Author Topic: PC power up / unreliable startup debugging (Read 4101 times)

bd139 · « **Reply #25 on:** November 04, 2019, 05:56:24 pm »

Done the RAM thing.

Don’t have a POST card. I will try speaker and hairdryer next

Specmaster · « **Reply #26 on:** November 04, 2019, 06:00:41 pm »

You can get a power supply tester delivered tomorrow if you have prime from Amazon for £8.99 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Boladge-Detection-Display-Computer-Supply/dp/B073M2FFJ4/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=pc+power+supply+tester&qid=1572890289&sr=8-4

Specmaster · « **Reply #27 on:** November 04, 2019, 06:08:55 pm »

You're using an Asrock MB and I once had an Asrock MB and that was a constant source of trouble as the Bios was unstable and I had to upgrade the Bios several times, working with their support team resolve the problems I was having problems with getting it to boot after upgrading to the then, latest AMD Athlon. I now use Asus MB's and have had zero troubles with them.

bd139 · « **Reply #28 on:** November 04, 2019, 06:12:43 pm »

Yeah I’m expecting it to be that at the end of the day. I’m trying to take an analytical approach otherwise I just end up spending lots to resolve a minor problem.

I’m not sure what the advantage of the power supply testers are over a DMM. In fact they don’t test all the lines and the resolution is poor and the calibration unknown

Specmaster · « **Reply #29 on:** November 04, 2019, 06:31:46 pm »

Hmm, I think that they do test all the lines otherwise they are pretty pointless. I had problems with a power supply once and despite using a voltmeter, it checked out OK but putting the tester on it it showed that the 3.3v and 5v were low.

magic · « **Reply #30 on:** November 04, 2019, 07:57:54 pm »

Quote from: Specmaster on November 04, 2019, 06:31:46 pm

Hmm, I think that they do test all the lines otherwise they are pretty pointless. I had problems with a power supply once and despite using a voltmeter, it checked out OK but putting the tester on it it showed that the 3.3v and 5v were low.

And how would that miracle work?
If the problem is short term sags or ripple, a scope should be able to catch it.

soldar · « **Reply #31 on:** November 05, 2019, 02:23:10 pm »

Quote from: LateLesley on November 04, 2019, 09:26:19 am

Well, start with the basics. Is the switch actually ok? Because many a PC engineer has been caught out with bad case switches. (Me included!)

Arghh! Me too! And I never remember when it happens again. Last time I wasted so much time I ended up taking it to the friendly neighborhood computer guy and he found the cause in no time and charged me the minimum of one hour, I think it was 45 EUR, and I remember thinking it was the best spent money because I was testing all the components separately and they were all good. And it was not the first or the second time i had encountered that same problem.

When I built my Win XP system, about 2010, I was having some similar startup problems which were difficult to diagnose. I suspected the power supply but was not sure and did not want to open it and void the warranty so I connected some big-ass capacitors externally in parallel with the output. That seemed to resolve the problem but since the computer was working I never replaced the PSU. Almost ten years later there's still a bunch of capacitors dangling around in that case.

Zucca · « **Reply #32 on:** November 06, 2019, 12:56:08 pm »

Replace the switch with a good old one

soldar · « **Reply #33 on:** November 07, 2019, 08:23:41 am »

That switch looks like totally fake to me. Merely for decoration.

bd139 · « **Reply #34 on:** November 07, 2019, 09:43:52 am »

Yeah looks like it's made from 1970s butter knives

Haven't had a chance to investigate this further yet

bd139 · « **Reply #35 on:** November 15, 2019, 08:40:52 pm »

Ok this mystery is solved. I took the PC to bits and jump started the ATX supply on its own and noticed there was an RC time constant on the PWR_OK line as initially. That looked iffy to me so I cracked the power supply open and found the cause! Dry joint on the PWR_OK line. I flooded the joint with some silver bearing solder and it fires up every time fine now.

