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I'm looking at an Intel NUC, model NUC5i7RYH. It was working fine until yesterday, running Windows 10. After being left alone for the night - it has entered a state in which:

  • nothing is sent to the display;
  • the fan speed is high;
  • the chassis is cold to the touch;
  • pressing the power button does nothing, even a long press which usually forces power-off;
  • the power led is lit stably, not blinking.

If I disconnect the power connector, wsit, re-insert it and press the power button, the NUC gets back into this non-responsive state. Switching the display cable from (DisplayPort M -> DisplayPort M), to (Mini-HDMI M -> HDMI M -> HDMI F -> DisplayPort M) has no effect (the relevant monitor has no HDMI input, only DP).

Why could this be happening, and what, if anything, can I do to get the NUC to boot again?

Note: I've tried disconnecting the SATA connector from the on-board SATA header, in case this has something to do with the SSD; this had no effect.

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  • It's probably dead, sorry to say but there's nothing a regular user can do. It may still be repairable by some electronics engineer, under a microscope.
    – ChanganAuto
    Commented Nov 20, 2021 at 13:18
  • @ChanganAuto: 1. Why would that be? Are NUC boards so flakey that this is likely to be the case? 2. "Probably" suggests there may be another option. What can I do to check?
    – einpoklum
    Commented Nov 20, 2021 at 13:25
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    NUCs break quite often. Try this: unplug the system, unplug the power supply from the mains, hold the power button for five (fifteen?) seconds, wait about 5 minutes, plug the NUC back in, then plug in the power supply.
    – Gantendo
    Commented Nov 20, 2021 at 13:30
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    If you do this: "unplug the system, unplug the power supply from the mains, hold the power button for thirty seconds, wait about 5 minutes, plug the NUC back in, then plug in the power supply" you'll drain the capacitors. Give that a try and let us know if it worked.
    – Gantendo
    Commented Nov 20, 2021 at 15:08
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    @Gantendo For some reason unplugging the system and holding down the power button doesn't seem to fully drain them for me, but letting it sit unplugged for around a day does. =/
    – jamesdlin
    Commented Mar 18, 2022 at 7:31

5 Answers 5

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I'm getting the same problem with an NUC5I5RYK purchased in 2015.

Symptoms:

  • When clicking the power button it lights up (solid stable blue)
  • The fan runs at maximum speed.
  • No signal output to monitor (Mini DisplayPort).
  • Clicking or holding down the power button again has no effect (e.g. it does not turn off).
  • Only way to stop it (and the noisy fan) is to unplug the power supply.

When it starts normally (as it should) the fan will start directly in slow and silent mode with no significant speed/noise at any moments.

Solution #1

Let it run for a little while (e.g. 5 minutes). Then unplug power supply, don't wait, and reconnect the power supply and click the power button again. This often worked for me.

Solution #2

But today solution #1 didn't work – even after many attempts. I finally decided to unplug it and put it on a heater! A hair dryer could probably also work fine but be carful with any excessive heating. Heat the underside gently for 10 minutes (no need to open the casing). This solved the problem for me – this time. When I plugged it back in and clicked the power button it immediately started ok. The reason for this working is probably because the heating will positively affect a fault component (e.g. a capacitor) or a bad soldering coming lose on the PCB.

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  • Surprisingly warming the NUC worked for me. Although 10min sounds a bit long for me.
    – holzkohlengrill
    Commented Dec 27, 2023 at 0:52
  • Using a hair dryer for 2 minutes and then plugging power back in works for me these days. I must do this EVERY time this NUC has been unplugged from power. Interesting to hear that this trick works for you too.
    – SteffenSH
    Commented Dec 28, 2023 at 21:11
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INTEL NUC PROBLEMS

APL5337 - for causing problems in this thread try heating and cooling this element (max fan speed, no video signal, can't turn off even if button is held down for a long time)

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I've been encountering the exact same symptoms on my NUC5i7RYH for the past year. What has worked for me (so far) is to let my NUC sit unplugged for day or so, after which it can boot again, and everything otherwise seems normal. This leads me to believe that the problem is capacitor-related.

(I have tried the "hold the power button down for 30 seconds, wait 5 minutes" trick to drain the capacitors, but it has never seemed to work for me.)

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The person I was asking the question for consulted a technician, who said some electrical component on the board is fried, and it's a gonner. So, there's some money down the drain for you. I was only able to salvage the SSD and the memory.

Only 5 years of service and this piece of equipment, bought for over 1,000 USD, engineered by a single company, goes dead; Intel...

(Good thing I'm not the one who had bought it so the egg is not on my face.)

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-I have a NUC5i5RYH with this exact problem. Works fine while it's on all the time and "Warm". If it turns off after power failure it won't start. I just followed the advice here and heated it nice and hot with a hair dryer and whamo, it boots. I'm now copying my media off it. It's had this issue for about 2 years now. But as it is always on it was only when we had a power failure, It's not set to auto start, that there was an issue. I've figured out now it is because it would get cold. My previous fix was to leave it on for a few hours and reboot. I now know it was because it warmed up that it would boot. It's probably a cracked solder joint or bad component (capacitor) but it's obviously past its 5 year Intel use-by date.

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