Intermittent Not Starting

[Tight Git]

Good afternoon,

After 9 years faithful service, my computer is intermittently failing to start up.

I press the start button, the fan starts, but little else.

Fortunately it always starts at the second attempt, or I'll be stuck as I have only a basic computer knowledge.

Any suggestions to help an OAP, please?

(Spec as below, but with added SSD's and Win 10 Home.)

Case
COOLERMASTER CM690 MKII ADVANCED CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Quad Core Processor i7-3770K (3.5GHz) - Special Offer!
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z77-V - Special Offer!
Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (4 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
**SPECIAL** 2GB NVIDIA GTX 680 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
1st Storage Drive
240GB INTEL® 520 SERIES SSD (up to 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW) (Special Offer)
1st Storage Drive
240GB INTEL® 520 SERIES SSD (up to 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW) (Special Offer)
1st Storage Drive
500GB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 16MB CACHE
1st Storage Drive
500GB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 16MB CACHE
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
12x BLU-RAY WRITER DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W PRO SERIES™ HX850-80 PLUS® GOLD MODULAR
Processor Cooling
Super Quiet 22dBA Triple Copper Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler
Sound Card
Creative Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ Xtreme Audio
USB/Thunderbolt Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
4G Module
NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND
Floppy Disk Drive
EXTERNAL 1.44MB USB FLOPPY DISK DRIVE
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 12 working days
Price: £0.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-ivy-bridge/2mACXXeFsR/

 

[Tight Git]

Very disappointed to have received no help after two weeks!

Is there any further information that I need to provide, please?

 

[SpyderTracks]

Very disappointed to have received no help after two weeks!

Is there any further information that I need to provide, please?

If you arent getting a response you need to bump the thread like in any forum, just means it's been missed but we won't see it until it's bumped.

Those specs are well past their prime, I wouldn't out any effort into troubleshooting, it could be any number of things. It's likely PSU or motherboard failing.

 

[Tight Git]

Thanks for your reply, but I frankly expected better advice than to say it's not worth the effort!

Yes, I know the specs are old hat to you experts, but the computer cost me a lot of money and as a 76 year old who doesn't need the latest & fastest everything, I've been more than happy with my purchase and hoped that someone could kindly give me some pointers on how to fix it.

Still, if nobody can be bothered...

 

[AgentCooper]

Thanks for your reply, but I frankly expected better advice than to say it's not worth the effort!

Yes, I know the specs are old hat to you experts, but the computer cost me a lot of money and as a 76 year old who doesn't need the latest & fastest everything, I've been more than happy with my purchase and hoped that someone could kindly give me some pointers on how to fix it.

Still, if nobody can be bothered...

Just so you know, this isn’t a forum stocked with PCS staff members, everyone here who assists is here on their own time. And you catch more bees with honey, so to speak…

Your motherboard is fairly old but I believe it does post error codes upon a failed startup. If you take the side panel off and look towards the bottom right when you switch it on, are you seeing any numbers or combinations of flashing lights?

 

[SpyderTracks]

Thanks for your reply, but I frankly expected better advice than to say it's not worth the effort!

Yes, I know the specs are old hat to you experts, but the computer cost me a lot of money and as a 76 year old who doesn't need the latest & fastest everything, I've been more than happy with my purchase and hoped that someone could kindly give me some pointers on how to fix it.

Still, if nobody can be bothered...

Just to clarify, it's not anything about not being bothered, it's that computer equipment has a half-life, beyond that, there just isn't any point in investing money into it as it's near expiration and will fail one way or the other.

Once it get's to 7 - 10 years old, and it's showing issues, you just need to face facts it's time to upgrade and put the money you would spend on trying to lengthen a dead horses lifespan into something new that will last a further 9 years.

I'm afraid, even if you do get it working reliably again, it won't be for long, those symptoms are from expiring circuitry, it's just how it goes with computer equipment. They're only built for so many electrical surges before the traces burn up and capacitors split.

 

[Vajra]

I can fully understand the sentiment but let's be realistic, nothing lasts forever, 9 years is still a really good result, I think my laptops only endured like 5 years of intensive use.

 

[Dan.C]

PSU could be failing. I know of no safe way to test this except replacing it.

CMOS battery could be failing. Reseat this, cheap to replace.

Ram could be failing. Reseat this and try 1 stick of ram.

Poor overclock may be under volting on boot, second boot will still have some volts running through the system and help to boot a second time. Reset bios to default settings and reboot.

 

[PyroAsh]

I'd go with CMOS battery first of all with a system that old. But you'd usually see a CMOS error on boot screen.

 

[Tight Git]

That's more like it , Guys, many thanks for your suggestions.

The BIOS settings are as it left the PCS factory, as I wouldn't dare touch anything!

I did change the CMOS battery a couple of years ago, but I'll try another.

I'll also look out for those flashing LED's (I can see red, yellow & green through the ventilation holes).

Finally, it's not over-clocked, although I wish I could be these days!

Thanks again.

 

[Tight Git]

Well, typically, all has been OK for several days, but at last the fault re-appeared and I've noted the red "Boot Device" LED stays on.

Does this point to the faulty component, please?

 

[Dan.C]

Is there any beeps when it won't post?

The light itself only points that there is a problem with booting.

Because its intermittent it's hard to diagnose.

You could run SeaTools Hard Drive Test to test your hard drives and Memtest86 to test your ram ( run overnight)

It still sounds like a voltage issue to me the way your describing it working on the second power cycle, no harm reseting the BIOS to default settings. My old Maximus V Formula had an auto overclock option that would enable itself after a power cut for some reason resulting in the same issue you have.

 

[Tight Git]

Hello again,

Have not posted recently but the problem is now much worse.

It now takes at least a half a dozen attempts before it boots correctly.

I ran the SeaTools Hard Drive Test and also the Memtest86 but no problems detected.

I notice in the BIOS that 3.3, 5 and 12 volts from the PSU are very close to those figures.

The CPU volts is showing as 0.988V.

Is this what you would expect for my Intel® Core™ i7 Quad Core Processor i7-3770K?

I don't want to spend over £100 to replace the PSU and find that wasn't the issue!

Many thanks.

 

[Tight Git]

Anyone, please?