Do I have a bad power supply?

Hello All,

My computer has started to randomly shut down and then once its shut down, it will try to randomly start up. It will power up and try to cycle and then power down. If I do not remove the power chord, the PC will keep trying to start up.

I have not made any changes to the power setting recently. I have disabled Windows Fast Start Up as that was causing issues. I have turned off the option for "sleep" when I have seen the option. It is still on in the additional power settings\change what the buttons do but other than that, sleep is disabled.

Windows Update is on so perhaps Windows released a "fix" recently...?

I could check more settings but I have a feeling my Power Supply is bad. I plugged the power chord back in and the PC tried to start up but failed. I turned it off before it could cycle a bunch of times and try to start up.

What does everyone else think?

Thanks, Bill

bpatters69 said:

My computer has started to randomly shut down and then once its shut down, it will try to randomly start up. It will power up and try to cycle and then power down. I plugged the power chord back in and the PC tried to start up but failed. I turned it off before it could cycle a bunch of times and try to start up.

Thanks, Bill

When it starts it has two phases:
- POST (BIOS startup)
- Windows start.

When you mention it is starting and fails, is it on POST or Windows start?

Thanks for the replies. They are all very helpful.

Here is what I have tried:

• I re-seated the graphic card and RAM. I placed the graphic card in a different slot than what it was in before.
• I took out a Sound Blaster Sound Card that I had recently installed to eliminate it from the equation.
• I replaced the SATA cable between the Mobo and my primary hard drive
• I looked for any loose or mis-aligned cable but I did not see anything
• I removed the power chord and pressed and held the power for about 30 seconds

I tried a restart a couple of times and it tried to restart and I saw A2 and A6 flash on the digital display on the Motherboard. The computer would stay running but there was no post as far as i could tell. It was like the PC tried, got to a certain point and then just sat there. It was running so it had power. I tried connecting the monitor directly to the onboard graphics but I still could not see any post or messages of any kind.

Now when I hit the power, there is nothing. DOA. No attempt to start, no power, just silence. Sigh. This has to be a bad power supply, doesn't it? The half attempts I saw previously were simply the dying attempts of the PSU to start the PC... right?

The only change which I made at least a month ago was the addition of the SB Sound Card.

I checked for overheating earlier this am when I was able to get the computer to start. I think the Mobo and CPU were 31 degrees Celsius which is ideal according to google.

It can be the Power supply, MB or CPU.
I had a Z87 MB that began to restart randomly, went getting worst then it did no start. I replaced the MB and never happen again.
In my wife's computer I've replaced the PS twice.
If you have a spare PS give it a try.

Thanks All. I have a feeling it is the PSU. The PC was running fine until the last day or two. The first symptom was it restarting after I had shut it down. I thought it was Widows Fast Start acting up but I confirmed it was still disabled. Today the problem got progressively worse and now, as I said, its pretty much DOA.

- - - Updated - - -

To close out this thread, it was the power supply. The odd thing is the power supply tested fine. All power was within specifications.

Glad you've fixed it.