PC has died overnight [Home Built PC]

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From: Roibert on 28 Nov 2009 05:34

My PC consists of a Asus PQ5 Pro board with a Intel Core 2 Duo E7500
2.93Ghx, which I recentlly overclocked to 3.6Ghz using a Titan Fenrir
cooler to keep the temperatures down to about 26C from 38C with a
standard cooler.
RAM is 4Gh of Corsair machted pair (2x 2Ghz)

The PSU is a Tagan TG600.

The OS is Win7 Pro, previously WinXP sp3, and has been running stable
for the last 3 months. I leave it running 24/7 with no problems in the
past. Now when I came to the PC this morning, and tried to bring the
monitor back to life it stayed black and I heard clicking noises coming
from the PC case, with the power led coming on and off.
I switched it off for about an hour then tried again where there was
nothing at all, no clicking, no sign of trying to start, just dead.
I then disconnected all hardware, and took out the cards and tried
starting it again, still nothing.

Any ideas as to what the problem is/? I first thought the PSU, ann was
going to try another one I had but the main plug is only 20 pins and the
board socket is 24 pins as well as another socket being different.

I am aware it could be the board or even the cpu, but I don't want nor
can afford to change the whole lot if I don't have to.

Thanks

From: Paul on 28 Nov 2009 05:42

From: Jef Roe on 28 Nov 2009 08:03

"Roibert" <bob(a)despammer.com> wrote in message
news:j_qdnYdBSoZXYY3WnZ2dnUVZ8hydnZ2d(a)giganews.com...
> My PC consists of a Asus PQ5 Pro board with a Intel Core 2 Duo E7500
> 2.93Ghx, which I recentlly overclocked to 3.6Ghz using a Titan Fenrir
> cooler to keep the temperatures down to about 26C from 38C with a standard
> cooler.
> RAM is 4Gh of Corsair machted pair (2x 2Ghz)
>
> The PSU is a Tagan TG600.
>
> The OS is Win7 Pro, previously WinXP sp3, and has been running stable for
> the last 3 months. I leave it running 24/7 with no problems in the past.
> Now when I came to the PC this morning, and tried to bring the monitor
> back to life it stayed black and I heard clicking noises coming from the
> PC case, with the power led coming on and off.
> I switched it off for about an hour then tried again where there was
> nothing at all, no clicking, no sign of trying to start, just dead.
> I then disconnected all hardware, and took out the cards and tried
> starting it again, still nothing.
>
> Any ideas as to what the problem is/? I first thought the PSU, ann was
> going to try another one I had but the main plug is only 20 pins and the
> board socket is 24 pins as well as another socket being different.
>
> I am aware it could be the board or even the cpu, but I don't want nor can
> afford to change the whole lot if I don't have to.
>
> Thanks

if there's absolutely nowt,

1. Check mains plug fuse and if OK then,
2. Check PSU fuse, if fitted, and if OK then,
3. try another PSU.

I also think a PSU can be run up with nowt connected by shorting 2 of the
sockets on the 20 way. You will need to check the manual.

From: VanguardLH on 28 Nov 2009 14:45

Roibert wrote:

> My PC consists of a Asus PQ5 Pro board with a Intel Core 2 Duo E7500
> 2.93Ghx, which I recentlly overclocked to 3.6Ghz using a Titan Fenrir
> cooler to keep the temperatures down to about 26C from 38C with a
> standard cooler.
> RAM is 4Gh of Corsair machted pair (2x 2Ghz)
>
> The PSU is a Tagan TG600.
>
> The OS is Win7 Pro, previously WinXP sp3, and has been running stable
> for the last 3 months. I leave it running 24/7 with no problems in the
> past. Now when I came to the PC this morning, and tried to bring the
> monitor back to life it stayed black and I heard clicking noises coming
> from the PC case, with the power led coming on and off.
> I switched it off for about an hour then tried again where there was
> nothing at all, no clicking, no sign of trying to start, just dead.
> I then disconnected all hardware, and took out the cards and tried
> starting it again, still nothing.
>
> Any ideas as to what the problem is/? I first thought the PSU, ann was
> going to try another one I had but the main plug is only 20 pins and the
> board socket is 24 pins as well as another socket being different.
>
> I am aware it could be the board or even the cpu, but I don't want nor
> can afford to change the whole lot if I don't have to.
>
> Thanks

A clicking noise. Well, a few components in your computer can do that. One
guess is that the clicking is coming from your hard drive because it cannot
spin up. The surge current when it tries to start to rotate is harmful is
left at that level so the drive protects itself. It keeps trying to start
rotating but cuts out because surge current doesn't wane (the spindle
doesn't move). Could be a seized spindle. Could be a fried voltage
regulator on the PCB on the drive (so there isn't enough torque to get the
spindle spinning). When you power up (and in a quiet room), listen to see
if you hear the whine of the hard drive as it starts to spin up. It should
start at a low pitch and quickly rise up in frequency, something like a
miniature turbine noise. If the fans are making lots of noise, remove the
side panel and disconnect the front and backpanel fans (but not the CPU,
GPU, or chipset fans). Then apply power with your ear next to the hard
drive. If you don't hear it whine then it isn't spinning up. Nothing can
be read from the hard drive until it is spinning.

