Help! My desktop PC broke down!

[Beorning]

What the title says :(

Specifically, it doesn't start. I press the power button, it starts for half a second, then it shuts down. Then, it starts again. And again...

A week or so ago it fell to the floor from its stand. Sińce then, the power button wasn't working properly - it seemed to be stuck. But the PC was working. But yesterday, I had trouble turning it on. Now, it acts as above...

What the heck? Power button or the mainboard? What do you think?

[MightyMaiden]

The connection to the power button from motherboard, or the connection from the power supply to the motherboard would be my first two items to check.

[Beorning]

Not sure how to open the front panel... Any advice?

[MightyMaiden]

Maybe with a picture? often times though you need to open the case (top, side, whichever opens on your case) and then you can either open the front or access the connection from the back.

[Oniya]

My first question would be 'how comfortable are you with messing around inside your machine'?  Have you, for example, ever added RAM sticks to your setup, or is this the first time that you would be peering into the abyss inner workings?

[Beorning]

Somewhat comfortable... I knows how to open a PC, connect a fan etc.

@MightyMaiden - I knows how to remove the sides. But the front and the top are a mystery...

Sorry for the sparse replies, I''m on my tablet right now.

[MightyMaiden]

Without seeing the case not sure how much more help I can be, Perhaps someone with a phone support background can help talk you through things more easily. I know some systems you just can't take the front off non-destructively, so going in from behind might be your only choice.

[Oniya]

Usually, anything that can be serviced (even by a technician) can be accessed by removing the sides (Laptops and iMacs are an exception, and I don't recommend self-service on those).  Locate your power supply and examine the wires coming off of that first - it's possible that something got jarred in the drop, so give all of them a little push to make sure they're seated.  Then trace those wires to their other ends and do the same thing.  One should lead to the actual power button so you can check to see if it's out of alignment with the front panel, and that it's connected to the motherboard securely.

Give a quick clean to the fan and remove any dust while you're in there - not likely to be the problem, but never hurts. 

[Beorning]

I checked and my case is Corsair Spec-01... I googled and I found the instructions for removing the front panel. Yay, progress!

Any advice on what to look for when I get to the button cables?

[MightyMaiden]

firmly connected, the connector's not hanging at some weird angle or swinging by a wire. Just indications it looks good and solid.

[Beorning]

Do these cables have connectors on the button panel side? Could they be just welded there? No idea what tomexpect...

[MightyMaiden]

The manual for that case shows a two-pin cable, there's a good chance it will have a connector on both ends. There will be one for power, and a second one for the reset as well as the cables for the lights.

[Vekseid]

The front panel cables are usually plugged into an annoying arrangement specified by the motherboard manufacturer. So you will want to look up its documentation. Nicer ones have a labelled standoff to plug them in all at once.

In the best case though it may just be loose and need pressing in.

[Chulanowa]

What the title says :(

Specifically, it doesn't start. I press the power button, it starts for half a second, then it shuts down. Then, it starts again. And again...

A week or so ago it fell to the floor from its stand. Sińce then, the power button wasn't working properly - it seemed to be stuck. But the PC was working. But yesterday, I had trouble turning it on. Now, it acts as above...

What the heck? Power button or the mainboard? What do you think?

So, first things to do is check the easiest things first. Connections! Your PC took a fall, so things may have gotten jostled loose in there. If your RAM is loose it will cause a problem very much like this; your power starts up, the motherboard detects no memory, and it all shuts back down.

1. Open up your case's side panel. This should be simple enough.
2. Look for your RAM sticks. They will look something like this (depending on manufacturer and model, they might look fancier, but the layout is the same):

3. Press down firmly on both corners of the RAM stick. Make sure those tabs on either side of the slot are popped into place. You can also remove the sticks (release the tabs, then pull up) and re-insert until you hear them click into place, just to be sure.

Odds are your other hardware like the GPU are screwed into the case; even so it wouldn't hurt to give them a little press just to be sure. Check their wired connections, if any; it's not likely a loose GPU connection would cause a shutdown (more likely just powering on to a blank screen) but you want to be sure. This goes for your HDD if you're using one as well; generally this being loose will give you an error message on your boot screen, but never hurts to check connections (if you're using a SSD, there shouldn't be an issue, I don't think)

If your RAM and connections are solid and you still have the problem, it's time to think about the power button. You said it was "sticking" before, and this may in fact be exactlyh what's going on; if the button is getting physically stuck when pressed, it will cause the PC to shut down ~10 seconds after powering on, as if you had held the button down manually. Testing this can feel a little nerve-wracking, becuase it involves poking your motherboard with a screwdriver! YAY!

On your Motherboard should be a pin array that looks like this:

What you wanna do is use remove  the connector on these pins, then use something conductive (a screwdriver works fine) to connect the two pins for "power" - this is basically what your button does, but we're taking that out of the mix.


If your PC powers on just fine like this, then the good news is, it's just a busted button. The bad news is, it's kind of a pain in the butt to replace a busted button, since you have to basically pry it out of your case and get a new one in there. If you're not comfortable with prying all the panels off your PC and threading a new power button's connectors through the works, you'd be best taking it to a professional. Also, I suppose if you don't feel comfortable poking motherboard components with a screwdriver, you might want to see a professional for that too.

Here's hoping it's just loose ram!

[Beorning]

Okay, update!

I took my PC through another round of, ehm, exploratory surgery. This time, I managed to remove both the front panel / grille and the case top.

First thing: somehow, I missed it before, but now I realized that the CPU fan was not intended to stand loose on the GPU card.  I realized that after I found two weird metal bits lying inside the PC and I found out these are the fan clips. So, I clipped the fan back to the radiator...

(BTW. these clips are a nightmare to attach. Who came up with this idea?)

I also poked around the buttons panel at the front. Nothing was disconnected, but the mechanical part of the power button was a little skewed, I think. Also, a LED wire was a bit loose and getting in the way of the button. I put everything in order and the button is not getting stuck anymore. And the PC is working again!

Although now I have no sound... I might have disconnected something else by accident.  I know I made a mistake of pulling out the small connectors that are responsible for power, reset, HDD light etc. Not sure if I connected everything right... In fact, initially, the power button and the reset button got switched 

I need to open the PC again and look for the sound problem... but for now, the PC itself works, thankfully.

Thank you for all the assistance, guys!