The 2018 PC is having trouble turning on suddenly.
The 2018 PC is having trouble turning on suddenly.
Hello there!
Last Saturday I was operating my personal desktop PC—built by me myself about seven and a half years ago—that I had used consistently without many issues. It had served me well until recently. Earlier this week, while returning home, I powered it down for roughly thirty minutes. Upon waking it up, I noticed it was in Sleep mode and completely unresponsive. Attempts to restart via the power button or by physically connecting the metal PWR +- pins together failed to activate the system.
I checked other outlets around the house to confirm they were supplying power, and even switched the power supply off and on. The motherboard still emitted a faint orange light when plugged in, indicating it was receiving some power, though not fully.
My EVGA 500 Bronze power supply had connections to several ports: a four-pin ATX and a twenty-four-pin ATX connector, one of which was linked to my "GIGABYTE H310M A LGA 1151 (300 Series) Intel H310 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard," and a six-pin PCI-E cable connected to my Nvidia GTX 1060 graphics card. I tried disconnecting it from all these ports and reconnecting them, but nothing changed.
I read online that inserting a paperclip into the 24-pin PSU connector—with one end touching the green wire and the other the black wire—might help. I attempted this, plugged in the PSU, and flipped the power switch, but no response was detected. There’s no sound of fans spinning, which suggests the PSU might be dead even though the Ethernet light still worked.
Could there be simpler troubleshooting steps I could try before heading to a repair shop? I’m puzzled by how it would sometimes function perfectly and then suddenly stop when unused, especially since it seemed to work one moment and not the next? (Perhaps the PSU simply failed unexpectedly.)
Links for reference:
https://imgur.com/Ly6WtgI
View: https://imgur.com/Ly6WtgI
https://imgur.com/84MBd6W
View: https://imgur.com/84MBd6W
https://imgur.com/tHP0iZg
Yesterday I was operating my personal desktop PC—built by myself about seven and a half years ago—that I had recently upgraded its power supply unit. The PSU is approximately seven and a half years old. Based on the first image you shared, it appears to be this model:
https://www.evga.com/products/specs/psu....c3b08c16b3
It comes with a three-year warranty. I used it well beyond that period, which was essentially just borrowed time, and I hope it hasn’t affected the rest of your system’s components.
I found online suggestions to test the PSU by inserting a paperclip into its 24-pin connector, connecting one end to the green wire and the other to the black wire next to it. However, this method is unreliable. Even if it caused the fan to spin and suggested the PSU was working, it doesn’t accurately reflect the actual power output when under load. It shouldn’t be used as a standard test for evaluating PSU performance.
Does this mean the PSU is malfunctioning, even though the Ethernet light still lit as I mentioned earlier? To confirm whether the PSU is faulty or not, you should borrow a well-built unit with 550W capacity and see if it powers your system properly. If it does, then the original PSU is likely the issue.
Consider it as a PSU from 13 years old. The OP uses an EVGA 100-B1-0500, which is a B-series B1 PSU released in Q2 '13. Testing the 2nd model shows it works well and is of good quality. It’s probably your only choice right now. Hopefully it didn’t damage your whole PC. I don’t expect much from it. Since the PSU powers everything, it’s the most crucial part inside the PC. That’s why you should never skimp on a good PSU! Also, avoid buying used ones and don’t use any PSU past its warranty. Moving forward, for a PC with a dedicated GPU, a Tier A PSU is best. Examples include Seasonic Focus/Vertex/PRIME, Corsair RMx/RMi/HXi/AXi, and Super Flower Leadex Gold/Platinum/Titanium. Here’s the PSU tier list: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...JW...1973454078. Tier A will suffice, but Tier A+ is better. My two PCs are only powered by Tier A+ PSUs. I own Seasonic PRIME 650 Titanium (Tier A+) and Seasonic PRIME Ultra 650 Titanium (Tier A+). See the specs and pictures in my post.