Computer help needed please

Money_saving_Diva_2

Hi,

I need help please! I have an old HP computer and it's been losing connection a lot the last few days. We usually leave it logged on pretty much 24/7 but today when we switched it off we pulled the power supply out of the back of the tower. Not sure why - it was my OH! Anyway, we have been out for the afternoon and just come back and plugged it back in and then tried to turn it on and nothing is happening.

There is a green light next to where you plug the power supply into the tower and that is flashing on and off.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what might be happening? We are hopeless at backing up so if it's gone kaput I am in big trouble as my entire life is on that thing.

Would appreciate any help anyone can give me. Thank you very much.

Diva.

barginunter

Silly questions.The plug socket is turned on, you have powered it on correctly (push button somewhere)? Is the switch at the back set to ON? When you say you switched it off, do you mean a proper shutdown? Is the monitor switched on? Check the fuse in the plug.
Check all these things.

Strider590

Sounds like the PSU smoothing capacitors have dried out, very common when they've been left on 24/7. I could explain why, but i'd be here all day talking about charge cycles and dielectrics.
It used to happen a lot in TV's and VCR's, (especially Panasonic for strange reason).

However as the previous post states, you should try all of the above first

macman

Not starting up does not mean you've lost your data. Worst case is the PC is dead, but unless the drive has failed, the odds are that you can remove the drive and recover your data via a USB caddy on another machine.
Try the other checks as given above.
If you get it going, you will make a backup , won't you? All drives fail eventually, and if the PC is more than about five years old you are already on borrowed time.

Money_saving_Diva_2

barginunter wrote: »

Silly questions.The plug socket is turned on, you have powered it on correctly (push button somewhere)? Is the switch at the back set to ON? When you say you switched it off, do you mean a proper shutdown? Is the monitor switched on? Check the fuse in the plug.
Check all these things.

Thank you very much for replying and yes, of course I checked all the obvious stuff you suggested before posting on here 'cos I was worried about wasting peoples time otherwise.!! :rotfl::rotfl:

Strider590 wrote: »

Sounds like the PSU smoothing capacitors have dried out, very common when they've been left on 24/7. I could explain why, but i'd be here all day talking about charge cycles and dielectrics.

Thank you for replying and for the suggestion, and thank you for not blinding me with science! Someone on another forum also suggested the power pack PSU might have reached the end of its life so I guess great minds think alike and I will see if I can source another PSU tomorrow and see if that works.

macman wrote: »

Not starting up does not mean you've lost your data. Worst case is the PC is dead, but unless the drive has failed, the odds are that you can remove the drive and recover your data via a USB caddy on another machine.Try the other checks as given above.
If you get it going, you will make a backup , won't you? All drives fail eventually, and if the PC is more than about five years old you are already on borrowed time.

I will learn how to make a back up double quick once we get it working again as it is about 5 yrs old! Thank you very much for replying and explaining.

Sorry for the late responses but I was watching 'The Apprentice'!:D

Diva.

macman

Money_saving_Diva wrote: »

Thank you very much for replying and yes, of course I checked all the obvious stuff you suggested before posting on here 'cos I was worried about wasting peoples time otherwise.!! :rotfl::rotfl:


Thank you for replying and for the suggestion, and thank you for not blinding me with science! Someone on another forum also suggested the power pack PSU might have reached the end of its life so I guess great minds think alike and I will see if I can source another PSU tomorrow and see if that works.


I will learn how to make a back up double quick once we get it working again as it is about 5 yrs old! Thank you very much for replying and explaining.

Sorry for the late responses but I was watching 'The Apprentice'!:D

Diva.

I would suggest that unless you know ow to test a PSU (and have a tester), you would do better to take the base unit to an independent computer shop and get them to check it for you. It's pointless just buying a new PSU unless you know the old one is dead. It's obviously not gone completely, or you would not be gettting the flashing green light-which is a diagnostic message that something is wrong.
PS: not a good idea leaving the PC on 24/7 either, apart from wasting the power.

Money_saving_Diva_2

I would suggest that unless you know ow to test a PSU (and have a tester), you would do better to take the base unit to an independent computer shop and get them to check it for you. It's pointless just buying a new PSU unless you know the old one is dead. It's obviously not gone completely, or you would not be gettting the flashing green light-which is a diagnostic message that something is wrong.
PS: not a good idea leaving the PC on 24/7 either, apart from wasting the power.

When I said source a new PSU I did actually mean take it to my local computer shop, as is obvious from my initial question I am in no way capable of doing techie stuff so wouldn't even know how to change a PSU... or indeed what one even looks like.:rotfl::rotfl:

As it happens, the PSU was shot and needed a new one and when they fixed that and tried to boot up, the hard drive was not working and so they are in the process of trying to save what they can for me but they are not hopeful. Apparently the hard drive must have been having problems for a while but we didn't have any obvious symptoms.

My puter is usually on 24/7 as I run a chat room and it runs 24/7 so I usually park my ID in there. But I am aware I am lucky to have been doing this for the last five or six years without any problems, so this is payback time!! And no, I won't be doing it from now on, losing all my files and things has been a salutory lesson.

Diva.x