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SOS PC turns on occasionally!

Léo -  
Apperture Posted messages 850 Status Member -
Hello,

I have a problem, my PC works very well but sometimes it simply won’t turn on for a few hours or even a few days!

I showed it to a technician who, in front of me, tested the RAM, motherboard, and everything that goes with it without finding anything abnormal; in fact he told me it was working perfectly fine and that he believed me when I say it doesn’t turn on sometimes but he couldn’t see it!

1/ Sometimes it turns on (the fan starts in the CPU and everything) but the screen doesn’t. (I thought it might be a graphics card issue, but it’s strange since it works sometimes!)

2/ Sometimes it just refuses to turn on at all.

I thought it might be overheating but sometimes it doesn’t even work all night and still won’t turn on in the morning.. so I don’t think it’s coming from that.

Anyone have an idea of the problem and how to fix it please, it’s very urgent?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Configuration: Windows XP / Firefox 4.0.1

1 answer

  1.
    Apperture Posted messages 850 Status Member 142
     
    It smells like an obvious power supply problem!

    If you have the option to test another power supply, you could determine if it comes from that.
    Otherwise, plan to buy a certified 80 Plus power supply to be sure you don’t end up with a low-quality model.
    3
    1. Léo
       
      Thank you for your reply,

      Do you think that even though sometimes the tower turns on but the screen doesn’t, could it come from the power supply? That’s what’s odd: sometimes it doesn’t start at all and other times the fan runs well and the tower is on, you can see it, but not the screen.

      That’s why I was thinking either a motherboard issue or a graphics card...

      But maybe it’s the power supply after all, I should test it; I’m going to disconnect the power supply from another PC to check..

      Would you have other leads just in case? Someone else has any ideas?
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    2. Apperture Posted messages 850 Status Member 142
       
      Also check the graphics card, yes, in case the power supply test isn’t conclusive. Motherboard problems are rather rare and don’t typically cause this kind of issue.

      If the power supply is problematic, it may sometimes fail to sufficiently power the graphics card, which certainly powers up everything else but leaves your screen painfully black.
      Generally, if sometimes it powers on and sometimes it doesn’t, don’t look farther than the power supply as a first step ^^
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    3. Léo
       
      This just happened to me again right now: the tower powers on but the screen stays black. Your hypotheses seem good to me, either the graphics card or the power supply, since the RAM has been ruled out. Well, I’ll test it with another power supply. And by the way, to know if a graphics card is functioning properly, do you have a software you can recommend? Also if you have a small list of good software to test hardware, I’m interested! The technician tested the RAM with Memtest, PC CHECK and Ultimate Boot CD, the other components (motherboard, processor, etc.) I think with PC CHECK as well... Thanks for your help anyway!
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    4. Apperture Posted messages 850 Status Member 142
       
      You have the famous OCCT which is mainly used to test the stability of the processor and the graphics card. (to be used in most cases to test stability after overclocking the CPU or the GPU)
      It will be useful to you if the problem indeed comes from your graphics card, which I highly doubt ^^
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