My PCwont turn on!

[dafoe]

I dediced to "upgrade" to a new PC about 3 years ago I bought a ASUS M3A78 motherboard. To make a long story short it destroyed at least 3-4 PSUs in that time. In it's final shot it managed to take out itself and my PSU in a mudrer/suicide.

Amazingly, I was able to get the PSU RMAd. And like a complete idiot I bought another ASUS board: the M3A78 PRO. Off Ebay no less

It worked fine for a couple of months And I was actually able to plug in the old C drive without reinstalling Windows. But I needed that drive for something else. So a couple of weeks ago I installed Windows 7 on an old 200GB IDE hard drive. I had no issues except for that everytime I woud shut the PC down it would go into sleep or hibernate mode instead. Which was annoying. Becase the entire point of shutting it off was to conserve energy. My light bill is high enough. Especially with the AC running. Anyway, I figured it was the default setting in Windows and was going to change it eventually.

So last night I shut off the PC, forgetting about the hibernate issue. I quickly remember and shut the PSU off.

This morning it wont turn on it refuses to turn on. I have tried everything. The PSU fan doesn't even spin up. I just get a blinking SB POWER light I have reseated both power connectors, the RAM and checked the power switch wire to make sure it's secure. I have even disconnected everything from the motherboard to make sure there isn't something causing a short on the MB.

I am so frustrated. I am sick of pouring money into this POS. Most of the failed PSUs have been RMA'd. But I did have to buy two of them. Three if you consider that I got screwed out of my rebate on the original one- which doubled the price. I have bought two MBs and the second one cost as much as the first one cost brand new. Three years later! And it still takes me forever to transfer anything because all the USB connectors on this board are shitty USB 2.0. I was going to by a 3.0 card Glad I didn't now

I am just so disgusted right now. I don't have another PC to test the PSU. I was just hoping somebody might have some ideas as to what the hell is going on here.

[MOVIEGEEK]

Something is shorting out on that mobo but you can test your PSU.

[johns0]

What type and brand of psu are you using?I had a asus m3a78 with no problems at all,i was using good quality antec 650w trio.

[aedipuss]

unplug power. remove everything except cpu/ram including ALL usb/audio/etc wires connected to the board. double check under motherboard, if possible, that no loose screw or anything else touches motherboard and case except standoff towers. replug and see if the blinking goes away. if so some connection is shorting out. if not board and/or psu bad.

[aedipuss]

strange they would list the lifetime duration of the solid caps on that board as rated to

5000 hrs VRM solid capacitor

at 10 hours a day that's 500 days or 1.5 years???

[johns0]

http://event.asus.com/mb/5000hrs_VRM/

[aedipuss]

ok - so if your case cooling is bad or the cpu is run mostly highly stressed they could die in 1/2 a year if it's on all the time or a year and a half at 10 hours a day.

so it's possible the blinking light is caused by bad power regulation caps also.

[MOVIEGEEK]

http://event.asus.com/mb/5000hrs_VRM/

That explains a lot how they are rated, since most mobo's operate at ~40C it should last a lifetime. I had a 10 year old PC that still ran like a champ until I recycled it recently, it had a PIII with PC133 RAM so it was time to let it go.

[ranchhand]

I hope you played taps as they lowered it into the crusher; those old units were seriously built. I still have an old Win98 original equipment unit that I use for legacy games, and the old guy never says die.

[Bjs]

Check for -5v from psu ... if its not available newer systems wont boot.

[intracube]

This is a long shot, but is/was the computer plugged into a UPS?

[Nelson37]

Describe the power supplies which have failed, make, model, brand, power rating.

Describe the number of devices connected to the Mobo which use power. Include any and all USB peripherals, drives, and expansion cards, especially video.

Describe the power conditions in your area, blackouts, lightning, brownouts, lights flickering, etc.

