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My PC won't power up.

-TangleFoot-
-TangleFoot- Posts: 4,673 Forumite
Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
in Techie Stuff
If I press the power button, some lights inside the case spring to life and the fans start to spin... then everything goes off again. The entire process takes no more than half a second.

If I hold the reset switch then press the power button, the lights go on and the fans spin up - as do the drives - but no further activity is observed. No POST beeps, no display signal, no drive activity. When I release the reset switch, the power is abruptly cut.

What do you think I should replace first? I don't have any spare parts lying around, so it's effectively out of commission for the time being. :whistle:
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Comments

  • Taffybiker
    Taffybiker Posts: 927 Forumite
    My guess would be the PSU. Since the fans and LED's light then the 12 volt and 5 volt supplies are probably ok, but I would guess that maybe the -5v or -12v supply is down, so the PSU is not issuing a power good signal.
    Try saying "I have under-a-pound in my wallet" and listen to people react!
  • Strider590
    Strider590 Posts: 11,874 Forumite
    One thing that caught me out a few times was the "wake on lan" connection on the network card, ive had a few occasions where this was held at an intermediate value (not 0v or 5v, but 2.5v) causing the PC to do exactly what you describe.
    It's odd how one piece of hardware can sometimes have this effect.

    It could be worth disconnecting things until your down to bare bones and trying it then.
    “I may not agree with you, but I will defend to the death your right to make an a** of yourself.”

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  • -TangleFoot-
    -TangleFoot- Posts: 4,673 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    Strider590 wrote: »
    It could be worth disconnecting things until your down to bare bones and trying it then.
    Could be, but then I'd have to figure out how to put it back together again. Since my current system was supplied by MESH, I've no intention of poking around inside until the time comes for a complete overhaul. With the exception of the GPU and an extra sound card everything is integrated onto the motherboard.

    It's all academic at this point anyway; I've just ordered one of these from OcUK. :D
  • -TangleFoot-
    -TangleFoot- Posts: 4,673 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    My new PSU arrived today. Opened the box, read the badly translated manual and plugged it in. There's a lot more space in the case now, but it still won't turn on.

    Any ideas? :o
  • DCFC79
    DCFC79 Posts: 40,644 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Do you get the same symptoms as before
  • totalsolutions
    totalsolutions Posts: 3,110 Forumite
    Still suspect PSU there are different styles and you say you now have more space? They are all the same size, generally. Thinking about the problem some more for you, could be motherboard but try another PSU
  • -TangleFoot-
    -TangleFoot- Posts: 4,673 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    DCFC79 wrote: »
    Do you get the same symptoms as before
    No change whatsoever.
  • gaming_guy
    gaming_guy Posts: 6,128 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    if you hav swapped the PSU and it hasn't made a difference, unplug all the drives and expansion cards and see if it works.

    if it doesn't, i'd just power it up without any ram and see if it beeps. if it does, then you know its still alive but if it doesn't i'd say that its possibly the motherboard
  • -TangleFoot-
    -TangleFoot- Posts: 4,673 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    gaming_guy wrote: »
    if it does, then you know its still alive but if it doesn't i'd say that its possibly the motherboard
    It doesn't. Looks like I'll have to gut my PC to get it working again...
  • prowla
    prowla Posts: 14,245 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Take out the memory, unplug the disk drives, unplug keyboard/mouse and then see what happens.
    Does anything display on the screen?
    You should get a series of long/short beeps to tell you what's wrong.
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