Comp shutting down and taking many attempts to boot. . .help?

[Elmosworld042]

Hello! Thanks for taking to time to see what ails my computer. I've been trying to resolve this for about a month, with precious little success.
Please forgive my ignorance, as this is the first major problem I've had with the first desktop build I've ever done. Thanks ❤️

This is my current build:
ASUS RoG Maximus VI Impact Mini ITX LGA1150 mobo
Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0Ghz processor
Corsair Vengeance 16GB DDR3-1600 memory
Seagate Barracuda 1tb HDD (boot drive)
Seagate Barracuda 2tb HDD (data drive)
Intel 530 series 240gb SSD
ASUS GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX gpu
Corsair RM 750W 80+ gold cert fully modular ATX psu
Zalman CNPS9900MAX-R 135mm CPU cooler
NZXT Phantom CA-PH240-W1 ATX tower case

Previously I had the coolermaster elite 130 mini ITX case, and the Cooler Master Seidon 120M liquid cooler.

So, the problem:

The computer started randomly shutting down and having issues rebooting until it would not turn on at all.

I assumed it was a heating issue, as I had a LOT of stuff packed into the mini ITX case, and there really was no air flow despite the two case fans.
So I bought a new, much larger case, and what I hoped would be a stronger cpu cooler. The thing is monstrous, and barely fits inside the new case.

After I reassembled the computer in the new case, however, same problem - shuts off randomly and takes between 1 and about 20 tries to reboot.

Things I have done already:

Checked capacitors on the mobo for bulging/leaking - they are not
Checked individual ram sticks for functionality - both were working when I checked
Attempted booting with only essentials - initially the problem felt more isolated, but it wasn't. It persists even with minimal hardware.
Attempted switching PSUs - Second PSU could not even power case fans, so this is still a ?
Replaced thermal paste with arctic silver ceramic - initially seemed to help (comp stayed on continuously for 2 hours), but problem persisted
Noticed an IDE Detect Q-code error and swapped boot drive SATA cable - again, seemed to help, but problem persisted
Noticed a system initialization Q-code error - I have no idea what to do about this, so ?
Monitored temp via display on mobo panel - Displays 38-41 with only boot drive, 50 with all drives, and shuts off with gpu installed
Checked BIOS for temp - Displays cpu as 20+ degrees warmer than mobo, even after cold boot (cpu at 40, mobo at 28). These #s were the same after cold boot.
Mobo behind cpu socket is merely warmish to the touch when on, and the air around mobo is distinctly cool.
Cpu cooler funnels air toward an exhaust fan literally 2 inches away. Heat shouldn't be an issue anymore, but clearly it is.

I do not see error codes displayed on the monitor after a forced shut down. I don't know if I'm just not looking in the right place or what, but I don't see them.
I still get the IDE Detect error flashing during the boot process, as well as the initialization error, but before swapping the SATA cable for the boot drive, that
code just stayed there instead of the display showing temps.

Does anybody have any ideas on what to do here? My GPU has its own fans and keeps itself at 40 degrees, 36 when fans are at 40%, which is a manual setting
that I use sometimes. It shouldn't be skyrocketing the temps of the cpu and mobo. The other drives shouldn't either, but the mobo display showed a 10 degree
jump just for plugging in 2 drives!

Thank you for considering the issue, and for any replies. I'm at my wits end about this. I think I've done a good job considering my limited knowledge and
experience, but it's time for me to defer to someone who knows what they're talking about. However, the cost of a shop is almost as much as just buying a
replacement mobo. 😕

[Nate152]

Hi Elmosworl042

Your pc won't shut down until the cpu hits 100c,

You could try with another quality psu, what other psu did you test with?

[Elmosworld042]

Admittedly it was not a great PSU. It was a 550w and it was used. I don't have access to another large PSU without taking it in somewhere or buying another one. 😕

[Nate152]

Yeah it's a tough call both psu's should be capable of running your pc, I'd hate for you to buy another psu and it not be the problem.

It could possibly be the ram, try upping the Dram voltage a little it's safe up to 1.65v.

Have you had this problem from the beginning?

[Elmosworld042]

The problem started abruptly a few months ago. Prior to that there were never any instances of spontaneous shut downs or issues booting.

Can you tell me how to change the settings for the RAM? I don't know how to do that. If it's a quick process I should be able to get that done
with time for it to take effect before the system fails again. At this point I have taken the thing apart so many times I can hook it up
no problem, but I don't know much about how to access and change functionality like that.

[Nate152]

In the bios on the extreme tweaker tab set the Dram voltage to say 1.50v.

I'm not guaranteeing a fix but we can cross our fingers and hope.

[Elmosworld042]

Well that sounds easy enough! I can try that as soon as I get home from work. Can you explain to me how that affects the system? I know nothing about that aspect
of the RAM, so the particular settings and their influence over the system as a whole confound me.

[Nate152]

Well you really shouldn't have to raise any voltages but corsair ram can be problematic on ROG boards. Since you're only running 16GB of 1600MHz ram I suggest to try just raising the Dram voltage.

I'll be waiting for your reply after you try it. 🙂

[Heini]

Sounds like either the power supply or a failing hard drive, to me.

[Elmosworld042]

So last night I tried a few things:

I reset the CMOS to all default settings, then scanned my boot drive, defragged all of the drives and got rid of a lot of junk files. The computer was operating without any problems.

I then restarted it a couple of times to see how the boots went, and it popped right up, no problem.

After that, I went back into the bios to monitor temp. Everything was sitting nicely at 40 degrees or less. Then I ran a backup of my cleaned up system, which caused the temp to spike up to 70 degrees, trigger a higher fan setting, and eventually stabilized at 60-63.

I looked in the manual to find where the Dram settings were, but there are a lot. There's at least 6 different ram related parameters, and I have no idea which one is the right one, and the manual's descriptions weren't very helpful.

I also tried going to the asus website to potentially update core drivers, as I'm pretty sure the ones I have are not 100% current, however I could not open the files with my 7-zip program for some reason, so that was a no go.

I do have all my start-up discs if I need to do a factory reset on my boot drive, but since it's been scanned and defragged and cleaned up of any potential malware, I'm not sure what good that would do. Not to mention that the problem persists even when just sitting in the BIOS.

The fact that it ran for so long last night before falling back into the problem was great because I got to do a decent amount of things, but it still eventually died, to the point of the mobo LEDs not registering having power again, though unplugging and replugging the system in got those going again.