Dead Mobo? PSU? RAM?

My pc suddenley started acting up about a day ago. First my mouse a razer copperhead would have to be unplugged and plugged back in after booting up or it either didn't work or didn't have power. I also oced using the oc genie and started getting blue screens. So I turned oc gennie off. The oc was at 3.7 but the cpu remained at 3.7 despite oc genie being turned off. I also noticed some times the pc reported 2gb ram rather then 4gb. I ran memtest86+ and both sticks were fine. I even reset cmos to undo the oc.Finally the mouse died so I went to my back up mouse. Had the pc freeze again. Now I started testing running one stick at a time and stille the pc froze up. Now sometimes it turns on but will not even go to the msi boot screen now assuming I do get to the boot screen I can make it in to windows for maybe 5 min before it either freezes or reboots itself. I noticed that the fan on my cpu cooler which is run by the mobo not the psu sometimes doesn't start but the heatsink shouldn't cause overheating even without the fan. The fan usually does start after a min. I decided to rip out the psu and found it was filthy with dirt. So I blew out all the dust and there was a ton. I'm letting the psu sit out over night. So could it be the mobo since it seemed confused about if the oc was on or not,the cpu fan prob and the ram sometimes showing up as 2gb? The ram even though both sticks tested fine? Or the psu being filled with dust?

 

I don't have another psu to test. What do you mean about the capacitors? I will check tomorow. I do try to get the majority of dust out of the pc as needed. Somehow the dust in the psu had escaped my eye as even when I looked tonight it wasn't that bad but it was obvious there was a ton of dust in there. Thanks for the wuick reply ddp

 

He means that the capacitors should be completely flat on the top, with the exception of a thin ridge at the edge. If they are domed, they are bad. Of course, if they are leaking, this is also bad.

If you (or a friend, neighbor, etc) have a multimeter, you can easily check if the power supply is making all the correct voltages.

Is the CPU still overclocked? Go into bios and make sure...it might just be the wrong clock.

Also, make sure your memory is getting enough power...most mainboards will give a "default" power that is less than the needs for good ram.

BTW...what kind of PSU do you have? Reading your signature I see, "Corsair HX250"...that almost sounds like a 250W power supply...but I know all those parts would not run on just 250W.

 

Cpu is not over clcocked. I have checked. The timings and voltage should be fine on the ram but will double check. Psu is 520 not 250. My bad.


EDIT: The PC is up and running now for about 15 minuets. Give or take! However I am only seeing 2GB in Windows with both sticks installed.

EDIT2: The PC is now on and running for nearly an hour with no issues other then the os reporting 2GB of RAM not 4. Going to check bios and possibly memtest86+ again for error. Are there any other memory checkers out there that are worth using for a second opinion?

EDIT3: Well I rebooted and it appears the timing was off. Going off memory alone, I thought the timings were right. I was wrong. Timings on both sticks are now correct, but i didnt see where to adjust voltage. However despite bios picking up both sticks windows still reports only 2 GB. CPU-Z reports 4 GB though!

 

I did more research on the ram issue and the common solution @ msi forums was to reseat the cpu. I did so but when I managed to get to windows there was 2gb initally other times it locks up while booting or just as things go to load. Next time I got to windows again and had 4gb. I turned off to hook up the remaining things like usb ports. Went to start up but now it goes to turn on. Does nothing and repeats again. So I'm thinking its the psu. Any thoughts?

 

I will try it again but I tried that earlier and it didn't work. Fyi bios and all mobo drivers are up to date?

 

I tried one stick at a time. Same result with both sticks. Steady power but nothing comes up on monitor.

Edit: so I fried it up outside the box on card board and it booted up fine with ntohing but a cpu fan and video card attached.

 

I cleared cmos tried booting with one stick in. Just keppt rebooting however I had flipped the power switch of and back on. It started for a sec then rebooted. Then it came on and stayed on and does this every time now. However nothing comes up on the screen atm.

 

Here's an update. I placed the mobo on cardboard and it fired up and stayed on with no prob. However as soon as I mount it in the case it goes back to booting for one sec. Turning off. Turning on for a sec then turning off. Any ideas?

 

Turns out the I/O pannel was causing it to short out. Evrythings back up and running though. Thanks for all the help guys.

 

Was it that little spring-thing above the USB ports?

 

I dont think it was those spring things, but the spring things around the Ethernet port. You have the right idea though

 

Looks like I spoke to soon. I removed the I/O panel completely. PC was up and running for 2 days with no problems, then tonight it started up again. It keeps freezing up for no reason, forcing me to hold the power button to shut it down. The first time it happened, i booted back up right away fine, but the second time, it started doing the power up for 1 sec and then power down, power on, power down. Finally got back into windows after a few attempts, but it locked up again. Few more tries, and here I am back in windows for now. Some of the times I started it up during trying to get back in to windows, it would power up and stay on, but nothing would happen. No boot screen, nothing.

Any ideas?

 

On this mobo there are 6 cpu phase leds. I noticed when the comp locks up it drops from 6 leds to 1. This combined with the rebooting itself is leading me to thank this is a psu problem. Any ideas?