Hello all,
I've been having power issues recently with my home computer regarding it shutting down instantly and without warning. I opened my computer and found that one of the expansion slot caps and had fallen out, since it was not screwed down, onto the metal backing of one of my two video cards. I removed this cap and screwed it back into place to close off the expansion port slot in the back. Well, that seemed to work, I even checked my power supply with a multi-meter and was getting constant +12/+5 volt readings from one of the molex end pieces.
That worked for about a week. Today, my system mysteriously shut down again. And it won't stay on for more than a few seconds until it just shuts down as if being shorted out. I found that one motherboard mounts didn't have a screw, so I put one there, but still the same power downs. I'm planning to pull all the add-on cards and memory and start from scratch to see if maybe one of them is causing this problem. If not, I will dissassemble the entire machine and maticulously rebuild it and hope for the best. I've checked for leaky caps, but haven't seen anything overly odd.
One thing I remember doing about a year ago...I was replacing the northbridge heatsink/fan when my screw-driver slipped and jammed into the surface of the motherboard...the screw-driver knocked off a tiny rectangular deal that was soldered in place there...it was very tiny. At the time, though, the computer worked fine so I thought well maybe I hadn't really damaged much.
At any rate, if anyone has a thought or two regarding this I would appreciate that very much.
Trellot