PC Shutdown, now won't boot up

Specs of my PC (1 and half years old):

MoBo - AM2 Asus Crosshair NOFRCE 590SLI
CPU - AMD X2 4800 AM2 ADO 65W
RAM - 2 Sticks of 512 MB DDR2 PC 6400
PSU - X-Super Alien PS 500W
Gfx Card - eVGA GeForce 8800GTS 640MB PCI-E

Case is a 31102 Xion7000Z

Situation:

Earlier today I was playing Team Fortress 2... I've had overheating problems before but just doing a regular cleaning out of the case and heatsink, reseating the CPU with new artic silver would do the trick. So when I do some heavy gaming like TF2 I tend to alt tab out of the game and check my CPU temp. I did a tab out after about 10 minutes of game play and the temp read 58 C. Which I've read is normal under load for my dual core AMD.

After going back in game I proceeded to play for another 10 minutes when all the sudden my PC just shut off! No BSOD, nothing... Fans stopped, all the hardware just went dead.

I let it sit for about 20 minutes thinking maybe I got a sudden heat spike from the gameplay and my PC was trying to save the CPU or GPU by shutting down (which has happened before).

When I hit the power button on the front, nothing.

I pulled my PC out, got the side panel off... Grounded myself, and put the back of my hand to the heatsink and around it. It felt kind of hot but not too hot. Did the same for my gfx card. Same thing, it wasn't surprisingly hot. I felt behind the PSU fan and it felt hotter than both, hotter than normal I reckon. Lights on the MoBo were and are still on when the power supply switch is on.

While I had the side panel off, I tried to fire it up again... And I noticed my PSU light flicker. My PSU is a Alienware rip off or something and has fancy neon light(s) in the casing. That's what I saw flicker. Also, I noticed the CPU fan and other case fans start to spin but then stopped. So it's almost like it's not getting enough juice to fire up.

I've been reading all over forums everywhere relating to PCs not booting, crashing, etc. All with near same hardware as mine, the Asus crosshair, 8800...

I tried all the tricks listed. Resetting the CMOS, reseating all PCI cards, using only 1 RAM stick in different slots, unplugging the PSU from the MoBo, took out the heatsink, cleaned it, removed the CPU (no burn marks or discoloration on the socket or the pins of the CPU), cleaned thermal paste and re applied, and so on. I even tried resetting the CMOS in between each of some of the steps.

Out of all my hardware I'm hoping it's not the gfx card, it is probably the most expensive piece aside from the MoBo. I strongly believe it's not the MoBo because all of the lights light up when LED poster switch is off. I also don't think it's the CPU because it physically looks fine (could be wrong). So I'm thinking it's the gfx card , RAM, or the PSU. If it was the PSU though I don't understand why I would be getting lights on my MoBo. Could be a short or something bad though.

Tomorrow I plan on getting a hold of my friend to see if he can pull a gfx card and RAM to try in my PC. And try to put my gfx card in his PC.. Several different scenarios to try and rule out what it could be.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated?

 

hmmm..reading that part i had a similar problem, and it was my PSU..try that out

 

This happened with my PC a few weeks ago whilst playing Unreal Tournament 3 - I pulled out all my memory modules and used an eraser on the gold connectors (removes all dirt from them) and also I disconnected the power connectors to the mobo and reconnected them a few times in succession - this worked a treat - was just a bit of dirt build up in the power connectors.

Try the eraser method and try a start up again. If fails, try the power connectors (for my mobo - a 24pin connector plus an ATX 12V connector)

If that fails, try the eraser method on any other PCI/AGP/PCI-e card you have

Best of luck - hope it's as simple as that for you

 

I think I would try the PSU first. Just my way of doing things. If you have another one you could swap for it to check it out it would be the least expensive way to go. A PSU can mess a world of things up. Let us know. moozer I've never heard that trick with the eraser, I'll have to give it a shot in the future. Jazz

 

Well, you learn something new every day!!

It gets rid of ANY dirt that has come into contact with the connectors and gives them a nice polish at the same time - visually noticeable.

 

In this day and age anything that saves us the cost of something extra is a boon. Thanks for the tip...Jazz

 

Tried the eraser method. No go, same flicker of lights of fans.

I'm about to go out and get a voltmeter or just buy a new PSU.

 

PHEW! *Wipes sweat from forehead*

Turns out it was the PSU. The Asus manual says at least a 600W PSU should be used. So I don't know why the idiots that built my PC for me used a 500W. Must have burnt the PSU out.

Bought a me a brand new fancy one for 80 bucks... a 650W Logisys (never heard of). I was trying to spend around 60 bucks, but the salesmen recommended I go with the Logisys instead of the other 50 dollar one I was looking at. And I'm glad I went with it.

Now my only concern is... I reapplied the thermal paste to the CPU late last night... And reseated the heat sink on it. So the thermal past sat for around 12 hours without being heated, is that going to be a problem? Should I get the thermal paste off and re apply?

This board rocks by the way, good people.

 

If it sat out in the open for twelve hours it might need reapplied but if the cpu and heatsink were put on the motherboard and set it shouldn't be an issue at all. Glad to hear your PSU was the main issue. Even at sixty dollars it's cheaper than a cpu or motherboard. Luck, Jazz