REVscene - Vancouver Automotive Forum

geeknerd · 01-05-2015, 11:26 PM

power went out while the computer was on. now it won't turn on/boot at all.

i opened it up and the clrtc (clear cmos) LED on my motherboard is blinking.

I tried to clear cmos by using unplugging the psu and using the 2-3 jumper pin method. Didn't work.

I then tried the pull cmos battery for 15minute method. Didn't work, CLRTC LED still blinking.

To run diagnostics, I unplugged everything from the PSU and only left the Cd-drive plugged in.

I then shorted my PSU with the 'paperclip green wire to ground method'. The PSU fan was running and the optical drive was able to open and close. (does this mean that the PSU is fully functional? I've never had the psu on without the case fan so i don't know if it's supposed to be this quiet.)

What are my next steps?

Since it won't boot at all, I'm guessing it is the motherboard is fried? do power surges commonly break other components as well such as the ram/hdd/gpu/cpu?

It is a sabertooth x58 TUF series so even though i bought it sometime in 2010-2011, i might still be covered in the TUF 5 year warranty. or are fried motherboards usually not covered in warranty?

Hehe · 01-06-2015, 12:54 AM

In order to tell whether your mobo is fried you need another psu to test it out.

Assuming the led is still blinking, the mobo is getting some power, so I wouldn't rule it out as yet.

What I'd do is take the battery out, disconnect everything but power, cpu, and one memory (swap between the modules you have) and see what happen. Oh, and leave the battery out for now. (Not sure if you did, but power needs to be out for it to clear)

John · 01-06-2015, 01:46 AM

Are you sure the blinking LED is labeled "CLRTC"?
I have never heard of such an LED.

underscore · 01-06-2015, 06:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hehe

What I'd do is take the battery out, disconnect everything but power, cpu, and one memory (swap between the modules you have) and see what happen.

Also swap between the RAM slots on the mobo as well if it doesn't boot with any of the modules. ie module 1 in slot 1, test, module 2 in slot 1, test. module 1 in slot 2, test, etc etc etc.

geeknerd · 01-06-2015, 06:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hehe

In order to tell whether your mobo is fried you need another psu to test it out.

Assuming the led is still blinking, the mobo is getting some power, so I wouldn't rule it out as yet.

What I'd do is take the battery out, disconnect everything but power, cpu, and one memory (swap between the modules you have) and see what happen. Oh, and leave the battery out for now. (Not sure if you did, but power needs to be out for it to clear)

Yeah i had all the power disconnected and held on to the power button for discharge before trying both methods of clear. will try again with swapping rams.

Quote:

Originally Posted by John

Are you sure the blinking LED is labeled "CLRTC"?
I have never heard of such an LED.

you are right, it might not be a clrtc LED.

it is an LED nonetheless and all it does is blink.

The thing is, the PSU fan doesn't even turn on when hooked up to the MOBO which leads to me to believe that it HAS to be the mobo?

But it does turn on when I'm shorting it and have it hooked up only to the optical drive which works.

any help is appreciated. thanks guys.

geeknerd · 01-06-2015, 06:55 AM

also forgot to mention that there is a faint tick sound that goes along with the LED blinking.

the led starts blinking as soon as i turn my PSU on, (i don't even need to press the computer power button)

Hehe · 01-06-2015, 06:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by geeknerd

Yeah i had all the power disconnected and held on to the power button for discharge before trying both methods of clear. will try again with swapping rams.

you are right, it might not be a clrtc LED.

it is an LED nonetheless and all it does is blink.

http://i.imgur.com/Hn52mC9.jpg

The thing is, the PSU fan doesn't even turn on when hooked up to the MOBO which leads to me to believe that it HAS to be the mobo?

But it does turn on when I'm shorting it and have it hooked up only to the optical drive which works.

any help is appreciated. thanks guys.

It's very rare to encounter a fried mobo. The reason is that mobo gets its power from PSU. And the PSU basically stabilizes anything coming in before outputting to the mobo.

You get a fried mobo when you are OCing and messing up too much with the voltage setting, but very rarely from a sudden loss of power.

I can see some other parts going down, but not the mobo especially considering the one you have is not a cheapo one.

underscore · 01-06-2015, 08:00 AM

CLRTC is the name of that jumper, not the LED. Here's the procedure for clearing the CMOS:

ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support-

Quote:

1st step: PC power shut down and removes power cable.

