Computer turns on and off at startup repeatedly

quicky008

Technomancer
I have a pc with the foll. config:

i5 3570s,12GB ddr3,GTX 1060,B75 d3h mainboard,Corsair TX 550m PSU,Corsair Spec 01 case

Of late,i've been facing a strange issue with the system.Whenever i turn it on(esp. after it has been kept switched off for over 3 hours),the pc turns on,then off again and then turns on for the 2nd time and proceeds to boot normally.Sometimes this cycle of turning off and on continues a few more times before it finally stays on permanently and proceeds to boot in to windows.

I removed and reseated the major components,changed the cmos battery,even replaced the PSU power cable but the issue still persists.

On googling,i discovered that in situations like this,the most likely culprit could be the PSU.Is there any way to determine whether the PSU itself is causing the problem,not something else?

Please advise what needs to be done to resolve this issue-does the PSU need to be RMA'd?

(PS. i recently upgraded windows 10 to v 1903-could it have anything to do with this issue?earlier when i had win 10 v1809,such problems never occurred).
 
Last edited:

whitestar_999

Super Moderator
Staff member
Use linux live usb/cd/dvd to run the system.If same issue then my guess would be mobo as chances of years old mobo developing issue is more than chances of TX550M developing issue.
 
OP
quicky008

quicky008

Technomancer
Ok i will try that, but the mobo isn't actually all that old-it was purchased in 2018 and is probably under warranty still.

The strange thing about it is that this problem occurs when the system has been off for 3 or more hours, if it's been off for 30mins to 1 hr, it occurs very rarely(almost never)
 

patkim

Cyborg Agent
When you say system is Off, is it Off as in Standby Mode (Shut down from OS) or Off as in Mains off?
When you shut down Windows, the PSU is still ON and put into standby mode where by 5V Standby trickle power is running on the mobo. This generally manages the soft off/on, wake on LAN , wake from hibernation etc.

When you shut off mains the PSU is completely off. No power on any of its output lines.
So you need to also test when does system exhibit this behavior, when it’s Mains off or soft off or both?
What if you put your system in S2/S3 standby (Sleep) mode? Does it gracefully come out of that or reset again?

Since it does not occur when PSU is off for short duration might also mean that the charged components inside PSU might be playing some role here (As it takes 30 – 40 minutes for capacitors to fully discharge)

Though not very reliable, but as a preliminary check you can try PSU Paperclip test without PC in question and check if the PSU fan runs stable or does it start stop and restart. Do it carefully and if not familiar search google how to do it. Again this may not be very reliable as modern branded PSUs could have variable speed fan system. The fan may not even run if it’s idle. So a multi-meter can be a handy tool here. Success in paperclip test is not necessarily a conformance of healthy PSU. It might still misbehave under load. However don’t run the PSU in paperclip test for long duration. 5 -10 mins is ok. Also make sure that PSU was completely disconnected for at least 30 – 40 mins before undertaking this test.

Mobo interacts with the PSU on Pin # 16 (This is Active Low) and if motherboard circuitry is somehow resetting this pin then PSU will reset itself.

Another thing to try is disconnect the storage device (HDD/SSD) and operate using the Power On/Off button on the cabinet. You may have to long press power button for 3 – 4 seconds to shut down.
When it comes to PSU’s, the only real power supply tester is another good power supply.
If you don’t have another system, ask a friend for help. Borrow his PSU and retry.
Finally call PSU & mobo service centers and describe your problem. If the guy over there has commitment and enthusiasm he might try to help and provide further advice. However above try-outs will put you in a sound position when you talk to service centers.
 
OP
quicky008

quicky008

Technomancer
^when i turn my pc off,i usually shut it down from windows and then switch off the ups as well,which cuts the power supply to the psu.Then i also switch off the ac mains connected to the ups.

This problem occurs rather unpredictably-usually when the system has been switched off from the ac mains and left aside for 2 hours or more.But sometimes it may not occur at all-like today,when despite remaining off for over 12 hours the pc booted up fine and started loading the OS-there were no on-off cycles at startup.

