youre area, lightning strikes close, and causes a surge on the power grid in that area, or you could just have poor power delivery on the line. Much like internet data lines, some lines are just better, or cleaner than others. Ive seen lightning burn up an entire house of electronics with one strike before. I had to replace my broadband modem several months ago due to a thunderstorm / lightning power surge. It killed my modem. I now also have my modem on a small UPS. My point is that this could have been caused by a power delivery issue, which caused a failure to occur in the power supply or motherboard, and now you have this odd issue that you cant diagnose. I think this is why so many people just never think about power delivery, we never consider that as a cause of such a problem - even if you determine the motherboard is bad, you likely dont first think "perhaps that thunderstorm 2 weeks ago was the culprit..." instead you think the board just went bad. Invest in a UPS to protect that system.

I had a similar issue with my 3080 STRIX OC that I sent in for RMA as it powered off and refused to let the system turn back on. It refused to attempt to turn back on without the PSU Switch being reset. Even after a reset mine would shut the machine off instantly.

Tried two different PSU's, no luck, every time the GPU power was disconnected it would boot up just fine. Tried my old 970 and it worked just fine and is continuing to work in the interim.

HX850, with a UPS.

Were you able to find any resolution to this? I was extremely disappointed that my card died after not even having it for 50 days, then having to most likely be shipped a unit that was repaired for another issue.

KMagic wrote:
Id be curious to know your system specs. Particularly what PSU you are running. Also is that a 3090 or 3080 strix? Did the issue start after installing that card? Any other change you made to the system around the same time the issue started? An issue like this will be hard to diagnose, but my hunch is to focus on 2 main things. The motherboard, and the power supply. These are the only 2 items that could really cause the pc to not respond to a power button, given the system has power, and given the power button itself does not have a short or poor connection (wouldn't hurt to check the power button and its connection on the mobo before you do anything else for this reason). Once the system is running, does it pass all stress tests and run without any issue? If it does, then I really have to look at the motherboard hard. You can rule out any drives, RAM, Video card, and likely CPU. None of those components should cause an issue like this. This is down to power delivery somewhere. Have you looked the motherboard over good for any leaking or bloated capacitors? I feel like capacitor issues dont come up as much as they used to, especially on quality motherboards like you have, but I would still look them over. Cheap capacitors can fail over time. The will bloat and eventually begin to leak, and when this happens it can cause all kinds of weird power issues, until eventually the electronic device will fail completely. I really woldnt expect that to be the issue here given motherboard makers use high quality capacitors, but I mention this because it can cause this type of behavior in electronics when it does occur. The only true way to truly know for sure what the issue is here is going to be to start swapping out the potential problem parts. I would start with the Power supply if you have a 2nd one laying around. If the power supply checks out then you will need to swap out motherboards. Yea, diagnosing this is going to be a headache, but there is no easy answer. I will be shocked if the issue isn't the motherboard or power supply. Know what Powersupply you have, and its capacity, and its age would be helpful. If you have a high wattage, name brand, high end power supply then I really tend to lean more to suspecting the motherboard. Things you could try before tearing the whole system down would be flashing the motherboard bios to the latest version. I would be surprised if this fixes the issue though.

If you already run a UPS on your system, then ignore everything beyond this point, as I am about to sell you on why you should run a UPS and how it can prevent possible issues like this from occurring.

You seem to have a nice system build here, likely a good investment you've made. If thats a 3090 strix then you got $2,000 right there. Do you run a UPS on it? (Uninterruptable Power Supply, AKA Battery Back Up) Do you plug it in through a cheap power strip? Is the PC plugged directly into the wall? If you have a multi meter it could be advantageous to check the voltage at the wall plug. If you do not run a UPS I would highly highly suggest you get one. I see a lot of people spend big money building a nice system, wiring it all nicely, watching every degree of temperature, but then running the whole system on a $12 power strip from Walmart, or plugging it straight into the wall with no surge or power protection at all. Many system builders really dont understand how dirty or poor the power can be at your electrical plug, and often dont own the tools to actually test it. Having a good UPS run the system not only means that if your power ever flickers the system will continue to stay up, but a good ups monitors the power coming in and will essentially step in if the voltage spikes or sags out of tolerance levels. It helps ensure clean steady power to the system, which is important. If power completely goes out, the UPC will keep the system running on battery power and allow you to safely shut the system down. Not only does the UPS provide you all the protection from poor power delivery that could be right at your wall outlet, but they often come with lightweight software that you can install and it allows you to monitor all the parameters of power going into your system, including telling you what the voltage is coming in from the wall. Any sags, spikes, or issues will be logged and you can review those logs to see if you potentially have a power problem at your house that you would need to investigate. I sound like a salesman at this point, but I work in IT. In the places I work UPS are on every single machine, and Ive seen their benefits. I have a similar build as you at home (Lian li o11dXL case, strix 3090, looks similar to the system in your video) and I run my system on a UPS. I have several thousand dollars in that pc case so it makes sense to protect it with good power delivery. If you want to look at a good one I would recommend this: https://www.amazon.com/CyberPower-CP1500PFCLCD-Sinewave-Outlets-Mini-Tower/dp/B00429N19W/ref=sr_1_1_...

If you have no UPS on the system you are literally at the whims of whatever comes in through the wiring in your house. If the voltage spikes dangerously high, for whatever reason, your system eats it. A power surge can damage something and you likely will never know it occurred. A power surge could be caused by a thunderstorm going through youre area, lightning strikes close, and causes a surge on the power grid in that area, or you could just have poor power delivery on the line. Much like internet data lines, some lines are just better, or cleaner than others. Ive seen lightning burn up an entire house of electronics with one strike before. I had to replace my broadband modem several months ago due to a thunderstorm / lightning power surge. It killed my modem. I now also have my modem on a small UPS. My point is that this could have been caused by a power delivery issue, which caused a failure to occur in the power supply or motherboard, and now you have this odd issue that you cant diagnose. I think this is why so many people just never think about power delivery, we never consider that as a cause of such a problem - even if you determine the motherboard is bad, you likely dont first think "perhaps that thunderstorm 2 weeks ago was the culprit..." instead you think the board just went bad. Invest in a UPS to protect that system.


I'm using an EVGA SuperNova G3 1000w. And I'm not using a UPS, though I've never had any problems like this with any previous PCs. I'm inclined to think it's most likely the motherboard, or perhaps the PSU. I plan to RMA the motherboard, but Asus is only going to provide a refurb. Who knows if that will come with its own problems.

Is that an 8 pin (4x4) CPU Cable?

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