2nd step: CLRTC_SW has 3 pins. Short 1-2 pins for default setup. If you would like clear CMOS setting data & temporary data in south bridge, please short 2-3 pins by jumper for 10 sec. When you finish clean CMOS process, please change back your jumper pin to Default [Default: [1-2] pins short].

3rd step: Plug in Power cable and turn on the PC power.

4th step: When the PC boot up and show ASUS logo, please press keyboard’s key to login BIOS program setting to setup your BIOS.

*If above action no work, please remove MB’s Li battery and then follow 1st~4th steps to do.

When you finish clear CMOS data, please put back the MB’s battery.

Also according to the manual there's no scenario listed for that LED blinking, so I'm thinking the PSU may be damaged.

geeknerd · 01-06-2015, 01:26 PM

hypothetically, if the problem is a fried MOBO or any other non-PSU component, what are the chances that plugging in a new PSU will damage the PSU?

nvm just tried a new PSU and still wouldnt POST.

the last two possibility is a fried CPU or FRIED MObo.

going to remove my cpu and see if it still boots or not.

time to build a new rig.... bitter sweet sigh...

TOPEC · 01-06-2015, 01:48 PM

give it a bit of time and it'll turn on. last time the pwoer went out, my computer was on at that moment. when the power came back, computer would not boot, no amount of clearing cmos and diagnostic worked, figured the power outtage took out some part, left the computer over night and the next morning decided to give it 1 more try, voila it turned on magically. no jokes im serious

John · 01-06-2015, 02:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by geeknerd

hypothetically, if the problem is a fried MOBO or any other non-PSU component, what are the chances that plugging in a new PSU will damage the PSU?

nvm just tried a new PSU and still wouldnt POST.

the last two possibility is a fried CPU or FRIED MObo.

going to remove my cpu and see if it still boots or not.

time to build a new rig.... bitter sweet sigh...

Don't bother trying to remove the CPU to test. The motherboard will never run without a CPU. You will not learn anything from doing this test.

Since you have already tried another power supply, your problem is either the CPU (1% chance) or motherboard (99% chance).
LGA1366 motherboards are very difficult to find, either new or used.
You should consider building a new computer.

geeknerd · 01-06-2015, 02:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John

Don't bother trying to remove the CPU to test. The motherboard will never run without a CPU. You will not learn anything from doing this test.

Since you have already tried another power supply, your problem is either the CPU (1% chance) or motherboard (99% chance).
LGA1366 motherboards are very difficult to find, either new or used.
You should consider building a new computer.

just tried it without the cpu and the mobo while it did not POST, the CPU LED and DRAM LED turned red as well as the PSU fan spinning.

(thank you for the advice but it was completely wrong)

WTF? it works so i tried putting the cpu back in and it POST again! wow...

POST beep indicated no ram, put in ram. it boots again.

beep code indicates no video so i put my vid card back in and it boots!!!

was in bios and it suddenly shut down. checked the cpu and was HOT , installed my heatsink again and boot.

it boots to bios and cpu and memory check out ok in bios.

now im about to plug my hdd and fans back in and hope it fuking works

Quote:

Originally Posted by TOPEC

give it a bit of time and it'll turn on. last time the pwoer went out, my computer was on at that moment. when the power came back, computer would not boot, no amount of clearing cmos and diagnostic worked, figured the power outtage took out some part, left the computer over night and the next morning decided to give it 1 more try, voila it turned on magically. no jokes im serious

wow... this was the best advice lol but i hurried the process by plugging everything out and back in. about to plug in my hdd and hope it loads.

geeknerd · 01-06-2015, 02:53 PM

wow everything works now. bought a PSU for no reason.

I guess ill keep it as an upgrade evga 750g2 (modular + 100W upgrade) and keep my TX650 as a backup/future build.

thanks for the help everyone.

Ulic Qel-Droma · 01-06-2015, 04:39 PM

i wonder why that is, if something just needed time to discharge or whatever.

geeknerd · 01-06-2015, 05:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ulic Qel-Droma

i wonder why that is, if something just needed time to discharge or whatever.

i think so too. seeing as how Topec experienced the same thing, im guessing some capacitors needed more than a few power button presses to fully discharge. trying to turn it back on probably didnt help with the discharge process either.

Bonka · 01-06-2015, 07:56 PM

I had this happen to me before. It's a BIOS feature to prevent a sudden power interruption from cooking your components. It will happen again and it will probably take a day or so for it to be bootable again. You need to go into your BIOS and change the setting. It will be under the Power Management Setup something titled AC Power Back Function or similarly and you can select on, off or last state. I turned my on so the computer will power on the moment AC power is available. Haven't had it happen again.