I spent the better half of today moving my main system into a new HTPC case for a review on OCIA.net. I really am not fond of case reviews, especially using my main work system, because something ALWAYS goes wrong. Today was no exception.
I finally finished the transfer and photo shoot, booted up the system, which worked for a few minutes… then the trouble began. The system froze at the Windows loading screen. I shut down, then tried to start up again… FAIL. The system would power on for a split second, then power off. I tried just about everything I could think of:
Removed motherboard from case
Removed add-in cards
Put power supply on PSU tester, all volts were fine
Cleared CMOS
Reseated memory
Reseated ATX and all other power cables
Checked GPU, CPU, Northbridge for excessive heat
Funny thing, if I pressed power then reset , it would sometimes boot but only for about 5 min then randomly shuts off.
I was completely out of options, but something that one of my writers (Rutledge) said got me thinking. He said it sounded like a heat issue… but I had already checked the obvious sources. Then it hit me.
During the move, I had taken the cover off the power supply to blow out the dust inside. Perhaps something happened to the PSU fan while I was doing this…
Sure enough, the fan wasn’t spinning… and this is why. When I replaced the cover, a wire had become tangled in one of the fan blades and I didn’t notice it.
I fixed the wire and everything is working perfectly now. Now that I have wasted several hours… I should probably shower and get some sleep.
