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ThermalX · ‎10-11-2013

I have been building a new rig and just yesterday the last pieces arrived after more than a month of waiting.
I connected everything, turned on the PC and ran it for about 2 hours late last night to check if everything was okay.

Realtemp CPU temps averaged around 29 celcius and GPU @ 35 (I have a LC loop - 2 rads - CPU & GPU are on the loop)

Everything was working fine, played a few games to make sure it all ran okay. The GPU hit 72 celcius peak during games which led me to believe I had to re-seat the block which I was going to do the next morning.
The following morning I turn on the power, I see the motherboard's red LED lighting turn on (I have a maximus V gene) but not a single device powered up. I was stumped, how the heck does a PC go from working fine for 2 hours to completely dead during the night?

I'm at a loss, I've had so much frustration with getting the parts for the PC and now this...

Here is what I do know:

I tested the PSU with the paperclip method and it turned all the devices on;

I removed ALL the devices from the motherboard, GPU included and it still wouldn't turn on, so I removed all but one RAM chip and it still wouldn't turn on.;

I cleared the CMOS;

I used BIOS flashback to update the BIOS to the latest version;

Re-seated the CPU (I was desperate) and checked for damage, I found nothing on either the CPU or the socket.

I don't know what the problem is, is it the PSU that just magically broke or the motherboard, if so why are the LED's still turning on?

I feel I should mention that I made a few changes to Motherboard Stock VRM and Chipset cooler, I removed the thermal tape and used top of the line thermal paste (gelid GC extreme - Left over from usage on the CPU and GPU). I very carefully placed a tiny dot on all of the mosfet chips in the VRM and covered the chipset as well. I don't see how this could have caused any problems, but I really feel like I don't know anything anymore...I did check if the VRM sink made contact with the chips by checking the paste for signs of contact and they were present.

Please help me 😞

EDIT; I'm using the onboard power switch, I unplugged all the case pins from the MB.

chrisnyc75 · ‎10-11-2013

Something similar happened to me recently. After reassembling my system after a component RMA, everything was working fine, then the next morning it just wouldn't power up. At all. Like you, I was freaking out -- just about ready to throw the damn thing out the window. lol Later that day, it magically powered on by itself....and after doing so, the time in the BIOS was 0:00:00 and the time in Windows was off by like 6 years. I think it had to do with the timestamp mismatch (i.e. twice a day the time WILL be right no matter what it's set at)

Do a physical bios reset (i.e. take out the battery), thenp ut it back in and reassemble your rig like everything is normal. Try to power it on... if it won't start, just let it sit until tomorrow and see what happens. If it's like mine, at some point the cmos timestamp and windows timestamp will match and it just might magically power itself on. (yes, I know it sounds crazy, but it's a true story. lol)

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HiVizMan · ‎10-11-2013

Hello I am sorry to hear you are having issues.

Could you please list all your hardware so as to make it easier for us to help you. 🙂

To help us help you - please provide as much information about your system and the problem as possible.

ThermalX · ‎10-11-2013

HiVizMan wrote:
Hello I am sorry to hear you are having issues.

Could you please list all your hardware so as to make it easier for us to help you. 🙂

Absolutely.

PSU - Thermaltake toughpower 750 watt.

Motherboard - Maximus V gene

CPU - Intel I7 3770k

GPU - GTX 770 PNY

4 HDD's

1 SSD

Hardware is LC cooled.

A lot of case fans (12) I had to use splitter cables to fit multiple fans on a single port - I was very careful not to exceed the maximum 12watt rating, in fact I made sure that no single port had more then about 7 watts of power consumption on it, to be on the safe side.

Meanwhile, I will try another hard reset on the cmos and hope that my PC turns on magically too 😛 haha, after all, it failed magically so why wouldn't it start magically? Seems only logical, lol.

HiVizMan · ‎10-11-2013

Thank you.

Here is what I would do.

Remove your motherboard from the case, and place it on a non-conductive test surface, your cardboard motherboard box is ideal.

Now strip all the hardware from your system, leave nothing.

Take out the CPU too.

CMOS battery out too.

Now press the power button for a few seconds to clear out any residual current from your system.

Then press the clear CMOS button for a slow count of 3.

