• Hi there and welcome to PC Help Forum (PCHF), a more effective way to get the Tech Support you need!
    We have Experts in all areas of Tech, including Malware Removal, Crash Fixing and BSOD's , Microsoft Windows, Computer DIY and PC Hardware, Networking, Gaming, Tablets and iPads, General and Specific Software Support and so much more.

    Why not Click Here To Sign Up and start enjoying great FREE Tech Support.

    This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Learn More.

PC Rapidly Restarting Every Few Seconds

Status
Not open for further replies.

dex

PCHF Member
Jul 24, 2020
9
0
27
Hi all!

I recently started having some issues with a custom build gaming PC which was constructed approximately 3 years ago which continuously falls in an infinite restart loop immediately after powering it on. I've had issues with it for awhile leading up to this issue which were all primarily software related issues occurring when trying to update the Windows operating system. Just to include it as a backstory for whatever it's worth, I reformatted the C drive to upgrade from Windows Education Edition to Windows Professional as there's no upgrade path available which caused what I believe is a corrupted boot configuration data associated with the error code 0xc000000e. So every time I attempt to update Windows it fails to do so and has to restore itself back to the previous version. One night after work I shut down my PC from the start button (bottom left corner) which forced a Windows update and when I tried to turn it on the next morning the continuous restart issue occurred.

I recorded the following video to demonstrates the exact symptoms that I'm experiencing on my desktop which it's worthwhile to mention that no video output or signal is displayed on any monitors during the boot (as expected) due to how quickly it shuts off.

I immediately assumed it's hardware where either the PSU or Motherboard were the primary causes. So I disassembled the PC and disconnected the PSU and proceeded to test my power supply for failures. My model of PSU has a built in self test functionality which remains a green light when holding it down. I wasn't convinced so I also jumped the PSU using the paper clip test and connected it so lights at the bottom of my PC case which lit up and remained lit until I disconnected the power. So I concluded that the PSU was unlikely to be the cause for the issue.

Next I wanted to test the motherboard so I disconnected everything attached to it including the graphics card, sound card, network card, RAM modules, etc. The issue was still occurring so it wasn't anything external connected via SLI. I then disconnected all of the cables attached to my PSU except the main ATX power connector with 24-pins (everything else such as fans, water cooling, hard drives, etc was still connected to the motherboard) which I've highlighted with a blue rectangle and I was able to successfully turn it on using the red START button and it remained on for as long as the PSU was on. I then inserted another cable to isolate where things are going wrong, the next one I connected was the 4-pin ATX power connector highlighted with a green rectangle to the right and the issue started to happen again. I disconnected it and tried the 8-pin ATX power connected highlighted with a green rectangle to the left and the issue continued to happen. No matter what combination, when either one or both of the ATX power connectors are attached to the PSU the symptoms appear on the PC.

The following image is an identical top down view of my motherboard layout with the aforementioned ATX power connectors highlighted.
ASUS X99 RVE - Top.jpg


There are other connectors which can be viewed in the motherboard manual on page 26 but I stopped testing after isolating the issue to these pins.

If it helps any the following motherboard and power supply is used in my PC configuration respectively:
  • Asus ROG Rampage V Extreme X99
  • Corsair AX1200i Digital Platinum Modular 1200W
I can supply any additional details you guys may need just let me know if I'm missing anything important. All of your help and support is greatly appreciated!

Thank you!
 
it recycles every 4 seconds, which just happens to be the amount of time required to hold in the power button to perform a hard reset, so.... take off the front panel header jumpers and short out the POWER BTN jumpers to start it and see if that helps.
 
Hi @Bruce,

I tried doing the following whilst only keeping the same 3 ATX power connectors connected between the motherboard and PSU which were the 24-pins (blue-right), 8-pins (green-left) and 4-pins (green-right):
  1. I disconnected the system panel connector/jumper labeled PLED.
  2. I disconnected the system panel connector/jumper labeled HDD_LED.
  3. I disconnected the system panel connector/jumper labeled PWRSW.
  4. I disconnected the USB 2.0 connector (10-1 USB91112, USB 1314).
  5. I disconnected the chassis fan connector (4-pin CHA_FAN1A-3A).
  6. I disconnected the USB 3.0 connector (20-1 pin USB3_34).
  7. I disconnected the front panel audio connector (10-1 pin AAFP).
  8. I disconnected the USB 3.0 connector (20-1 pin USB3_34).
  9. I disconnected the cpu fan connector (4-pin CPU_FAN).
I've drawn orange rectangles over the same top down view of the motherboard picture supplied earlier and labeled each one with a number that corresponds to the aforementioned ordered numeric list.
ASUS X99 RVE - Top.jpg


I also kept all 4 RAM modules connected to the motherboard this time around since there wasn't any issues previously when only 1 of the 4 were connected which you can also see highlighted in blue.

