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Dead Area-51, help!
Hi, gang. Unfortunately, I have to call on your expertise again. In a nutshell: I have a previous gen Area-51, about five years old. I shut it down about a month ago, and noticed that the front lights on the chassis (Zones 1 and 2, I believe they are) stayed on. I didn't want to leave them that way while I was at work, so I turned off the UPS that power everything. As expected, after ten seconds or so the lights went out. When I got home, I turned the UPS back on, hit the power switch on the CPU and... nothing. No lights, no fans, no boot screen, zip. My girlfriend called me away at that point, so I didn't really think too much about it. When I got back about five minutes later, I hit the power switch again, and it booted up perfectly, just like always. I thought maybe I just hadn't pressed the switch hard enough the first time, and didn't worry about it.
Then the same exact thing happened about three weeks later. Normal Windows shutdown, front lights stayed on, killed the UPS to make it go dark, then nothing when I tried to restart. This time I pressed the power switch on the CPU good and hard, and more than once. Nothing. So I waited maybe five minutes, then tried again. Perfect boot, just like the last time.
Then came yesterday. Same exact scenario, at least until I got home. Waited five minutes after turning the power to the machine back on, and nothing happened. Waited another 15 minutes, still dead. Same after half an hour more. Next I tried the "unplug the PSU and hold the power switch for 30 seconds" reset trick. Which helped, sort of. I still had to wait five minutes or so before anything would happen, but now the system fan came on high (which is normal) but after seven or eight seconds the light in the power switch flashed on for a split-second, and then the machine shut off again. And that's all I can get it to do. For what it's worth, I dropped the front panel down and noticed that the busy lights on both optical drives do flash normally when the fan comes on, so it seems the machine IS trying to POST. It just doesn't get very far.
I should mention that I did have to replace the mobo about two years ago with a refurbished one after a BIOS flash went bad on me, but the machine has run perfectly since then, and it didn't behave like this when that whole mess happened.
Any and all suggestion on a possible course of action would be very welcome at this point. Even though I'd been toying with the idea of a new Area-51 since they came out, I really don't want my old one riding off into the sunset like this. Thanks in advance.
-Pat
Cass-Ole
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May 22nd, 2015 18:00
this vaguely sounds familiar, like your top panel i/o might be bad:
top i/o's have micro-electronics, I believe mine went bad, the symptom was it turned on but cut right off, it has been a long while to remember exactly what happened, yours sounds similar, maybe a solitary micro-component went bad or was on the way out as of late ...
Kharkfum
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May 22nd, 2015 18:00
Thanks so much for the reply and info, very informative! In answer to your question, I did take the UPS out of the equation and plugged the CPU directly into a wall outlet. Same outcome, unfortunately. One question: If I simply unhook the current top i/o board from the motherboard and/or power supply, could the machine possibly boot if that is the problem? Or does it have to have a board attached in order to run the POST successfully? If I could just get the machine to boot up, I could live without that front panel, or even the active venting and lights, at least for the time being.
Kharkfum
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May 22nd, 2015 19:00
Thanks again for more great info. I think I'll follow your link and order the top I/O board from eBay, and since they're surprisingly inexpensive, I'll get a master I/O board and power supply at the same time. I'm pretty sure that will cover all of the most likely causes of my problem, and I can either resell them or just keep them on hand if I don't need them. It will just be a case of figuring out which parts I need and which I don't. Thank you again for all of you work in helping me out. ;-)
Cass-Ole
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May 22nd, 2015 19:00
it just occurred to me, as a test for compatibility between my AMD SaberCat mthrbrd & an mio, I installed an mio into my Nzxt Phantom case. The mio worked purrfect, normal, it never had the top i/o JFL connexion. I'll revise and say yes, a mthrbrd can be jumpstarted on & the mio should cut on one way or another. If mine worked in a different case without a top i/o, I see no reason why you can't test yours, jumpstart your mthrbrd on at the front panel header ... sound about right?
basically, my power supply told it when to come on / it sensed voltage on power-up in the Phantom
Cass-Ole
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May 22nd, 2015 19:00
if memory serves, the top I/0 also plugs into the mio board; I think it is possible the mthrbrd and mio board are commended to turn on at the same, once you press the top power button.
You could I suppose, remove the front panel header connector, and with a screw driver jump start the mthrbrd 'on' by hand; how that relates to the mio board I do not know, a tricky eqwation there, whether or not to unhook the mio + top I/o connexion or not, or whether to simply remove power from the mio by unplugging its 10pin power connector & running the pc for two minutes tops so the cpu doesn't overheat due to zero power to the mio board.
The mthrbrd will have micro-text at the front panel header telling you which pins to jump so it turns on. If you have a problem there, it isn't my fault. I had a spare top I/o when mine went bad, so I did not have to jumpstart the mthrbrd on in the way I have described here. It is what is the proper way to turn the mio board on simultaneously is what I qwestion here, & whether or not it is safe for the mio to be 'off' when the mthrbrd is jumpstarted on ... my answer is a solid *shrug* ... tread carefully ...
someone else had this issue, I waspart of the thread & suggested a top I/o fix, I can't find that post, I'm still looking
Kharkfum
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May 22nd, 2015 19:00
I'll let you know tomorrow!
Cass-Ole
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May 22nd, 2015 19:00
I think this was it: