Hey guys, I finished a new build about a month ago and finally had the time to finish trouble shooting it. It would boot up for a few seconds then shut down, then keep doing that over and over. So I went through a process of elimination to figure out the issue.
Disconnected all unnecessary components, GPU, HDD, case fans
Took out all but one memory stick, tried each one in each slot (each one of the 4 sticks in the 4 slots), with and without the other peripherals attached
Tested the power supply, all the cables and pins had appropriate voltage
So, based on my testing, the issue has to be either the motherboard or the CPU. However, I didn't test the voltages under load for the PSU. I'm leaning towards the mobo simply because I bought it from a guy I work with for $10, and he even said he had no idea if it worked or not. The CPU is a Core2Duo Q6600 that I bought off of ebay, so that might also be the issue. Any ideas or suggestions on where to go from here? I was going to get a POST test card and see if it was a mobo issue, but I wanted to check here first just in case I missed something.
can you get into the BIOS quick enough before the shutdown to see what the CPU temp is hitting before the shutdown?
I had almost exactly the same issue but for different reasons, Before I got my CPU cooler I was using the stock AMD one and it fitted fine but the PC would automatically shutdown about a second after start up. I managed to get into the BIOS quick enough to catch a glance at the temp. it was hitting 90 and shutting it's self down. Turned out the packaging on the cooler had cracked during shipping and a less than 1mm piece of clear plastic win in the thermal paste. adn it was keeping the cooler off the CPU. quick fix with a tweezers and all was well.
I cant get into the bios but i can inspect the CPU again/ try re-seating it. I cleaned it with rubbing alcohol before I put it on so I don't think that's an issue but its worth a shot! Also running a secondhand hyper 212 evo, so I'll double check that as well.
After you cleaner it with alchol did you put new thermal compound on it?
Otherwise check for bend pins on the mobo and try reseating al of the psu connectors and look for damage on the end of the cables of the psu or the mobo power connectors
Yes I did put on new thermal compound. All of the psu cables have been reseated since I had to unplug them all to test the psu. I have to go to work but later tonight I will check to make sure the mobo Isn't shorting out and if that isn't the case I'll try it out of the case, and if that doesn't solve it I'll try reseating the cpu/checking for bent pins, then report back here.
Checked the mobo, no shorts on standoffs. Didn't have time to try it out of the case. However, the backplate on the cooler is touching the mobo tray in the case, could that be the problem here? I had to kinda jam it in since the storm enforcer isn't exactly aimed at this old of a build.