If it's a better/clearer representation for you the motherboard manual I supplied earlier has the exact reference to these components on page 26 & 27 where each of the following numbers is identical to the numbers supplied earlier:
  1. Allocated the number 22 in the diagram.
  2. Allocated the number 22 in the diagram.
  3. Allocated the number 22 in the diagram.
  4. Allocated the number 24 in the diagram.
  5. Allocated the number 6 in the diagram.
  6. Allocated the number 16 in the diagram.
  7. Allocated the number 28 in the diagram.
  8. Allocated the number 16 in the diagram.
  9. Allocated the number 6 in the diagram.
motherboard_manual.png


For a diagram showing the system panel connectors/jumpers available it's also in the motherboard manual on page 61 where only the following connectors/jumpers were originally connected and disconnected from the motherboard:
  • PLED
  • HDD_LED
  • PWRSW
system_panel_connectors_jumpers.png


Just to clarify what you meant by "short out the POWER BTN jumpers to start it" did you want me to keep the PWRSW jumper connected and use the PC case to power the motherboard or disconnect that jumper also and use the motherboard's red START button to power it on?

I disconnected all of the jumpers, connectors and cables outlined 1 - 9 in the above diagram and turned on the motherboard using the red START button located at the top right to power it on. It exhibited the exact same behaviour shown in the video where it would turn on, immediately turn off and then turn back on after approximately 4 seconds had elapsed repetitively.

Would it be worthwhile to try each one of those ATX connectors highlighted in green which causes the issue one at a time while everything I mentioned is disconnected to see if any specific ones are associated with the issue or would that not yield any benefit?

Otherwise let me know anything else you'd like me to try or mistakes I may have made I should correct and attempt again. I really appreciate you for taking the time to assist me with this issue :)
 
Also if it's worth anything here is everything still connected inside of my PC:
  • In Win 909 Full Tower Silver Case
  • ASUS RAMPAGE V EXTREME USB 3.1 X99 Intel LGA 2011-3 E-ATX Motherboard
  • Intel Core i7 5930K Haswell-E 6-Core LGA 2011-3 3.5GHz CPU Processor
  • Samsung 950 Pro 512GB M.2 NVMe SSD
  • 2x Seagate ST2000DM001 2TB Barracuda Desktop HDD 3.5” 7200RPM SATA3 Hard Drive
  • Corsair AX1200i 1200W Digital 80+ Platinum Modular Power Supply
  • Corsair Hydro Series H110i GTX 280mm Liquid CPU Cooler
  • DeepCool RGB Colour LED Strip
  • 6x Thermaltake Riing 14 RGB 140mm High Static Pressure LED Radiator Fan
 
yeah, what I wanted you to test was, with the front panel jumpers removed, short out the PWR and Ground for PWRSW.
if that switch was dodgy and internally making a connection, then it may have been the reason for the PC to power cycle every 4 secs.
but you have achieved the same by removing those leads and using the red power button (assuming it itself isn't the culprit).

next, in case you haven't done it, is to remove all unnecessary items, so just PSU, CPU and fan, GPU, one memory stick, no keyboard or mouse, no CD unit or drives, and power it up. if it lasts more then 4 secs you may get a 'no bootable device found' message, that's fine, as long as it stays on for more than 4 secs.
 
I'll give it another go tonight @Bruce, I pretty much had everything disconnected from the motherboard during last test but none of the components like GPU and a single RAM stick were connected.

I'd probably rule out it being the red power button on the motherboard since I used that to switch it on when only the main ATX (24-pin) connector was connected and everything was running normally without any signs of restarts or power inefficiencies.