So its becoming really difficult to pin-point the cause of this issue.If it was a frequent occurrence then it would have perhaps been easy to troubleshoot-but as it occurs maybe 2 out of every 5 times i switch on the computer,its hard to find the real cause of this problem.

As the psu is still under warranty,i could have replaced the psu if it was indeed the culprit-but without being absolutely sure,i just cant send it for RMA now.

you said some settings in the bios/windows could be causing the issue-so i checked the power settings under windows and they all appear to be normal.Also the settings in bios appear to be ok as well.In fact if some bios setting was causing the problem,i think it would have been corrected by now as i had replaced the cmos battery recently which had reset all settings to their default values.

As i dont have much time to spare right now,i couldn't test the potentially faulty components such as the psu or mobo more thoroughly -but i will attempt to do so very soon-maybe i will try that paper-clip test like you suggested.

If i send my psu for RMA without ascertaining that its indeed the cause of my woes,will corsair replace it without checking?Even if the Psu was faulty,the problem might be difficult to reproduce,thereby making it hard to convince the folks at their service centers that its indeed acting up(as this on-off cycle tends to occur unpredictably).How much time do they take to replace a faulty unit?Will they provide a new unit or a refurb one?

I do have a seasonic s12ii psu in a secondary machine,but dont want to remove it from that system for testing as the process of removing and then reinstalling a power supply is just too cumbersome for me.Also i find the 24 pin atx power connector exceedingly difficult and hard to remove from the mobo-so i try to avoid doing it as much as possible (as i'm afraid that i might apply too much force while doing so and break something lol).

there are no reliable pc repair shops in the vicinity of my place-a few ones that exist are scammers/cheaters who try to take advantage of the customer's ignorance by overcharging them for shoddy,low quality repair jobs.So there's no hope that someone like them might be able to help me either.
 
OP
quicky008

quicky008

Technomancer
i tested my system for the last few days but this issue didn't occur.But today when i turned it on,it started normally and booted into windows and then suddenly just turned off abruptly(while all the services and background processes were loading).Then after a few seconds it turned back on again and started loading windows.

After it booted into windows i found 2 entries in the event log that were marked as "error" and "critical" respectively:

the one that read error displayed the foll. msg :"The previous system shutdown at 4:05:52 AM on ‎8/‎25/‎2019 was unexpected." (source:Eventlog)

and the critical error was as follows: "The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly." (source:kernel Power)

This has never happened before,on earlier occasions the system turned on and off a few times at startup-but exhibited no such behaviour in windows.

Is this a psu issue or a motherboard fault?I checked the voltages on all rails of my psu using Hwinfo but they appear to be normal.

This situation is becoming really difficult to diagnose as sometimes the system works for days on end with no problems whatsoever,and then suddenly when its the least expected this system power-cycling issue surfaces for no apparent reason!
 

chimera201

Wise Old Owl
More likely to be a mobo issue. What's the mobo revision (v1.0,v1.1,...)? AFAIK the first version of B75M D3H was great and then they started cost cutting measures with each subsequent revision.
 
OP
quicky008

quicky008

Technomancer
The board was purchased in Dec 17,the date of import that's listed on the box is July 2014.

So the board was already over 2 years old when i bought it.

The revision of the board is V 1.2 (the final revision)-it was already updated to the latest bios as well at the time of purchase.
 
OP
quicky008

quicky008

Technomancer
so is the likely culprit the mobo?

can a defective psu turn off,and then back on all by itself?or does it need a signal from the mobo to be able to do that?
 

whitestar_999

Super Moderator
Staff member
Check the voltages using hwinfo(when system is running) & in bios.If everything is alright(3.3V,5V,12V or very close to these values) then chances for bad mobo are higher. It could even be a bad processor(but those are rare & you need to be real unlucky to have that).
 