Leave your system bare as is for 12 hours.

While the system is open like this inspect your socket area very carefully for any misaligned pins or discolouration.

Finally see if you can borrow another PSU - how old is that PSU by the way.

To help us help you - please provide as much information about your system and the problem as possible.

ThermalX · ‎10-11-2013

HiVizMan wrote:
Thank you.

Here is what I would do.

Remove your motherboard from the case, and place it on a non-conductive test surface, your cardboard motherboard box is ideal.

Now strip all the hardware from your system, leave nothing.

Take out the CPU too.

CMOS battery out too.

Now press the power button for a few seconds to clear out any residual current from your system.

Then press the clear CMOS button for a slow count of 3.

Leave your system bare as is for 12 hours.

While the system is open like this inspect your socket area very carefully for any misaligned pins or discolouration.

Finally see if you can borrow another PSU - how old is that PSU by the way.

I will try it. The PSU is about 5 or 6 years old but has never given me any problems, it did work when I used the paperclip method.

ThermalX · ‎10-11-2013

The motherboard is out. I inspected the CPU socket again and this time a bit more thoroughly and found that one pin wasn't touching the CPU, it had been shifted to the left (it was located at the very left most section of the socket and was just touching the plastic socket wall). I put it back into place.

I tried to start up after that but no luck. I removed the VRM heatsink and inspected for burns or discoloration. I found nothing.

I will leave it for 12 hours but I don't think it will make a difference. I hope I am wrong. I would at least like to get an idea of what is at fault, the PSU, CPU or motherboard. In the worst case scenario I will need to buy a new piece of hardware, I just don't want it to be all three of them.

If the PSU starts using the paperclip method and runs all the fans, etc. it rules it out as faulty doesn't it?

ThermalX · ‎10-11-2013

GREAT NEWS! IT TURNED ON!

YEY!

CHEERS TO HiVizMan for the suggestion! I will definitely keep this solution in mind from now of on!

Now I can get back to trying to isolate the cause of the problem.

Thank you all for your help!

nullbyte · ‎10-11-2013

HiVizMan wrote:
Thank you.

Here is what I would do.

Remove your motherboard from the case, and place it on a non-conductive test surface, your cardboard motherboard box is ideal.

Now strip all the hardware from your system, leave nothing.

Take out the CPU too.

CMOS battery out too.

Now press the power button for a few seconds to clear out any residual current from your system.

Then press the clear CMOS button for a slow count of 3.

Leave your system bare as is for 12 hours.

While the system is open like this inspect your socket area very carefully for any misaligned pins or discolouration.

Finally see if you can borrow another PSU - how old is that PSU by the way.

Agreed with HiVizMan. When strange things happen that don't make sense in a computer it's usually transistor or electrical based. I had a similar situation years ago that turned out to be a missing screw sheath holding up my motherboard from the case. Stuff like that is a huge pain in the butt and a timesink but think we've all been there. Good luck!

Also try and strip out alternating RAM sticks and/or use replacement sticks if you have any laying around, my last issue was a bad RAM module, then the one before that a burned out video card.

nullbyte · ‎10-11-2013

HiVizMan wrote:
Thank you.

Here is what I would do.

Remove your motherboard from the case, and place it on a non-conductive test surface, your cardboard motherboard box is ideal.

Now strip all the hardware from your system, leave nothing.

Take out the CPU too.

CMOS battery out too.

Now press the power button for a few seconds to clear out any residual current from your system.

Then press the clear CMOS button for a slow count of 3.

Leave your system bare as is for 12 hours.

While the system is open like this inspect your socket area very carefully for any misaligned pins or discolouration.

Finally see if you can borrow another PSU - how old is that PSU by the way.

Agreed with HiVizMan. When strange things happen that don't make sense in a computer it's usually transistor or electrical based. I had a similar situation years ago that turned out to be a missing screw sheath holding up my motherboard from the case. Stuff like that is a huge pain in the butt and a timesink but think we've all been there. Good luck!

Also try and strip out alternating RAM sticks and/or use replacement sticks if you have any laying around, my last issue was a bad RAM module, then the one before that a burned out video card.

Oops, just saw the problem was solved 🙂

Nothing is booting - at all.