Well, back then your computer didn’t set its time from the Internet, so it needed some way of keeping time correctly.
Right, absolutely. I never saw a dead battery cause the computer not to start, though – it would just give an error about the CMOS clock not reading a time, and you’d have to manually set the time when you got into Windows.
I can come up with scenario wherein that might be a problem, but I’ve never seen it, was all I was saying.
Anyway…yeah. Unlikely to be the issue here.
Oh, 100% agree. It would fuck up Windows, that was all.
Issues with your router can still do this to some degree. My phone has shitty data plan and usually connects to the internet via wifi.
It’s the PSU or mobo.
You may have not noticed, but they’re still there, even in the latest motherboards and laptops.
Ahem. 1993. ;-)
Success! It was almost certainly the PSU. I grabbed a basic Corsair CXM650 unit at Best Buy (thanks, curbside pickup!) and also took the opportunity to upgrade a few other parts with stuff I have had laying around but have been too lazy to install because disconnecting and dragging my PC out from under my desk cubby is such a PITA. I also gave the PC a very overdue (and slightly half-ass) dusting out.
I now have a working rig again and have gone from 8 to 16 GB RAM (DDR3-1600 LOL) and from a GTX 660Ti 2 GB to a GTX 1060 6 GB Windforce OC, so I am ready to game like it’s 2016! The refreshed rig is also a lot quieter as the 660Ti was a blower design and the 1060 doesn’t seem to spin up fans until it hits 55C(?) or so. I reckon the new PSU is quieter than the old one also, and the case fans can relax a bit with less dust in the way. Fingers crossed that this rig will hold me until early next year when CPU/GPU shortages subside and I have time to build a contemporary machine.
What PSU did you have that failed?
It was a Cooler Master V650 Gold, which was fairly well regarded back in 2014 when I did the build (pretty sure there was a solid jonnyguru review).
Ugh, I think I may have another PSU issue. I went to wake my PC from sleep this afternoon and it tried to wake, then stopped a few seconds later after a short fan spin up, then it tried again, then stopped, over and over. I shut it down completely with the power switch and also tried another UPS outlet and the direct wall outlet, no change. It just tries to boot with a brief fan spin, fails, then tries again, and fails, over and over.
It’s most likely the PSU again, right (even though that unit is less than two years old)? I’d hate to swap it out yet again with such an old system (CPU/mobo date back to 11/2014). But I also don’t really have time to build a whole new desktop any time soon. I hate computers.
I got a new PSU a couple days ago and will try the swap this weekend. If that doesn’t work, then I can try swapping out or removing other components (RAM, video card, DVD drive lol) to see if the PSU stops restarting. It’s a drag since my computer desk setup makes it painful to disconnect and reconnect all the external cables to pull out the case for each attempt.
But I don’t think I have the appetite for too many iterations of major troubleshooting given the age of the core system. I’ve already started mentally building my next rig so that my current system knows it’s on notice.
Oh, yeah, that sounds like a dead PSU alright.
Yeah, probably (hopefully?) that’s it, but it seems weird that it would keep trying to start over and over on its own instead of just starting for a few seconds and then clicking off, which is what happened when my previous PSU died. I thought maybe the case power switch was stuck or something, causing it to reset after just a few seconds of starting, but it feels fine mechanically.
I also need to replace my UPS, which has had a flat battery for a while, but I did try plugging my tower directly into the wall and into a different (non-battery backup) outlet on the UPS with no difference. So I don’t think the tired UPS is playing a part. However, the lack of reliable battery backup the past several months may have taken its toll on my bronze level PSU as the occasional power blip would cause the tower to cut off (usually it happened when the tower was asleep anyway, but that’s still not great).
I’ve had a stuck power switch cause exactly these kinds of symptoms (startup/shutdown loops, the computer randomly crashing as if the power had cut out), despite there being nothing obvious wrong with it.
It’s really easy to test for without getting another case or swapping components: don’t connect the front panel power switch / reset switch wires to the motherboard, but instead short the power pins with a screwdriver. Like this:
Well, that was a failure. I replaced the UPS (which I needed to do anyway), replaced the PSU, double checked all the internal connections, and I am getting the exact same behavior. PSU spins up for a few seconds, spins down, spins up, spins down, over and over. Argh.
I could try swapping around the 4 sticks of RAM, maybe removing power to the DVD drive (the restarts happen right as the DVD starts to grind up), but I suspect it’s the mobo or some other thing that I’m not gonna replace on a 2014 rig. I was willing to try the new PSU but no heroic measures.
So look for a new build thread coming real soon, as I need to get a personal rig back up pronto. I hope nothing damaged my SSD–theres a fair amount of stuff on there that is not fully backed up. Crap.