I shipped my sister's PC from Greece to Sweden, and now it won't power on at all. When she tries to start it, nothing happens: no fans spin, not even a sound, just some standby lights on the motherboard. I know I messed up shipping it with the CPU cooler still attached, but I thought it was okay since she doesn't know much about computers.
I instructed her to unplug everything but the CPU, RAM, and power connectors, but it still wouldn't turn on. We checked the power supply, which she was able to jumpstart and get the fan spinning. Even tried starting it without the RAM, but that didn't work either. Believing the motherboard might be the issue, she bought a new one and followed my steps to replace it, but the PC still won't boot. We even switched the reset button with the power button to eliminate that as the source of the problem.
Could it be a broken power supply? It works when jumped, but nothing happens when powered normally. Could there be anything else going wrong? For context, the PC was in the trunk of a car in Sweden for a couple of days before the first attempt to power it up. The system has an Asrock x370 Fatal1ty K4 motherboard with a Ryzen 7 1700x CPU, and the new board is an Asrock b450m pro4.
3 Answers
Make sure to check the voltage setting on the power supply. If it's not set correctly, that could cause issues when turning it on. I've seen this happen, and it can be tricky to spot if you're not looking closely since it might be a slight flick of a switch that does the trick.
Have you checked if the PSU cables might be internally damaged? Sometimes they can get messed up and not deliver power even if they look fine. It could explain why it's not powering up when you hit the button even though it works when you jump it.
That would be a bummer if that's the case. I hope it holds up! But if that’s the issue, testing the system with a different PSU is definitely a smart move.
Honestly, I think the CPU might be the main issue. The weight of the Hyper 212 Evo cooler could have caused some pins to bend during transport. Check the CPU pins carefully under a magnifying glass for any misalignment. Even a tiny bend can prevent the system from booting up.
I checked the pins from a photo, and they seem alright, but I’ll need to wait until my sister can come back to really inspect it.
If you test the motherboard without the CPU, it might still show some signs like fans spinning. That could help you narrow down the problem!
Unfortunately, the XFX TS550 doesn’t have that switch. So that’s not the problem here.