PC lights on but nobody home

From:	milko	22 Jul 2015 11:22
To:	william (WILLIAMA)	28 of 60

41538.28 In reply to 41538.27
My motherboard, CPU, RAM and PSU are all second hand from the same bloke, who has the most ridiculous leading-edge kit all the time and sells it on as soon as the bleeding edge moves on. While this means I got good stuff cheap it does leave me with a bit of a replacement dilemma, should I ever get to the bottom of this mystery. I doubt I'll go like-for-like in quality on any of it. But yeah, first I have to figure out this nonsense. I suppose tonight I'll go through the whole chain again but maybe only plug in the SSD drive and not the mechanical one at first. Or something.

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From:	milko	22 Jul 2015 20:03
To:	ALL	29 of 60

41538.29
Ok. Set the whole power chain up again. If I plug in everything but the motherboard, and short the ATX pins with a paperclip, it powers on. So, motherboard failing, right? Switched it off again to think about the next thing I can do. Except I just thought "oh yeah, recheck voltage" and went back to it and now it will NOT power on. Wtf? Argh!

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From:	CHYRON (DSMITHHFX)	22 Jul 2015 20:11
To:	milko	30 of 60

41538.30 In reply to 41538.29
Did you try another psu already? Starting to sound like it's your problem. ---- "Giant pig hot air balloon crashes after tangling with a cowboy-shaped one"

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From:	milko	22 Jul 2015 20:23
To:	CHYRON (DSMITHHFX)	31 of 60

41538.31 In reply to 41538.30
Would have to buy one to do that I think (though I'll raid the server room at work tomorrow just to check) so I'm trying to avoid it until I'm sure. It is increasingly more likely... But I kinda feel like the motherboard or something on it could yet be the culprit somehow. After leaving it a while then trying again it switches on and let's me read a good voltage. It really seems that connecting the motherboard is the step that jiggers it and puts the PSU into some kind of safety mode that shuts off the power for a bit.

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From:	CHYRON (DSMITHHFX)	22 Jul 2015 20:44
To:	milko	32 of 60

41538.32 In reply to 41538.31
Maybe it has overheating protection. Does it get noticeably warm? ---- "Giant pig hot air balloon crashes after tangling with a cowboy-shaped one"

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From:	milko	22 Jul 2015 21:22
To:	CHYRON (DSMITHHFX)	33 of 60

41538.33 In reply to 41538.32
Nope. Also a cold start plugged in is a fail, but while I've got it running in whatever form I can leave it for plenty of time no trouble.

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From:	william (WILLIAMA)	22 Jul 2015 22:19
To:	milko	34 of 60

41538.34 In reply to 41538.33
Your theory looks pretty good. I see that the BeQuiet P8 1200W has several clever protective measures which a broken motherboard would probably trigger - like short circuit/under voltage/over voltage etc. etc. all of which turn the PSU off (and probably keep it off for a while). http://www.bequiet.com/en/powersupply/10 Edit: not sure that link's right, but I think the tech details are the same. Edit Edit: the link's OK never trust a man in a blue trench coat, never drive a car when you're dead

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From:	milko	23 Jul 2015 10:33
To:	william (WILLIAMA)	35 of 60

41538.35 In reply to 41538.34
Yeah. Looks like. Hm. Nevertheless, I've ordered a PSU, my thinking being that I can potentially be careful about unpacking and connecting it to the minimal setup (including motherboard) and if it still fails, return it. Whereas if I get a new motherboard and that still fails I'm stuck with it. No luck on a PSU scrounge in the office so it's done. I really hope it is the PSU because the motherboard's current version costs £275 fucking pounds, there is no way that's getting matched. I wonder what level of downgrade I can get without missing something noticeable.

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From:	CHYRON (DSMITHHFX)	23 Jul 2015 13:42
To:	milko	36 of 60

41538.36 In reply to 41538.35
I can't believe you BYO and don't have an old, undead PSU squirreled away. :-S ---- "Giant pig hot air balloon crashes after tangling with a cowboy-shaped one"

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From:	milko	23 Jul 2015 16:06
To:	CHYRON (DSMITHHFX)	37 of 60

41538.37 In reply to 41538.36
Like I say, small flat, big clear out when the baby arrived. I gave the near-complete remains of my PCs previous incarnation to my brother in law.

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From:	koswix	23 Jul 2015 20:34
To:	milko	38 of 60

41538.38 In reply to 41538.37

Plenty of room for bikes, though.


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If Feds call you and say something bad on me, it may prove what I said are truth, they are afraid of it.

+2/2

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From:	milko	23 Jul 2015 21:06
To:	koswix	39 of 60

41538.39 In reply to 41538.38
I have a small shed exclusively reserved for my two plus all their kit, yup. There is actually still a box of PC gubbins around somewhere, but no PSU in there, it's more obscure bits of cabling and whatnot.

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From:	CHYRON (DSMITHHFX)	24 Jul 2015 01:02
To:	milko	40 of 60

41538.40 In reply to 41538.39
Fess up. The super-annuated PSU is buried in a nearby vacant lot with all kinds of valuable shit your wife can't know about/in your bff's broom closet /with the spare tire in your car. STOP FUCKING LYING. ---- "Giant pig hot air balloon crashes after tangling with a cowboy-shaped one"

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From:	koswix	24 Jul 2015 07:30
To:	milko	41 of 60

41538.41 In reply to 41538.39

Wow, you keep your bikes in a shed in London and they stay there?


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If Feds call you and say something bad on me, it may prove what I said are truth, they are afraid of it.

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From:	milko	24 Jul 2015 14:57
To:	koswix	42 of 60

41538.42 In reply to 41538.41
Well, I don't want to jinx it. But yeah, sure. I sank a u-lock into a bucket of cement underneath it and cut a hole in the floor when I built the shed, so they lock to that. But so far as I know, nobody's so much as tried yet. Many of the bad things people say about London ain't really so!

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From:	koswix	24 Jul 2015 15:40
To:	milko	43 of 60

41538.43 In reply to 41538.42
>>Many of the bad things people say about London ain't really so! But then again, much of it is! I'll never forget walking to the bus stop and wondering what all the flowers piled up outside a pub was all about. Turns out a 14 year old kid was stabbed to death when he refused to hand over his mobile :\| As for bikes, I've given up trying to own one in Edinburgh until I have somewhere properly secure to keep it. The best one was when I got home one day to notice my bike had been nicked from the stairwell (D-locked to a sturdy railing, they'd chipped the concrete step away to get the railing out. D'oh). The next morning, after the thieves realised how shit the bike was, it was returned to the stair. Managed to keep hold of it another 3 weeks before it was nicked again, this time for good :( ▪ ┌────┐ ┌────┐ │ │ │ │ ▪ │ └────┘ │ │ ──┐ ┌── │ ▪ ┌──────┤ ▪ ▪ │ ┌┘ │ │ ▪ ┌─┤ └──┐ │ │ ┌──┘ │ │ │ ││ ││ │ ┌─┐ │ │ └─┼┤ └┴─┴───┘ │ │ │ ─┘│ │ │ │ ┌──────┐ └┬──────────┘ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ └───┘ └───┘ If Feds call you and say something bad on me, it may prove what I said are truth, they are afraid of it.

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From:	milko	24 Jul 2015 15:45
To:	koswix	44 of 60

41538.44 In reply to 41538.43
Well yes, unfortunately people get stabbed here sometimes. I don't think that's a particularly London thing though? Seem to be plenty of cities in the UK with a bit of a gang problem. I dunno, maybe there is more of it proportionally to anywhere else, that's some big sums to do. I do live in relatively leafy 'n quiet Ealing though (albeit a bit of the riot happened here the other year too). I was more meaning things like people saying "and nobody ever helps anyone on the Tube!" which I see a lot, but actually I also see a lot of people helping other people on the tube as well. I didn't realise Edinburgh was so positively Liverpudlian with its need for bike security!

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From:	koswix	24 Jul 2015 17:59
To:	milko	45 of 60

41538.45 In reply to 41538.44

It was more of the age of those involved that shocked me.


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If Feds call you and say something bad on me, it may prove what I said are truth, they are afraid of it.

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From:	milko	25 Jul 2015 20:48
To:	ALL	46 of 60

41538.46
Absolutely nothing happening. I've got the motherboard out of the case, no ram no graphics, literally just the CPU and cooler (corsair h80i so it's using a few plugs to supposedly power that). The motherboard lights come on as so as I turn on the PSU, but I can't get it to go any further. Is it possible for the CPU to cause this, or am I pretty much able to blame the motherboard at this point?

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From:	koswix	25 Jul 2015 20:57
To:	milko	47 of 60

41538.47 In reply to 41538.46

Any dodgy looking capacitors on the motherboard? I'd suspect motherboard over cpu tbh.


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┌─┤       └──┐  │  │  ┌──┘                      
│ │          │ ││  ││ │   ┌─┐                   
│ │          └─┼┤  └┴─┴───┘ │                   
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  │   │      │   │                              
  │   │      │   │                              
  └───┘      └───┘

If Feds call you and say something bad on me, it may prove what I said are truth, they are afraid of it.

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