PC died. What's to blame?

N

nj473

Member
Hi all,

I switched my PC on, everything seems normal. About 5 minutes after reaching the desktop, the screen goes off. I wasn't actively using it so I just assume that the monitor has gone to sleep like it normally does after 5 minutes. I go to wake it up by using the mouse but nothing happens, same with keyboard. I try to force shut down by holding down the power switch and still, nothing happens. I unplugged the power cable as a last resort to attempt another start up.

After plugging everything back in, I find that switching it on just brings the PC back to the same state immediately. The PC is on, fans working, power LED on, no video video being fed to the monitor whatsoever, zero HDD acitivity and unable to force shut down or reset using the power buttons.

What do you think it's likely to be? Graphics card? Processor? Motherboard?

Any help is appreciated, thanks.


EDIT: Forgot to mention the PC in question is the one in my signature. I've also noticed my signature is outdated, the GPU is Nvidia GTX 970 as of January this year.
 
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If I had this problem this is what I would do.

Checklist:

Closed case
  • power button...on the case look and see if the power button is stuck.
  • power supply...is the fan working in the power supply, put your hand near the fan and check for air flow.
Open case
  • cpu fan...check for function
  • RAM...remove one RAM module, if nothing happens then remove the one and put in the other
  • remove graphics card and all cables from the motherboard except the power cable, try to turn on and off your PC, if the PC turns on and off then replace the graphics card and repeat switching on and off. if the system boots correctly with the graphics card installed, then do the same process with all the cables (plug in one after another, repeating switching on and off)
If the error repeats itself then try switching out the BIOS battery

If, after disconnecting the cables and switching out the BIOS battery nothing has changed, then it is either your motherboard or your power supply. The way to be sure is to test the system with a different power supply.
 
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I forgot to reply to this! It turns out that when I came home and tried turning it on again, everything was working fine again and I have not had the issue since. That's great and all, but now I am unable to properly diagnose the problem and I am not sure if or when it will happen again! I guess we will see.

Thanks for the help.
 
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