PC suddenly stopped working

nac

nac

Aspiring Novelist
PC suddenly stopped. Pressing power button didn't wake it.

These are the troubleshoot things I have done so far,

Removed CMOS and put it back after few minutes. Since I can see the things inside as the case is open now, CPU fan spins for a second and stops.
Removed all SATA cables & it's power cables and case fan pin, same result
Removed RAM stick, same result.

Looked up online to see if there is any troubleshoot option I can do. One suggestion is to try PSU out of the case with no motherboard by shorting green and black wire with paper clip. I tried it, but nothing. I am not able to conclude that it's PSU issue as I haven't done this troubleshooting before without motherboard and using paper clip. So I am not sure if I shorted those wires right.

BTW, Antec VP450p is the one I have.

I don't have PSU tester or multi meter to try any other suggestions.

Put this PSU in my old system, same result - CPU fan and PSU fan spins for a second and stops. When I retired my old system 10 months back, it was working.

I have this old PSU (UMAX 450W) which I retired 3.5yrs back when I bought a new one. Yeah, it was in working condition then and I have tried few times in the last few years when I had to troubleshoot my system. Since the CPU power cable only has 4 pins, and my motherboard has 8 pins I was little skeptical about trying this PSU with my system. After confirming online that I can use it, I tried.

Now my system works with the old PSU. I didn't expect this new one would go kaput this soon. This is about same as my local PSUs as far as longevity is concern and they just cost me Rs. 500/-. This is 5x more expensive and it's life is same as the local ones.

It's not CPU/motherboard, it's PSU or at least that's my conclusion. PSU is out of warranty by 6 months, unfortunately. Now I have to shell out to get it repaired or buy a new one.

One suggestion on online was, it could be fuse. Since it's out of warranty, I opened it to see if I can find the fuse and check. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the fuse. End up cleaning the dust and reassembled.

I am thinking about giving this to nearby service center (if I can find one in my town) to fix. On the other hand, I am not sure if I can keep running my system with 4 pin connector for long and if I can't find a computer shop to repair my PSU, the other choice is to get a new one. That's gonna cost me and I am not in position to get a new one - something like Antec BP or Corsair VS.

Luckily, I had a spare PSU else this would be a bigger headache. I wanted to clean the PSU for a very long time, I didn't because it would void the warranty if I open the PSU case. Now I have a cleaned a dead one. Keeping my fingers crossed about finding a PC repair shop, if they could fix it and not cost a bomb.
 
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nac

nac

Aspiring Novelist
Tried again with paper clip, it works. But unfortunately, not under load.

When I was trying to fix my motherboard last year, there was this shop agreed to look into it and fixed. No other shop said they could fix, or the least to look into it.
I called them, and they said they can't as it's difficult to get parts for PSU. I don't know who else would do.

Called regional service center, I was told they have only service center in Chennai no other places in Tamilnadu and asked to courier it to them. :(
Round trip packing and shipping would cost about 400/- (rough estimation). Then there is service charge and new parts if needed.
Don't know what I am gonna do.
 
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whitestar_999

Super Moderator
Staff member
Antec VP series has gone downhill,the least one should buy nowadays is corsair CXx5x series. Better get a Corsair CX450/550(if planning on getting something like 1060/1660 equivalent in future). As for those 4 pins,that should work fine because only power hungry processors require all 8 pins but still try to get a new psu soon.
 
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billubakra

Conversation Architect
whitestar_999 said:
Antec VP series has gone downhill,the least one should buy nowadays is corsair CXx5x series. Better get a Corsair CX450/550(if planning on getting something like 1060/1660 equivalent in future). As for those 4 pins,that should work fine because only power hungry processors require all 8 pins but still try to get a new psu soon.
Click to expand...
What's wrong with the VP series btw?
 
Randy_Marsh

Randy_Marsh

Youngling
@nac How is your home electricity these days? Are you experiencing low voltages frequently?
My cousin's PSU blew up last week and I am sure it has to do with frequent changes in voltage due to heavy rain.
 
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whitestar_999

Super Moderator
Staff member
Randy_Marsh said:
My cousin's PSU blew up last week and I am sure it has to do with frequent changes in voltage due to heavy rain.
Click to expand...
That should not happen to any good psu,what model was the psu & if voltage fluctuation was so severe then why no protection measure like voltage stabilizer/ups for entire home.
 
Randy_Marsh

Randy_Marsh

Youngling
whitestar_999 said:
That should not happen to any good psu,what model was the psu & if voltage fluctuation was so severe then why no protection measure like voltage stabilizer/ups for entire home.
Click to expand...
It was the cheaper one, VS550. Maybe similar thing happened with nac's psu as VP series isn't great too.
 
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nac

nac

Aspiring Novelist
Randy_Marsh said:
@nac How is your home electricity these days? Are you experiencing low voltages frequently?
My cousin's PSU blew up last week and I am sure it has to do with frequent changes in voltage due to heavy rain.
Click to expand...
Voltage in my place is fine and good. And my system is connected to UPS. If voltage drop below 180, UPS gets tripped (I guess it's the same if it overshoots above 250-60ish? but not sure).
Back of my head, I am thinking could this be because of overclocking? It was a minor overclocking, PSU should be able to handle it fine. I don't know if it's that or it's just a coincidence it happened around the time I OCed.
 
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whitestar_999

Super Moderator
Staff member
Neither VS nor VP series are good nowadays.My guess is VS psu blew because of inadequate protection & VP psu malfunctioned because of inability of worn out components(which were not so good to begin with in which case 3 years life should be considered for replacing such psu) to handle extra load of overclocking.

P.S. btw did psu blew without damaging any other component?
 
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nac

nac

Aspiring Novelist
In my case, no other components damaged.
Even with overclocking start up wattage wouldn't be more than 300w for my system and running wattage would be much less than that, 450w should be plentiful.
When it happened CPU was running at stock.
When I opened PSU for inspection/cleaning, I find all the capacitors are in good shape. No bulging or wrinkle or leaking. No burnt coil or anything on the board. Checked back of the board as well, no smoke trail or blackening.
Feel like it should be fixable. Gotta find someone who is ready to look into it.
 
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whitestar_999

Super Moderator
Staff member
It may have been a not so noticeable circuit damage,my guess is that it is related to 3.3/5V rails & not 12V rails whose malfunction usually result in damaged capacitors etc but just a guess so it can be wrong.
 
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whitestar_999

Super Moderator
Staff member
I think at that time VP450P was still acceptable & CXx5x series was just launched here(late 2017 I think) so availability was also an issue.For 3-4k budget,VP450P was the only option in that budget at the time as TX550M at that time used to cost ~5.5k I think.
 
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