PC won't boot...

Hey everyone, first off, my apologies for the title but I honestly wasn't sure how else to phrase it.
So, here’s the deal: I’ve got this older PC that was working perfectly fine just this past Sunday. As far as I can tell, the parts are from around 2018—it's running an i7 4700, a GTX 1080, and some kind of Gigabyte motherboard. Today, though, things have gone sideways. When I hit the power button, the fan LEDs light up and the fans spin for maybe a second or two before everything just shuts down. Then, about five seconds later, the whole cycle repeats itself over and over again until I finally pull the plug to stop the loop. I know there's a million little things that could be causing this kind of hiccup, but based on your experience, what do you think is the most likely culprit that gave out? Thanks!

Double-check those connectors

Is the CPU fan actually spinning? Also, you might want to check if the power button on the PC is acting up—sometimes those things get stuck.
Do you see any BIOS text popping up at all (assuming POST is even enabled)? Maybe there’s an error message scrolling by somewhere.

Jack Alvarez said:Hey everyone, first off, please forgive my title because I honestly wasn't quite sure how else to phrase it.
So, I'm dealing with an older PC that was working perfectly fine this past Sunday. As far as I can tell, the components date back to around 2018 (it's running an i7 4700, a GTX 1080, and some kind of Gigabyte motherboard). Today, however, when I hit the power button, the fan LEDs light up for maybe a second or two and the fans spin up, but then everything just shuts down. Then, after about five seconds, the exact same thing happens all over again in a loop until I finally pull the plug. I know there are probably a million different things that could be causing this, but what would you guys guess is the most likely culprit? Thanks!

That sounds like a classic issue you see with those Gigabyte boards. It starts to spin up for a moment, goes *vroom vroom vroom*, and then—bam—total silence.

I'd suggest unplugging it from the wall first. Pull out the CMOS battery and take out the RAM. Once that's done, hit the power button and hold it down for at least ten seconds to drain any residual charge. Then, pop the battery back in, put in just one stick of memory, plug it back in, and try to boot. If it kicks on, shut it down and then try adding the rest of the memory. If that doesn't work, just repeat the whole process but try the sticks in a different order. It’s mostly a bit of a lottery, I guess, but usually, it'll eventually catch and start working normally again.

Everything kicks into gear in an instant—all the fans spin up, all the LEDs on the motherboard and the fans light up, and then everything just goes pitch black. I actually gave the suggestion from Alexander Diaz4 a shot, and it worked! It turns out I just had to give the main motherboard connector a tiny, tiny little nudge. To be honest, I was pretty skeptical that his idea would do anything since this PC hasn't been opened, moved, or even breathed on in ages.
I was already halfway through scouting out a brand new PC, but I think I'll hold off on that for a while longer now. Thanks so much to everyone for the help. By the way... I misspoke earlier, it’s actually an i7 8700 and an MSI Z370 gaming Pro carbon, not a Gigabyte 😵 but hey, it's already five years old, so it probably won't be around much longer anyway.

Look, my friend,
an i7 8700 paired with a GTX 1080 isn't exactly what I'd call an "ancient machine." 🙄
Your motherboard is already five years old—are you seriously just sitting there waiting for it to kick the bucket?
My own old setup is twelve years old and still runs with the precision of a Swiss timepiece.
I suppose I made some smart choices when I originally pulled the trigger on my parts back in the day. 🤷
I can't recall the exact specs off the top of my head since I'm away from my desk, but the motherboard is an
Asus p8z77-something... running an i5-3570K, which honestly isn't even trash by today's standards,
plus I've got a 1660 super graphics card I picked up sometime before the pandemic hit.
For me, this machine is perfectly adequate; it handles just about everything I throw at it.

That’s pretty much how I saw it too, honestly. I haven't really kept up with the constant hardware treadmill for quite a while now—probably since back in 2018 when I picked this unit up. These days, you kind of go into a purchase expecting the tech to hit its limit or start acting up after maybe five years tops. It’s just the nature of the beast. I never felt like it was a bad machine or anything; it still gets the job done when I need to knock out some video editing or touch up some photos, but... well, there's always something faster or better out there if you're looking for it.

I'll just jump in here instead of starting a whole new thread since I'm dealing with something pretty similar.

The thing is, when I hit the power button, absolutely nothing happens—not a single LED flickers, no fans spin, it’s just stone-cold dead.

Did my PSU finally kick the bucket?

This rig is a relic from back in the day, something I cobbled together way back in 2008 or 2009. It hasn't played nice with Windows in ages, so I've been running Linux on it for the last five years or so. It’s basically just sitting under the TV, having served as a little media center for a long time. Lately, it’s mostly just been my dumping ground for backing up photos and movies, occasionally watching stuff on DVD / Blu-ray, or doing some light browsing when I felt like using the big screen. Nothing heavy-duty, just basic stuff.

So, here's my question: can I just grab any random power supply that has more wattage than my old one, or is there some kind of rule for that? I built this thing myself, but man, that was a lifetime ago. My technical expertise currently tops out at being able to hold a screwdriver steady while plugging in a connector without poking an eye out.

Here’s what I have written down for the specs:

Case - Antec NSK2480, desktop, 380 W, mATX, $322

Motherboard - MB Gigabyte MA78G-DS3H, sAM2, AMD 780G, HDMI out, $196

Processor - CPU AMD Athlon64 X2 4850, dual core, SckAM2, $143

RAM - DDR2 2GB PC6400 (800MHz), SuperTalent, CL5, 2 x $43
$158 Hard drive - HDD Samsung HD642JJ 640 GB SATA-300 7200,
$166 Optical drive - Blu-ray HD-DVD ROM drive LG GGC-H20L, DVD RW, Lightscribe, SATA, black, bulk,
$200 TV tuner card - AVERMEDIA AVerTV DVB-S TRINITY 4-in-1 Hybrid PCI-E HDTV,

And honestly, is it even worth trying to revive this thing, and if so, what could I actually add to keep it kicking for another year or two?

Oh, and you can totally ignore that TV tuner card; it uses that ancient DVB tech and my satellite service doesn't even work anymore anyway. Not really a priority.

If you want to rule out a faulty power button, just pop the case open and briefly bridge the black and green wires on the 24-pin power connector. If the PC kicks on right then, you know the button itself is the culprit; if nothing happens, you’re probably looking at a dead power supply and should swap it out.

Thanks a ton.

So, I bridged those two wires together and the PC actually kicked into life. That pretty much confirms it—the power button itself is shot. Now, how on earth am I supposed to fix that?

The problem is, at first glance, it’s basically impossible to even reach. It’s an Antec Lansing case, and the button is tucked away behind this solid front panel held in by all sorts of weird clips.

...if you're feeling adventurous, try flipping the switch on the back of the power supply to kill the juice (or just yank the cord from the wall outlet) for about a minute, and while it's dead, mash that power button a few times.
Once you plug it back in, give it a shot and see if it kicks over.

That setup is pretty ancient. I doubt there's any real way to throw an SSD in there to boost performance, unless maybe adding two more sticks of RAM helps a tiny bit.
I used to run a similar rig (AMD Athlon64 x2 5000 + be), and even though I was running the first version of Windows 10 on a standard hard drive, it didn't support an SSD back then... eventually, I just scrapped the whole thing and built a new PC because it was painfully slow.

..you were faster there. look, the front panel might have some side screws on both sides, or maybe just those plastic rivets where you can just pull the front off and then snap it back into place later with a bit of pressure.

Big thanks to both of you, but I’m pretty sure I’m gonna have to drop this thing off at a repair shop eventually.

To even get a look at the power button, I’d have to strip off the entire front panel. Honestly, they made the first two thirds of it ridiculously easy—you just press a little plastic tab and slide it right off. But to reach the first one, I'd have to yank out the hard drive, which isn't a huge deal, and the second one is right in the middle so that's easy enough, but that third little monster? It's tucked way down under the chassis where the Blu-ray drive sits, so there is absolutely zero chance I'm getting to it myself.

And if I wanted to try and modernize it a bit, man, I think I'm dreaming. I might be able to scavenge some used parts, but finding DDR2 1066 RAM these days is like looking for a needle in a haystack, let alone anything else.

Just swap the reset and power headers on the motherboard so you can just hit the reset button to turn it on.

shadowlynx102 said:To rule out a broken power button, open the case and briefly bridge the black and green wires on the 24-pin power connector. If the PC turns on, it's the button. If not, swap the PSU.

Hold on a second. You don't do that on the 24-pin connector; you do that on the front panel power switch pins on the motherboard.



You could also just swap the reset switch and the power switch so you can turn it on using the reset button.

What you described is how you test a PSU without a motherboard. You plug in the 24-pin along with all the other connectors, bridge those two specific wires, and leave just one load connected—like a fan—to see if the PSU actually works.

https://www.silverstonetek.com/uploa...;20Clip-EN.pdf

I'm not entirely sure what Zachary Bishop15 actually did here. Did you short the pins on the motherboard where the case's power switch connects, or did you short the black and green wires on the 24-pin connector?

So, I unplugged the 24-pin from the motherboard, took a little risk by shorting the green wire with the black one next to it (since there's a bunch of black ones to choose from), hooked up the power cable and the PSU switch, flipped the toggle, and—boom—some random fan actually spun up.

Richard Lee47 said:just swap the reset and power button headers on the motherboard and you can kick it into gear using the reset button instead.

I'll give that a shot and let you know how it goes—honestly, it didn't even cross my mind that I could pull a move like that.😵

Zachary Bishop15 said:I unplugged the 24-pin from the motherboard, briefly jumped the green wire and its neighbor—the black one, since there are several—plugged in the 110V cable, flipped the PSU switch, and a fan spun up.

That has absolutely nothing to do with the power button. You just confirmed the PSU isn't dead.
Try doing that with the reset switch to rule out the power button itself. If that doesn't work, then you're looking at a dead motherboard.

Well, no luck there either—even after swapping the reset button connector over to the power pins, I’m still getting absolutely nothing. Honestly, I'm starting to get a little worried about this thing.

Unfortunately, all signs point toward a motherboard failure.
Even though this method

Zachary Bishop15 said:I unplugged the 24-pin connector from the motherboard, jumped the green wire with an adjacent black one—since there are plenty of black ones to choose from—connected the 220V cable, flipped the PSU switch, and a fan spun up.

That doesn't absolutely rule out the power supply. If a fan spun, it likely came from inside the PSU itself, which suggests it’s getting power, but it doesn't mean the voltages are actually stable or correct. Your best bet is to grab a different power supply and test it. If nothing happens with a second unit, then your motherboard is dead.