I suspect this probably passed self test in the factory or wasn’t even tested

Alas the warranty on the power supply is now voided but at least it works and didn’t cost me anything to fix!

SiliconWizard · « **Reply #36 on:** November 15, 2019, 08:54:21 pm »

What's the brand of the PS so we never buy one of those?

bd139 · « **Reply #37 on:** November 15, 2019, 10:43:24 pm »

Brand is: Be Quiet! Model is Pure Power 11.

I reckon, as usual, out of millions sold I only get the bad one

SiliconWizard · « **Reply #38 on:** November 15, 2019, 10:54:55 pm »

Quote from: bd139 on November 15, 2019, 10:43:24 pm

Brand is: Be Quiet! Model is Pure Power 11.

I reckon, as usual, out of millions sold I only get the bad one

Thanks.
Actually those two poor guys seem to have had bad issues with the model 10 (see the two customer reviews): https://www.newegg.com/p/1HU-004H-00065
but judging on the reviews, I can't tell whether this is not just pure trolling.

Let us know if yours ends up exploding.

bd139 · « **Reply #39 on:** November 15, 2019, 11:01:00 pm »

Ugh I hope that doesn’t happen. Mostly because I have to deal with Aria returns then.

Anyone got any recommendations for a quiet power supply (this PC is silent!) that isn’t a piece of shit?

SiliconWizard · « **Reply #40 on:** November 15, 2019, 11:04:37 pm »

I don't have a lot of experience with Be quiet. They are supposed to make rather good stuff. I for one have been purchasing Enermax PS almost exclusively for ages now (before that I had two PS failures, so I upped my game, Enermax PS being not really cheap, but never regretted it.) The recent models are quiet enough.

Black Phoenix · « **Reply #41 on:** November 16, 2019, 01:05:52 am »

Quote from: bd139 on November 15, 2019, 11:01:00 pm

Anyone got any recommendations for a quiet power supply (this PC is silent!) that isn’t a piece of shit?

Seasonic;
Corsair (some models are manufactured by Seasonic and just have the Corsair branding);
EVGA;
And Be Quiet to... They are not bad PSUs, your case is an isolated one I'm sure.

I had a Corsair AX1200i in one of my PCs and a Be Quiet SFX on a smaller HTPC back home and both are very reliable. Well I had 2 because or shipping error from Corsair, sold one with the PC and kept the other one new, intact on the box.

The best website in terms of Power Supply Units reviews - https://www.jonnyguru.com/blog/category/reviews/power-supplies/

magic · « **Reply #42 on:** November 16, 2019, 08:49:52 am »

silentpcreview was a great resource but it seems they stopped doing new reviews so you would be limited to stuff released a few years ago.

MrMobodies · « **Reply #43 on:** November 16, 2019, 05:07:02 pm »

I once had a customer some year ago who brought in a I think it was a Gigabyte motherboard with an I7 cpu, it was new at the time and it had an Antec power supply, it was one of the models where the cables were all black, no colour coding. It would boot up and hang or hang during bootup or not turn on at all.

I tested the voltages with a Dr. Power 2 tester and voltages on all the rails were spot on.

Now when I tried one of my spare power supplies it was fine and no problems, so they took it away, returned their faulty Antec and chose another make and they returned mine back a week later.

That's why I normally keep plenty of spares for this sort of thing.

bd139 · « **Reply #44 on:** November 16, 2019, 05:19:00 pm »

Yeah definitely worth having a couple floating around.

I just bought another 16Gb of ram for this one. Then it’ll replace my work desktop PC as well which is a somewhat ageing HP Xeon desktop. Then I shall have to buy a backup machine just in case (this pays the bills!)

Thecheshirecat · « **Reply #45 on:** December 15, 2019, 06:58:01 am »

It’s always the RAM or Motherboard


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Author Topic: PC power up / unreliable startup debugging (Read 4101 times)

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