Member Avatar for Howieb

Hi all, While I'm not super knowledgable I have been building my own for years with no issues, so here goes:
PC was running (It is almost never shut off) I noticed a wierd, intermittent buzzing noise that I managed to trace to the PC. All the fans were running the unit was working flawlessly and I really couldn't identify exactly what/where the buzzing was located. Overnight the PC clearly died. I hit the power button to nothing. MB light(s) on, but power botton might as well not be connected. Nothing; no sounds, no anything, not even a minor spin on anything. played with the obvious (plugged in and yada yada all is good. I put a new power supply in (Brand new never used) and same results.

After taking everything apart I used a DVOM to test the power supply and could find nothing wrong there. Did the jumper, fan runs and all voltages are withing spec. Dusted everything and noticed the video card fan is 'stiff' it doesn't turn freely by hand and it is noisy when you do this. However it was spnning when I checked for the noise.
I have a PSU tester coming to verify my results there but I'm stumped. I can't see or smell anything that appears burnt or fried. I was going to put it back together without the video card to see if it powers but I'm not sure that's worthwhile except for personal satisfaction. Unit was built in mid 2009 over the top noctua CPU cooler and case fans galore.

Any advise anyone can provide is greatly appreciated!!! Thanks!!

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Member Avatar for rubberman

See my reply to D Ray about his power problem. Likely similar situation.

Member Avatar for Howieb

Maybe you could point me in that direction with a link or something? I can't seem to be able to find the discussion you refer to.

Thanks.

Member Avatar for Begginnerdev

If it is a video card, the computer would still power up.

My thought is that it might be an overheated processor. It could have been a possible bad bearing in the fan, causing less airflow resulting in a frying pan for a processor.

You had said that you have a beefy fan/heatsink on the processor, have you tried un-mounting it from the board and checking the processor for any visual blemishes?

Edited by Begginnerdev
Member Avatar for Howieb

Hey, Begginnerdev. While I agree the vid card shouldn't be the culprit here I can't find anything else unless the MB just up n died. I tend to use quality parts also to avoid the letdown of poor quality. CPU cooler fan runs fine. While I did pull the heatsink off the CPU I didn't pull the CPU off the board.

Anyway, here's an update: Buzzing noise was fan on video card (I still can't figure why they all use such crappy parts in this critical area as I've had more than 1 go bad!!). Lock ring that holds fan failed and fan rose up and started brushing against metal faceplate (XFX Geforce 9600 GSO). I've fixed that but who knows for how long??
Yesterday I put heatsink/fan back on CPU, pulled all but slot 0 DDR2 out and connected 24-pin and 8-pin MB power connectors and case power button to MB. No drives connected and nothing else connected either. Turned on PSU and hit power button. All fans came on and everything appeared to be working. Let it run for about a minute and shut it down with power button. Installed rest of DDR2 and the video card. (I did forget to connect the PCI/power to the video card, however.) Unit powered up again with button. Obviously I don't know much because no monitor without vid card and no HDD so no actual boot could occur. I'm going to reconnect everything and see where it gets me.

Of note, the inside of this unit was buried in dust. Major bunnies under and behind the CPU fan and everywhere. There are 2 other PCs in this room running and neither has anywhere near that much inside, so I need to figure out why this one does. Any suggestions for keeping it out are appreciated.

Member Avatar for Begginnerdev

If your motherboard has an onboard video, you might want to try running through onboard to get a confirmation on a possible bad GPU. As for the dust bunnies, you can set your case fan configuration to allow negative pressure. I use this technique personally and it works great, aside from having to clean the fans once or twice a month.

(Setup using 12x120mm fans and 1 240mm fan)

Edited by Begginnerdev
Member Avatar for Howieb

No idea what happened here. put it all back together and it runs. can't boot windows cause bootmgr is missing now, but that's unrelated. Video card fan is off the hook noisy now, but runs. No onboard video so can run without it. anyway I'm gonn mark this one solved even tho I don't know what solved it.

Thanks everyone!

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