Computer won't turn on. Only a power flicker

[gimpc]

I wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary, merely playing a game on my computer, when snap, the screen goes black and looses signal and the computer starts rebooting. It seemed to start rebooting normally, but i regret to say i stopped paying attention to the computer, and 30ish seconds later i hear it completely power off.

When i went to turn it back on, i got a flash of the blue case lights and all the fans twitched but it immediately powered off again. This now happens every time i try to turn it on. After getting the power flicker, i have to either unplug the computer or hold the power button for a few seconds in order for the computer to flicker again when pushing the power button. It's literally less than a tenth of a second worth of power before it shuts off, the fans just bounce back to thier same location. The green light on the mobo is always on while power is connected.

I've unplugged the hard drive and both cd drives, reseated both ram sticks, unplugged and replugged all the power cords to the mobo (A8N SLI).

Any ideas on what can cause this type of behavior is greatly appreciated.

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Hello and welcome to Techspot.

Sounds like your psu might have failed.

Try another psu and see if that helps.

Regards Howard :wave: :wave:

 

[gimpc]

Could the psu really be toasted though? When i plug it in and flip the switch to on i get the green lights on the mobo. Its only when i push the power button (on the front of the box) do i get the power flicker.

 

[howard_hopkinso]

The only way you`re going to find out if it`s the psu that`s the problem it to try another one.

Once you`ve done that, please post back with the results.

Regards Howard

 

[gimpc]

Not sure what the problem ultimately was. I plugged in a new power supply and when i turned the system on, flames shot out of one of my video cards. After removing said video card the system works fine again (using just one card now). There was no temperature sensor on that video card and there is substantially poorer ventilation to that slot than the other, so it may have been steadily degrading over time, and the new game i was playing just pushed it over the edge (the game causes my temp sensor to beep when i play it now even, on the remaining card). Or it could have been the powersupply that came with the case was just cheap and bad. Its hard to tell. At least its working now.

 

[HPCE_Larry]

Ouch. If you're saying that you are getting temperature warnings on your remaining card I would do something about that. The next time it fails it may damage something else. If I were you I would get either a better fan to replacing existing case fans to increase air flow or in my case I drilled some holes in the side and mounted another fan which blew on my gpu.