However, I haven't seen a stuck hard drive (trying to draw its full surge
current because it's seized) that drew so much current that it dropped the
voltate on the 12V rail to make the PSU cut out because it senses a short,
but it could happen. Disconnect power from all hard drives, CD/DVD drives,
case fans (and leave the side panel off), disconnect all USB-attached
devices and other port-connected devices (except mouse and keyboard) to
minimize current draw on the PSU but still leave a semi-bootable system (you
can't boot off the unpowered hard disk but you could use a bootable floppy
with DOS on it if you still have a diskette drive (or you could leave just
one CD/DVD drive powered and use a bootable CD). It's really not important
that you boot an OS versus just checking if the PSU cuts out under a minimal
hardware configuration for power draw. If that works then just add the hard
drive that contains the OS partition from which you boot. If the hard disk
spins up (you hear its whine) and the PSU doesn't cut out so you can boot
stable into the OS then start adding back the disconnected device until the
problem returns. One of them could be shorted (or too little resistance and
drawing too much power that lowers the voltage) and has the PSU cut out to
protect your host. Or your PSU has gotten weak and can no longer maintain
the sustained load of all your devices (or has so much ripple in its output
that devices cannot regulate to a proper voltage on their PCB).

For PSUs with a 24-pin mobo connector, some will hinge the last 4 pins out
of the way. If you need 24 pins, you latch the hinged section. If not, you
swing it out of the way (there may be room around the 20-pin mobo connector
to leave the hinged part swung out and up against the connector). If there
isn't room for the hinged 4-pin section around the connector then use an
Xacto knife to slice the hinge and wire tie the 4-pin part out of the way.

From: Roibert on 28 Nov 2009 16:47

VanguardLH wrote:
> Roibert wrote:
>
>> My PC consists of a Asus PQ5 Pro board with a Intel Core 2 Duo E7500
>> 2.93Ghx, which I recentlly overclocked to 3.6Ghz using a Titan Fenrir
>> cooler to keep the temperatures down to about 26C from 38C with a
>> standard cooler.
>> RAM is 4Gh of Corsair machted pair (2x 2Ghz)
>>
>> The PSU is a Tagan TG600.
>>
>> The OS is Win7 Pro, previously WinXP sp3, and has been running stable
>> for the last 3 months. I leave it running 24/7 with no problems in the
>> past. Now when I came to the PC this morning, and tried to bring the
>> monitor back to life it stayed black and I heard clicking noises coming
>> from the PC case, with the power led coming on and off.
>> I switched it off for about an hour then tried again where there was
>> nothing at all, no clicking, no sign of trying to start, just dead.
>> I then disconnected all hardware, and took out the cards and tried
>> starting it again, still nothing.
>>
>> Any ideas as to what the problem is/? I first thought the PSU, ann was
>> going to try another one I had but the main plug is only 20 pins and the
>> board socket is 24 pins as well as another socket being different.
>>
>> I am aware it could be the board or even the cpu, but I don't want nor
>> can afford to change the whole lot if I don't have to.
>>
>> Thanks
>
> A clicking noise. Well, a few components in your computer can do that. One
> guess is that the clicking is coming from your hard drive because it cannot
> spin up. The surge current when it tries to start to rotate is harmful is
> left at that level so the drive protects itself. It keeps trying to start
> rotating but cuts out because surge current doesn't wane (the spindle
> doesn't move). Could be a seized spindle. Could be a fried voltage
> regulator on the PCB on the drive (so there isn't enough torque to get the
> spindle spinning). When you power up (and in a quiet room), listen to see
> if you hear the whine of the hard drive as it starts to spin up. It should
> start at a low pitch and quickly rise up in frequency, something like a
> miniature turbine noise. If the fans are making lots of noise, remove the
> side panel and disconnect the front and backpanel fans (but not the CPU,
> GPU, or chipset fans). Then apply power with your ear next to the hard
> drive. If you don't hear it whine then it isn't spinning up. Nothing can
> be read from the hard drive until it is spinning.
>
> However, I haven't seen a stuck hard drive (trying to draw its full surge
> current because it's seized) that drew so much current that it dropped the
> voltate on the 12V rail to make the PSU cut out because it senses a short,
> but it could happen. Disconnect power from all hard drives, CD/DVD drives,
> case fans (and leave the side panel off), disconnect all USB-attached
> devices and other port-connected devices (except mouse and keyboard) to
> minimize current draw on the PSU but still leave a semi-bootable system (you
> can't boot off the unpowered hard disk but you could use a bootable floppy
> with DOS on it if you still have a diskette drive (or you could leave just
> one CD/DVD drive powered and use a bootable CD). It's really not important
> that you boot an OS versus just checking if the PSU cuts out under a minimal
> hardware configuration for power draw. If that works then just add the hard
> drive that contains the OS partition from which you boot. If the hard disk
> spins up (you hear its whine) and the PSU doesn't cut out so you can boot
> stable into the OS then start adding back the disconnected device until the
> problem returns. One of them could be shorted (or too little resistance and
> drawing too much power that lowers the voltage) and has the PSU cut out to
> protect your host. Or your PSU has gotten weak and can no longer maintain
> the sustained load of all your devices (or has so much ripple in its output
> that devices cannot regulate to a proper voltage on their PCB).
>
> For PSUs with a 24-pin mobo connector, some will hinge the last 4 pins out
> of the way. If you need 24 pins, you latch the hinged section. If not, you
> swing it out of the way (there may be room around the 20-pin mobo connector
> to leave the hinged part swung out and up against the connector). If there
> isn't room for the hinged 4-pin section around the connector then use an
> Xacto knife to slice the hinge and wire tie the 4-pin part out of the way.

Ok, thanks for the explanation etc above. I disconnected all my drives
as well as taking out any cards which were slotted into the board. I
then switched on the pc from the front panel, and there was nothing.
Everything, ie PSU, cpu, board was dead, no life in the PSU so nothing
else would power up.
As the PSU is still under warranty I have taken it back to where I
bought it from and they say they will test it on Monday, and take it
from there. Meanwhile, I'm going to by a cheaper one just to get me by,
if that is what the problem was. I'll find out.

The HDs I have are an Hitachi 350Gb and Samsung 500Gb SATA11 drives, and
both are just under 12 months old.

Thanks again

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