Legit Reviews

Hello all,

I've run into a bit of a problem and it's beyond my current abilities so I'm hoping someone here can chip in some advice to help me out.

I got my current PC about 6 months ago...

Gigabyte EP-45 DS3R, C2D E8400 with Zalman 9500AT cooler, ST PC2-6400 2x2GB, MSI HD4850, 7200.11 500GB, Zalman 600PSU

About 2 months ago, it would have problems when I hit the power button. The fans and everything would come on really loud, but it would not go any further. If I just quickly toggled the power switch on the back of the PSU, it would come on fine. Imagine that "whoosh" you hear when you first power up, well, mine would "whoosh" non-stop until I flipped the switch on the back.

Yesterday, it just turned itself off in the middle of the boot, but instantly reboot. I figured it was a fluke and didn't worry. After a couple hours of lite use, it just died. I was annoyed, but since it was after midnight, I didn't do anything.

Today, same problems. It'll "whoosh" and "whoosh" and nothing else. I eventually got it to power up once, only to have it shut down after about an hour. While it was running, I checked the core temps and they were at 40 at 20% load (about as high as it gets).

Looking at the machine, my guess is the CPU cooler isn't sitting right or perhaps the PSU is messed up. When I received the computer, the CPU cooler had shifted a bit in shipping and the shop told me to just manually adjust it, which I did.

Any thoughts? It's a long holiday weekend here, so no shops are open to take it to and my old PC is slow as crap and annoying me!

Cheers

Kevin

A little update, it won't power up at all anymore. Just the fans running when I hit the power button. They don't stop, so I have to toggle the switch. Then the power button won't work at all for several minutes.

knowing nothing else it sounds to me like your PSU is bad. Do you have another one you could swap to test that? maybe from your old system?

I just had my work computer die in a similar fashion. When you pressed the power button the fans would spin, but nothing would load (or display on the screen).

That was a bad motherboard.

Dan

DMB2000uk wrote:I just had my work computer die in a similar fashion. When you pressed the power button the fans would spin, but nothing would load (or display on the screen).

That was a bad motherboard.

Dan

Any way to diagnose this without getting a new motherboard?

Does your board have a speaker for POST Code error beeps? If not, does it have a connection for a speaker for POST Code error beeps?

Have you tried running the board with just one stick of RAM in different RAM slots, then trying the same again with the other stick?

As your board is only 6months old, it will be still under warranty, so you can take it back to the place you bought it for (look for an RMA if you bought it online), and they will repair/replace it for you.

Dan

I actually took it to a shop today to see if they had a PSU they could throw in. They asked what the problem was and when I explained, they wanted to see it themselves...and it powered up just fine. Multiple power ups and it never faulted there. I brought it home and no problems here either. Oh well, I guess we'll see. I did change the power cable from the wall to the PSU, so maybe that was it.

Hmm this seems very peculiar especially after doing all the things you've tried
have you tried a BIOS reset?

Sounds to me like your problem had something to do with moving it, like a loose cable or wire. The first thing I try when I face a problem is removing, cleaning and plugging back in all my connections. I'm glad you got it working.

I had the exact same problem once. It turned out taht the RAM was incompatible with the mobo and it was causing issues.

But as aforementioned, definately try to clear the CMOS and see if it helps.

Definitely check the connectors. Try reseating the graphic card, too. That has been the case plenty of times for my friends and me.

~Ibrahim~

The problem is back...it was fine for several months, but has started up again. I took everything out of the system except the CPU and cooler, unplugged it all and then re-installed it all. I even swapped out a couple of the modular power cables. It worked fine for 2 days, but started up again. I took it to a different shop and they diagnosed it as a bad MSI 4850. I sent the card in for service and they sent a new one. No problems for 2 days. Tonight, it's back.

I don't have any time to take it to the shop for a couple of days b/c of my work schedule, but I can fiddle around at night. Any advice on where to start this time? Resetting the CPU would be easiest, but I've never done that before.

i have had several systems do this before, both turned out to be a bad PSU (Antec)

you really have not had it easy kprrok and i seriously think that you have a bad motherboard. this happened to my mates pc that is the same as mine but not overclocked and his made the whoosh at power up but thats it nothing else. after changing the motherboard well replacing it with new one his now works fine so try at some point to get a replacment motherboard on your warrenty and see how that goes!

be alot easier to swap out the PS.....

So I tried to fix stuff last night. I tried changing RAM slots, swapping HDD connectors, etc. Still had the same problem this morning. I then had to try to find a PSU with an 8-pin ATX 12v connector, my old one was a 4-pin. Went to the shop and the only one they had was $75. I didn't want to spend that much just to test it, so I decided I'm just going to return it to Zalman for service. It's still under warranty so it's free. I'll just be out of a gaming computer for a week or so. Oh well, I guess my netbook will now be my primary.

thanks for the advice. I'll let you know how this goes. on the plus side, I'm learning a lot more about building a full system by swapping out cables, and just about every part now.

KPRROK wrote:So I tried to fix stuff last night. I tried changing RAM slots, swapping HDD connectors, etc. Still had the same problem this morning. I then had to try to find a PSU with an 8-pin ATX 12v connector, my old one was a 4-pin. Went to the shop and the only one they had was $75. I didn't want to spend that much just to test it, so I decided I'm just going to return it to Zalman for service. It's still under warranty so it's free. I'll just be out of a gaming computer for a week or so. Oh well, I guess my netbook will now be my primary.

thanks for the advice. I'll let you know how this goes. on the plus side, I'm learning a lot more about building a full system by swapping out cables, and just about every part now.

I would say 2/3 of the people here know so much about computers because theirs are always broken, LOL.

I remember my first BSOD........

Good luck!

~Ibrahim~

ikjadoon wrote:I would say 2/3 of the people here know so much about computers because theirs are always broken, LOL.

the best way to learn is to have such "experiments" or "problems" or...oh yeah " virus' "

i've had 3 boards die, 4 videocards, 1 CPU, 1 PSU, 1 RAM stick, more fans than i could count, and a few Hard drives as well as optical(2 CD drives, 1 DVD drive) and one floppy(after i *may* have shorted it out with the PSU connector) and maybe my current graphics card(a GSO) not sure if its dead, it has issues

sh!t happens

make sure they send it back working!

Got my PSU back from Zalman A/S. Changing out the PSU wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Probably because I only have 2HDDs, 1 ODD, and 1VGA to plug in.

It's powered up OK and rebooted twice with no problems. Hopefully this will solve the problem, but I'm not declaring success until I go a week without any problems.

Thanks again for the advice.

Kevin