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[Vattic]

I'm looking for second opinions as I'm not sure what to do.

About half a year or more back my computer started powering down suddenly and without leaving error messages or dumps. It did this a few times before not doing it for a month or so. After it did it again, a few times over a few days, I decided to reformat and see if the problem reoccurred.

Everything was fine until last weekend where it would sometimes power down and back up, as if power was only lost for a second. Eventually it wouldn't even power up. The power button on the case and the MB would lead to the light on the front flashing and a couple of the fans in the case coming on for a few seconds.

Having sought advice I was told it sounded like a PSU problem so I ordered a new one and fitted it yesterday but the same problem is present.

Yesterday evening I took the computer round a friends house and we worked on it until after midnight. We removed components until it was just a MB, CPU + heatsink, two sticks of RAM (minimum for this MB), new PSU, and an internal speaker, all out of the case. It ran like this, and with the RAM swapped around including using all three. We put it back in the case and it still ran fine. Then we started adding back components. The GPU: Fine. The SSD used as C:/: broken again. So we remove the SSD and it still won't work. We remove the GPU and still no luck. We try his GPU without luck. We don't get it to boot again that night.

We suspect the MB is faulty but neither of us has the tools, experience, or spare parts to check.

My options: Take it to a technician (£100+) who might tell me it's the MB (£100+) or maybe another part (up to £250). Alternatively I could get another MB (£100+) find the problem is not fixed and have to take it to a technician (£100+) who tells me it's another part (up to £250). Either way I could loose extra significant amounts of money and I'll be without a decent computer for a while.

Has anyone got advice for seeking out decent technicians or any other advice?

Cheers.

Fake edit: poor form not to post specs.

Spoiler: specs (click to show/hide)

Intel X25-M Mainstream 160GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (SSDSA2MH160G2C1)
XFX ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 850W ATX2.2 Modular SLi Compliant Power Supply
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ)     
Samsung SH-S223B/BEBE 22x DVDaRW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM
Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) - OEM
Asus P6T Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
Coolermaster RC-1000 Cosmos Silent Full Tower Case - Black
Corsair XMS3 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Triple Channel (TR3X6G1333C9)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 939 / AM2 / AM2+ / 775 / 1156 / 1366)
Asus Xonar DX 7.1 PCI-Express Sound Card (90-YAA060-1UAN00Z)

[Simmura McCrea]

Silly question, but have you tried a different power cable?

[SP2]

The odd powering down sounds like overheating to me. It has happened to me before and it seems to go away from time to time, until I got a new case and extra fans (just to be safe).

Given the details, I'd say that your motherboard itself is faulty. I built a computer using my old mobo and nothing seemed to work so I did the same thing and bought a new PSU. That started the fans up but shut off in about 5 seconds, I then tested the PSU itself in another computer but that was fine thus me concluding that it must be the mobo (I tested all the other parts in my own computer before to be sure that they worked).

Personally, I'd do some more tests to be sure of anything. One of the worst things is forking out money for something which isn't actually broken. :S

[Vattic]

Silly question, but have you tried a different power cable?

Yeah the one that came with the new PSU. Not a silly question really, if it had been that I'd of kicked myself in the end.

SP2: The weird thing was that it rarely happened when I was doing anything stressful. Often Youtube or foruming would be when it happened. A few times even when idling.

I already know the pain of forking out only to find nothing was wrong with the part; My new PSU wasn't cheap. The problem is that I've not enough spare parts to test any further. Assuming you are a Brit like myself do you know any decent shops that check this sort of thing?

Thanks for the replies.

[SP2]

I am, but unfortunately I don't know of any (I suppose the local computer shops aren't nationwide so no luck there, even if I could remember their names). I tend to troubleshoot my problems by myself or with a couple of friends. I would ask/look around a bit to see if you can get someone to look at it for a lower price.

Sorry I can't help any further.

[Vattic]

Cheers nonetheless.

Good news is I found out a few minutes ago through a friend of the family that he's good friends with someone who builds and diagnoses computers. He says he'll take my specs to him tomorrow and see if he'd be able to test it. Just hope the guy is willing.

[Funk]

the power in your area maybe the course of your problem, if the local supplyer has any hicups your pc is the first thing to go.