Describe any and all UPS or surge strips connected to the PC. Remove them and use a different outlet and ideally a different circuit for testing. Have you had the building ground checked? I have had several unusual power-related issues traced back to a bad building ground.

Usually a board with a short will not take an average of one full year to damage a power supply. The time interval would appear to make this diagnosis highly unlikely. My current best guess would be overheating caused by too much power draw.

Was the PC moved, changed, or upgraded in ANY way? I once had a case with very tight clearances and a slight warp, such that putting on the case cover would cause a short, removing the cover it would boot. Re-mounting the board solved this. If it did boot with the cover on, the slightest movement of the PC could cause a freeze and failure to re-boot..

You use terms like "shut down the PC", and "shut down the PSU". Describe clearly and in detail exactly what you did to achieve this. Did you check that the 110V slider switch did not get moved to 220V? If you used the rear switch to shut down, this becomes a possibility. Hence the need for a more exacting description of what you did.

Such as "Start Menu, Shutdown, Turn off PC", "held down the case power switch for 10 seconds", "used the rear PSU switch", or "yanked out the power cord".

[ranchhand]

Quit guessing and pushing paper clips into your power supply; get a PS tester. I use mine every week and it has saved me countless hours of guessing & testing. You wouldn't need to post this if you had one, make sense?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16899887005

[Nelson37]

Probably a useful tool, though I've never needed one. In this case, it would probably tell him if his power supply is dead; with the three that already died this would be a good guess.

What it won't do is tell him how it got that way; again with three already dead the main question is not whether or not it died, but what is causing so many PSUs to fail.

What's the old saying? "Once is bad luck, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action."

[MOVIEGEEK]

Quit guessing and pushing paper clips into your power supply

You got to admit it's kind of exciting sticking paperclips into electrical sockets.

I agree with ranchhand get yourself a digital multimeter, you can check voltage and resistance. If a short isn't causing PSU failure then a high load is probably the cause, since the OP hasn't responded I guess we will never know.

[turk690]

Quit guessing and pushing paper clips into your power supply; get a PS tester.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16899887005

Repairing server & workstation PSUs are part of my job. When a questionable PSU is in front of me with no clue as to whose or which motherboard it's supposed to make happy, I single out the PWR ON wire (usually the green one, although color & connector pin number can vary by spiteful manufacturer), and after insuring there is no short across the AC input, gingerly plug it in. Then I get a straightened paper clip, fold it into a U, then short out the PWR ON pin to GND (black wire, usually just beside it on the connector). A good UPS will come to life; a bad one will not or rapidly smell bad (!) or make sighing noises. Under trained hands, paper clips can be handy.

[ranchhand]

Not to beat the subject to death, but the tester I linked to in my last post will test every rail with a readout of voltage (I have had PSs that put out voltage on all rails, but wayyy under what it should be on only a couple; can you imaging trying to analyze what wierd things would go on with that situation?!) and whether it is a constant or fluctuating voltage (another head-scratcher without a tester). For $20? That's a bargain IMHO. I will admit though, there is a certain exciting sense of adventure using a paper clip! Moviegeek: I'm with you, buddy, why do OPs plead for help and then never respond? The help given in this forum can save someone hundreds of dollars. Nelson: good point, that thought crossed my mind also. But with a tester he can really detail the problems and see if the same pattern of failure appears on each one which could give him a clue. OP seems to feel that the Asus mobo is causing his power supplys to fail, but that can't happen. He's got some other problem that is the cause.

[classfour]

I've used a Coolmax to determine it was the power supply - not the MOBO or CPU - several times.

I did have one PSU frie the Coolmax - which was after it had fried the processor and a board.

[legendster]

If by SB power light you mean your Mother Board's power light then its definitely your PSU, go buy a nice one that has manufacturer service warranty on it, something like a cooler master.

Ive had times when I had to replace either the SMPS (PSU) or the Board itself when things didnt spin up or power up !

just make the right research and correct choice before buying anything electrical.