Will report back with the details tonight after work :) just out of curiosity what's the primary function for the additional ATX connectors (both the 4-pin and 8-pin)? Is it just to supply the motherboard with auxiliary power to support all the additional connectors so that sufficient power flows through without causing fatal issues; I did read that some people are able to run their motherboard without the additional connectors but it's not advised. Just wanting to understand whether we've gathered enough information to say it isn't the actual motherboard which is the issue here but something else connected to it that seems to have outlived its usefulness.

Another quick question with the test you wanted me to run: was that with all 3 of the ATX power connectors wired up to the PSU?
 
yeah, connect all 3 power cables.

I'm not familiar with your particular board, and I've not seen one like it where it has an 8 pin AND a 4 pin - I've played with 8 pins OR 4 pins, but not both. so yeah - it must be a hungry beast.

the mobo manual should tell you the reasoning or check out their website.
 
So I tried again as you advised and got the exact same outcome.

I had all 3 power connectors wired up to the motherboard, disconnected all of the jumpers, HDD connectors, fans cables and water cooling cables but wired up the GPU to the PSU again.

There were a few additional buttons built into my motherboard so I gave them a try but they didn't yield anything different:
  • Slow Mode Switch
  • Safe Boot Button
  • ReTry Button
  • PCIe Lane Switch
I would note that when the motherboard is powered ON the Q-Code 00 is lit up on the display. The manual mentioned the description associated with this code is "not used" but I also noticed when those two additional ATX power connectors (8-pin and 4-pin) are disconnected and it stays powered the same Q-Code 00 is also lit up on the display.
 
how old is the rig?
under warranty still?
the next guess would be the mobo or the PSU?
the PSU can be tested with one of those plug in 24pin checkers, cost about $30, but just getting your hands on one from somewhere (anywhere) else would yield the same result.
can't really 'check' the mobo, only replacing it would confirm that theory.
 
@Bruce So I built the rig towards the end of 2016 so it's 3-4 years old and hasn't had any issues or parts replaced/moved since then besides the CMOS batteries.

I did run a test against the PSU by jumping it with a paperclip then wiring it up against some lighting inside of the case which remained lit until switching off the PSU. There's also a button for internally testing the PSU which remained green but I didn't trust that at the time. Would it still be worthwhile to purchase one of those checkers you were mentioning before completely ruling out the PSU from being a concern?

The PSU is definitely under warranty as the Corsair platinum series is approximately 10 years of warranty. The motherboard is only around 3 years so that would have expired.

If we can confirm it's the motherboard and not the PSU, which is difficult to do as everything else needs to be tested to confirm, then I'll just have to replace it with a newer model which will also lead me to replacing the CPU unless it's the same socket (probably won't be it's fairly old).
 
when I was servicing PC's, those PSU checkers, I used to use at least weekly.
they check over current, under current and a bunch of stuff, all shown with 10 or so LED's that basically showed green if everything was good, orange for suspect stuff and red for faults. very useful for the price.

despite your paperclip and light test of the PSU, that would not have put it under load which is where the issue may be.
but it may indicate the more likely possibility of the mobo being at fault.

once the PSU can be ruled out, as much as we can, then testing the mobo will be a right cow.
can you put that PSU into another PC and check it that way?
 
They look really good for their price, I might pick one up as it'll come in handy for situations like these where I'm unable to fully test the PSU for faults.

That's a very good point, I don't think I'm going to be able to follow through with testing it against another PC as we've just gone into stage 4 restrictions here in VIC and I'm unable to get one of my mates to test it against their PC builds. I only have the one myself at the moment so there's nothing I can really swap it into.

I might just buy a new motherboard since I've been looking for an excuse to get an upgrade and the new RTX 3000 cards are expected to release in the upcoming months. Any thoughts or opinions on which one would be a suitable contender - I was looking into ASUS ROG Maximus XII Extreme Motherboard to have a similar feature parity with (hopefully) extended longevity to support the latest chipset and upcoming graphics cards.

If the issue is specific to the PSU it's still covered under 10 year warranty so that'll be a fairly straightforward replacement without having to spend another several hundred dollars on a new one; the time it's gonna take to get that replaced will be another issue but I can cope with that.
 
"looking for an excuse" - love it! :)
I've used the same reasoning myself many times over the years.

'Oh, that $50 part has died, ****, now I can spend $500 to get other upgrades the dead one has forced upon me.
Off to the shop Darl, be back soon!'.
 
  • Like
Reactions: dex
Status
Not open for further replies.