Help!!!! HTPC problem

[haisaikat]

5 yrs old config with MSI A78M-E35 Mobo and AMD A4000 APU inbuilt graphics and 4 GB RAM. PC started to restart on its own and sometimes did not go to boot but halted on pre bios with blank screen.

Following resolution tried with no improvement

1. Ram swap from another pc
2. Bios battery reset
3. Bios flash with new firmware
4. Windows fresh install

Can it be motherboard problem? When machine stalls the fans keep on and power light stays normal. Sometimes USB becomes dead and plugging new usb initiates reboot.

Please help

 

[elangoas]

5 yrs old config with MSI A78M-E35 Mobo and AMD A4000 APU inbuilt graphics and 4 GB RAM. PC started to restart on its own and sometimes did not go to boot but halted on pre bios with blank screen.

Following resolution tried with no improvement

1. Ram swap from another pc
2. Bios battery reset
3. Bios flash with new firmware
4. Windows fresh install

Can it be motherboard problem? When machine stalls the fans keep on and power light stays normal. Sometimes USB becomes dead and plugging new usb initiates reboot.

Please help

Have you checked if the internal hard disks are working fine? Try using them as secondary disks in an other PC just to confirm they are working fine..

I too have 2 - 3 old PC's and been swapping mobo & RAM and it is like crazy..

 

[bobbyprajan]

Could be a faulty motherboard. What is the PSU btw ? Can you test with another PSU ?

5 years with a consumer class motherboard is a reasonably good life

 

[haisaikat]

Have you checked if the internal hard disks are working fine? Try using them as secondary disks in an other PC just to confirm they are working fine..

I too have 2 - 3 old PC's and been swapping mobo & RAM and it is like crazy..

I plan to use a bootable usb stick for libre elec tonight to seperate out HDD issues if any by disconnecting the HDD completely

Could be a faulty motherboard. What is the PSU btw ? Can you test with another PSU

It uses a No brand slim psu as it's a horizontal 10 cm high case from Zebronics. Psu was changed couple of years back. But does PSU problem cause motherboard to stop powering USB intermittently?

 

[surfatwork]

1. Unplug everything from motherboard, including any hard drives and USB drives. Connect monitor only and see if it powers on properly.
2. Check if cpu heatsink is ok
3. Connect some other psu and check
You should be able to browse the bios without any problems. If that's ok then see if it boots up with a USB pen drive (just download any form of Linux and stick it on your drive).
Report If that's ok

Reinstalling windows rarely cures problems.

 

[elangoas]

But does PSU problem cause motherboard to stop powering USB intermittently?

I had an iball SMPS for my HTPC with abt 4 TB HD + graphics card + DVD writer.. At one point of time, my PC used to restart and one fine day during rainly season (lightning), it went dead.. I was unaware the the cause was due to inefficient SMPS.. Later i switched to Corsair 550 SMPS and PC never behaved like before..

How many TB of internal HD do you have?.. SMPS could be the culprit, since you mentioned Zebronics..

Zebronics SMPS are just fine to run dual core processor + a single HDD with no more power draw..

 

[spirovious]

Many times PC behaves odd.
Best way is to remove all extra devices connected to motherboard except Hard disc and Cpu.
Do not power on for a day and try luck again.This trick worked many time with me.

 

[MaSh]

Sounds like a heating issues. Check if the cpu fans and heat sinks are clean. Does it restart in safe mode or just command prompt mode? Are there any beeps on startup?

MaSh

 

[haisaikat]

How many TB of internal HD do you have?.. SMPS could be the culprit, since you mentioned Zebronics..

I do not have a spare SMPS but to let you know a 80gb laptop Hard drive is connected and a bd drive.

Sounds like a heating issues. Check if the cpu fans and heat sinks are clean. Does it restart in safe mode or just command prompt mode? Are there any beeps on startup?

CPU fans and heat sinks are not overtly dirty but I can say you this that in bios the two temperature sensors show less than 35 C only and keeps on fluctuating. It's winter here in Kolkata.

Best way is to remove all extra devices connected to motherboard except Hard disc and Cpu.

Unplug everything from motherboard, including any hard drives and USB drives. Connect monitor only and see if it powers on properly.

Will try this route

 

[MaSh]

CPU fans and heat sinks are not overtly dirty but I can say you this that in bios the two temperature sensors show less than 35 C only and keeps on fluctuating. It's winter here in Kolkata.

Hmm is that temperature with Windows running or pre boot? Let windows start and then when the computer restarts, check the temperature.

MaSh

 

[Love4sound]

Check the RAM and all the hardware slots. I suspect Ram issue

 

[matbhuvi]

It uses a No brand slim psu as it's a horizontal 10 cm high case from Zebronics. Psu was changed couple of years back. But does PSU problem cause motherboard to stop powering USB intermittently?

Oh yes. I had exactly same problem with zebronics PSU. Changing PSU solved my problem. If you don't have a spare one, take it a local computer component shop and ask him to diagnose. As others mentioned, faulty RAM can also be a problem. Memtest is a handy tool to test that. It is bootable from USB and don't require OS to boot.

 

[spirovious]

If smps is an issue,then CPU fan won't spin.Only little movement for 2 secs can be seen when main power button is pressed.
Also l remember once,when I removed CPU from socket and reinstalled,machine did start.

 

[haisaikat]

Friends, a positive update, the problem is now resolved. Turned out it was the power strip. What I failed to point out here is that the pc runs from a power strip and that 1 month earlier the denon AVR was also hooked to the same power strip and saw sudden shutdowns. After that I had hooked the AVR to the mains directly to resolve it then. I was somehow not able to relate the two. So the other day when FM @subhashis_1980 came to my place with his own pc we noticed similar problem, wasn't able to relate the two still but post that meeting based on discussion with him (hisnpc worked fine back at his home) tried this option of directly hooking the HTPC to mains and everything worked fine. Getting a belkin power strip this time. Thank you all for your suggestions