OP
quicky008

quicky008

Technomancer
the voltages appear to be normal-but in my pc i can only view the voltages of 12v and 3.3v rails-the readings for 5V aren't shown in hwinfo as well as the bios.
 

whitestar_999

Super Moderator
Staff member
That's strange. Anyway you can try getting a cheap 600/700w psu that comes for ~600-700 from some known company like iball/zebronics etc & try with that & run your system with that for 2-3 days(just run on integrated graphics & one hdd).You can always sell it back with price cut & think of it as service charge.
 
OP
quicky008

quicky008

Technomancer
in my system,i can only view the readouts of 12v,3.3v and a few other rails in hwinfo but 5v is not one of them-maybe the sensor that detects these voltages doesn't support the 5v rail for some odd reason.But i think it can still be tested with a multimeter-if the psu was at fault,would it still produce normal voltages?

i have another system lying around that has a frontech 450 w psu-i may remove it from there and install it on this system for testing purposes for a couple of days atleast.

there seems to be no other way to confirm which component is actually malfunctioning-the psu or the mobo.

If the mobo does turn out to be defective,will i get any warranty from GB's service center for it?Technically its under 3 years warranty from the date of purchase-so they are expected to accept it for rma as the date of purchase was dec '17.

or does GB consider the commencement of the warranty period to be from the date of import/manufacture?

i dont understand why my components always fail unexpectedly despite being used with considerable care,i have seen pcs in schools/offices/colleges etc that are greatly abused but still last a surprisingly long time.
 
Last edited:

whitestar_999

Super Moderator
Staff member
Chances of psu being faulty are low if voltages are fine but it does not mean psu is not faulty at all.

If gigabyte has this mobo lying in their old stock then they will give replacement if they fail to fix the current mobo.If they don't have it in stock(since it is out of production for a few years now) then they will issue you a credit note(expect ~30% of invoice value) valid for purchase of some other gigabyte product.

If failure of components is a pattern then issue may be with electrical supply(mains/ground/neutral).
 
OP
quicky008

quicky008

Technomancer
Earlier this issue only happened occasionally but now its happening everytime i switch on the pc-so much so that i have been compelled to stop using it for the time being,as i am afraid continued usage might accidentally damage some other component which might be ok.Previously it used to power cycle a few times upon being switched on and then booted into windows-but now its not even booting up properly-it just starts up,then shuts down,only to startup and shut down again over and over-it doesn't even get to the windows loading screen.

due to my busy schedule,i couldn't test the system with another psu yet,but i will do so within a few days time.
 
OP
quicky008

quicky008

Technomancer
i removed the corsair psu and installed a frontech psu in my system(running with onboard gfx and 1 hdd only).Upon switching on it booted up and went straight to windows,there were no power cycling anomalies whatsoever.

I've kept it running since afternoon and so far there have been no issues.If the system continues to work properly for the next 2-3 days,can we conclude that the psu was the culprit?

In that case should i submit the psu for RMA?


But one thing that concerns me is that if the folks at corsair's service center aren't able to replicate the same issue on their test systems,will the return the psu and claim that its working fine?Do they perform any testing at all in the returned units?
 
Last edited:

whitestar_999

Super Moderator
Staff member
I think this is your 2nd/3rd psu that went bad,right? Just give it to service centre mentioning system works fine with other psu & note down the psu serial no. to confirm its replacement else if they give same psu back then ask them what exactly did they fixed to return same psu.
 
OP
quicky008

quicky008

Technomancer
no,i don't think any other psu had died in the recent years/months before this one.

Of course i can't say for sure that the psu is indeed the one that's malfunctioning just yet-will have to observe it a little longer before reaching any conclusions.

But if the psu does have to be replaced, then it will be a little unexpected, not to mention surprising as i didn't think a tx series psu would fail so soon-its only around 1.6 years old.

Does corsair provide refurbished /repaired psus for defective units or do they replace them with new units? I've seen people on olx, fb marketplace etc who were selling new sealed corsair psus and claiming that they were Rma'd units received from the service center.
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom