Is my power supply dead?

[Speckle]

My PC wouldn't turn on this morning and I have a feeling that it might be the power supply unit.

When I hit the power button, there is an audible click from the power unit, but nothing else. The PC doesn't reach POST, there is no fan noise or anything else. Although, I can see an LED light somewhere on the motherboard.

I have tried a different power cable and plugged the PC directly into the wall but, neither made any difference. I have unplugged everything else but, still no joy.

The current PSU is a Corsair CS650M, a model which I cannot seem to find available for purchase online - if this needs replacing, what would be a viable replacement to do the same job?

Finally, how can I determine if the problem is indeed the power unit before ordering a replacement? I've been reading about a 'paperclip test' - is this a pretty easy thing to do or, would I be better off buying a cheap PSU tester?

Any suggestions gratefully received

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LuS1fer said:

All I can say is that every time my PC has gone wrong, it has been the PSU. Usually blue screen of death or won't switch on.
I think I bought a Corsair CX750 as overkill. Pretty standard fittings.

The CX750 looks to be only a few quid more than the CX650 so, that seems like the sensible option.

Is the 'paperclip test' not worth it then? As a general rule, I try to avoid sticking bits of metal into electrical equipment of any kind but, t'internet seems quite keen on the idea!

Hmmm, I'm tempted to just order one and hope for the best!

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Okay so, a guy at work has a spare 650W PSU at home which I plan to borrow overnight to see if that fixes the problem.

Unless I get really lucky and he happens to have the exact make & model as mine!, I take it I need to use the cables supplied with the spare PSU rather than the ones still connected to the existing PSU?

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bighop said:

I wouldn't be using your cables with a different PSU. The end which plugs into the motherboard, gfx card etc are standard and the same with all cables. The end that plugs into the actual PSU can vary as it is up to the manufacturer and you could end up frying your components.

This does seem to be the general consensus from what Iv'e been reading. I've ordered another semi modular 650W PSU from the same manufacturer (Corsair) as the 750W would have taken a few days and I'm keen to get this sorted. I had a look at it all last night and, quite frankly, I'm a bit out of my depth with the all the innards.

I have therefore employed the services of a mate who has swapped a few PSUs in the past and has agreed to help me out this evening for the princely sum of 'a few beers'

Oh God, I do hope he knows what he is doing

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Well, it would seem that the power supply isn't the problem! Swapped it over completely (cables included) and, still nothing. I think the Motherboard is looking like it might be the culprit

2 more things to try over the weekend. I'll replace the CMOS battery (very, very unlikely I know but, easy to swap so may as well eliminate it). If that doesn't work, I'll see if I can start the motherboard without using the power button - quite easy to do with a screwdriver apparently. I do wish they would include buttons for all these 'jumping' or 'shorting' shenanigans - that would make life much easier for simpletons like me!

Otherwise, a replacement motherboard and a few more beers as payment for my friendly 'tech support' buddy. who has already offered to help swap things over

If that doesn't do it - time to start shopping for a new PC...

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130R said:

It's probably either dead motherboard or CPU but unfortunately you will just need to eliminate things one at a time. Try just one stick of RAM if you haven't done that yet (eliminate each stick one at a time) and unplug everything else (no SATA devices, GPU or anything else). Also don't forget the CPU power connector if switching PSU's around. If you have eliminated PSU and RAM then there is nothing else left except motherboard and CPU. If you're replacing both then it doesn't matter, but if just replacing one you'll need another CPU of the same socket that works to find out which component has the issue.

No, we didn't test the RAM at all. So just to be clear, I need to remove the GPU, disconnect the SATA drives and remove all but 1 stick of RAM? I take it I leave the motherboard and CPU power cables connected for this?

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Okay, so I feel that I'm making some diagnostic progress now. With no GPU, no SATA devices connected to power and only 1 stick of RAM, the PC boots (yay!) Tried both RAM sticks separately, and it boots in both instances.

Put both RAM sticks back in place and re-installed the GPU.....nothing! So, it is now beginning to look like it might be the GPU itself. Unfortunately, I don't have another machine I can test it in so, I'm at a bit of a loss as to what I should do next. Is it worth sticking the GPU in a different PCI slot?

I've read that resetting the CMOS by removing the battery for 5 mins and thereby resetting to default BIOS settings can solve this problem. But, as with all things in life, it is important to get ask the advice of the PH massive beforehand!

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2fast748 said:

Yes try it in a different slot, it could be a faulty RAM slot as well though still so check it boots with one stick of RAM in each slot individually. It could still be the PSU as the GPU can be a big draw on them, it might not be producing enough power (I had this with a new build a few months ago!)

Fault finding with no spare device can drive you nuts!

When I originally specced the machine, they said that I didn't need a 650W PSU and that a 550W would be fine so, I think I'm okay on power. Plus, it has been running without issue for 3 years.

[Speckle]

More progress. Can boot into windows no problem without GPU installed. Tried GPU in another PCI slot, still wouldn’t boot at all. I borrowed and old PCI graphics card from a guy at work, popped it into PCIe 1 and PC boots fine. I can’t view the output though as it has no HDMI slot (told you it was old!)

If it matters, the old card doesn’t require additional power from the PSU.

Is it fair to assume then that the GPU is dead or, are there additional tests I should be doing before ordering a new one?

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130R said:

t sounds pretty conclusive based on the tests you have done. The only other thing I was going to suggest was to check the power cables, but then I saw you said it doesn't require additional power. If you order the new GPU from somewhere reputable (I can recommend overclockers from personal experience) you always have 14 days cancellation period for the new card.

Luckily GPU is pretty much the easiest thing to change!

It seems pretty conclusive to me also. Just to clarify, the graphics card I suspect has failed does require additional power (Geforce 1070 GTX) but, has now been tested with 2 different PSUs and therefore different cables so, I think I can rule that out.

Overclockers returns policy seems sensible as they appear to understand that you'll need to take it out of the packaging in order to test it. I considered nipping to PC World after work but, they will only refund in full if goods are unopened which isn't really very helpful.

Now to choose a card - This one looks like a respectable upgrade: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/evga-geforce-rtx-20...

[Speckle]

So, a bit of an update as nobody likes an unresolved thread! I took the GPU to a local PC repair shop just to be certain, and they have confirmed it is indeed dead.

So I have now ordered a shiny new 2080 XC2 Ultra Gaming GPU. In advance of it's arrival, I thought I would uninstall the drivers of the existing card but, they don't seem to appear in the add/remove programs list. I see an NVidia 3D vision controller driver, Nvidia Geforce Experience and Nvidia PhysX system software but, no display driver..

This raises a few questions which I'm hoping someone can answer for me:-

1 - Do I even need to uninstall the drivers for the old card before installing the new card?
2 - If so, how do I do it if I can't see them in the programs list?
3 - Do I need to uninstall any of the Nvidia software listed above?

Thanks in advance

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Narcisus said:

You’ve spent £600 on a 2080 ! ? What’s your cpu ?

i7 quad core something or other.

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xjay1337 said:

You don't need to worry about uninstalling the old Nvidia drivers.
It will update itself when you plug in the 2080.

I was rather hoping that would be the case

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Narcisus said:

Reason I ask is unless you are gaming at higher resolution than 1080 a 2080 could be overkill

I mostly use the rig for sim racing in VR and (using a Vive so, effectively 2 x 1080p displays concurrently) so the additional grunt should enable me to use higher ingame graphics settings.

Mostly, I'm taking advantage of the 'upgrade opportunity' to futureproof the rig should I decide to upgrade the HMD at any point. With my current setup, the 2080 XC2 ultra is probably overkill but, some of the new headsets like the Valve Index look interesting.

My 'monitor' at the moment is my old 60" 1080p plasma but, this'll probably motivate me to get a smaller LED 4k TV as a replacement.

Most importantly, the card has programmable lights so, the money was well spent I'm sure you'll agree

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Narcisus said:

Haha ! That sounds cool. Not even managed to try vr yet ! 2080 is a beast. Probably go for a 2070s in my new rig.

Installed it last night - it does look very cool - not that the lights make any difference with the Vive on my head! First impressions are that the framerate (in PCars 2) seemed smoother than before. I plan to play around with some of the graphics tonight, see if I can bump them up a bit.


A 2070 will easily run VR, my 1070 was great for the 3 years it lasted! I can't recommend it highly enough if you like sims/driving games - I could never go back to a flat screen now.

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Narcisus said:

Please don't tempt me ! About to do a new build that's going to cost the best part of 2.5k.... Does your Mrs take the p### ? It was bad enough for me when I had the Nvidia glasses on and earphones !

I've had two different girlfriends since getting the Vive - both took the piss, and both are now history (and yet the Vive endures!)

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Narcisus said:

! Thats how it should be ..... Just put this on another thread... Ordering when I get home. First machine i've not built myself !!

Case - be quiet! SILENT BASE 801 Orange solid side panel

MB - ASUS TUF X570-PLUS GAMING

CPU - AMD Ryzen 9 3900X, Zen 2, 12-core with SMT, 3.8GHz, 4.6GHz Turbo

Cooler - Corsair Hydro H115i PRO RGB - 280mm Liquid Cooler

Memory - 16GB (2x8GB) Corsair DDR4 Dominator Platinum RGB - 3600MHz

GPU - EVGA NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8GB XC ULTRA GAMING Turing Graphics Card

PSU - Silent Corsair RM850x, Modular, Silent, 80PLUS Gold - Dual GPU

SSD PCIe ( M.2 ) - 500GB Samsung 970 EVO PLUS, 3500MB/s Read. 3200MB/s Write, 480K IOPS

Hard Drives - x 3 - 6TB Seagate ST6000DM003 BarraCuda, 5400rpm, 256MB Cache

Very nice!