Power cut & now comp won't turn on - please help!

tankgirl1

Hi

Had a power cut y'day - everything else is fine, but PC just won't turn on! Monitor, speakers etc are fine, and I've checked the fuse in the plug. It is plugged into a surge protection extension cable, along with the other hardware. Theres nothing wrong with the socket/extension as I have tried other stuff in them to check.

When I plug it in, a green light flashes on and off, just once, just for a second, then nothing!

Can anyone help?

santer_2

If the tower has an on off switch on the back, turn it off then on

toskdc

santer wrote: »

If the tower has an on off switch on the back, turn it off then on

I agree, try this.
If that fails, get someone who tinkers with PCs (if that isn't you) to reset the BIOS by connecting the reset CMOS jumper for a second or two. Whatever is stopping the motherboard from booting should be cleared by that.

Given the amount of surge protection you have its highly unlikely its damaged the motherboard.

andy2004

if the monitor and speakers are plugged into the surge protected extension cable as well as the pc and they are working then it shoudn't the extension cable, if they are not on the same lead then it could be that lead, test by plugging pc cable into another extension lead wont hurt the pc for testing.

do you have another PC power lead, try that if you do.

the green light you mentioned is that on the PC case or the monitor if monitor then this is normal, monitor light should go orange then, unless computer is on in which case it would stay green, if its orange then it means theres no power down the monitor cable as in not connected. its a test.

It could be the PSU has just stopped working completely do you hear the PSU fan come on and run, yes psu should be fine, if no could be a dead psu, in which case a new psu is required at the worst case outcome.

This is when a cheap PSU tester comes in handy. Think i paid around £2-3 for one via ebay.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PC-Power-Supply-Tester-20-24-Pin-PSU-ATX-SATA-HDD-C00-/190526523819?pt=UK_Computing_PowerSupplies_EH&hash=item2c5c4409ab
its nothing fancy, but it will tell you about your psu as in if its working.

I_know_my_ABC_and_my_CMYK

I had the same happen to me a while back, it blew my PSU.

tankgirl1

Thanks - it doesn't have an on off switch, and I don't know any techies

santer_2

Switch it off at the mains then remove the power lead from the PC

Insert the lead again, it may produce a small pop sound, switch it on at the mains, try switching the PC on

tankgirl1

andy2004 wrote: »

if the monitor and speakers are plugged into the surge protected extension cable as well as the pc and they are working then it shoudn't the extension cable, if they are not on the same lead then it could be that lead, test by plugging pc cable into another extension lead wont hurt the pc for testing.

do you have another PC power lead, try that if you do.

the green light you mentioned is that on the PC case or the monitor if monitor then this is normal, monitor light should go orange then, unless computer is on in which case it would stay green, if its orange then it means theres no power down the monitor cable as in not connected. its a test.

It could be the PSU has just stopped working completely do you hear the PSU fan come on and run, yes psu should be fine, if no could be a dead psu, in which case a new psu is required at the worst case outcome.

This is when a cheap PSU tester comes in handy. Think i paid around £2-3 for one via ebay.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PC-Power-Supply-Tester-20-24-Pin-PSU-ATX-SATA-HDD-C00-/190526523819?pt=UK_Computing_PowerSupplies_EH&hash=item2c5c4409ab
its nothing fancy, but it will tell you about your psu as in if its working.

This sounds likely - it has always been really noisy with the fan, and this is not coming on at all or doing anything when i plug it in. The green light is on the back of the tower itself, just below the power inlet plug thingy.

how much am i looking at to get a new psu and get it installed? the pc is about 5yo, pentium 4

thanks again

mj12_2

tankgirl1 wrote: »

This sounds likely - it has always been really noisy with the fan, and this is not coming on at all or doing anything when i plug it in. The green light is on the back of the tower itself, just below the power inlet plug thingy.

how much am i looking at to get a new psu and get it installed? the pc is about 5yo, pentium 4

thanks again

If there is a greenlight on the tower then i don't imagine the PSU is completely broken - it can't be or the green light would have no power. They do have an internal fuse - maybe thats gone.

A PSU itself shouldn't be more than 20/30 quid unlessit needs to be a fancy one. installing one shoudnt take a skilled techhie more than 30 mins to an hours either... not sure what an hourly charge might be though tbh.

You could do it yourself - there are plenty of instructions on the internet and the inside of a computer isn't actually anything like as complicated or delicate as it looks like it might be :-)

tankgirl1

Just taken the side off and the inside is gross! 5 years of dust and pet dander - eww! Surely that can't be helping!!

mj12_2

tankgirl1 wrote: »

Just taken the side off and the inside is gross! 5 years of dust and pet dander - eww! Surely that can't be helping!!

Won't help with cooling, give it a hoover, just be careful not to bash anything in theere :-).

When you've done that here are some directions for resetting the CMOS jumper - they are pretty general but should help.

1. Unplug everything (obviously).
2. Look at the motherboard and find the CMOS battery - round lithium type battery.
3. Somewhere near there (probably) will be a collection of 4 pins, 2 will be covered with a plastic tab and 2 will be exposed, they should be labelled with something like 'CMOS01' or 'JPS1' - something along those lines, come back and ask if your not sure.
4. Using a pair of pliers or tweezers carefully remove the plastic tab and put it back over the other set of pins so the bare ones are now covered and the covered are now uncovered and leave for 30 seconds or so.
5.You've now reset all your motherboard settings.
6. Put everything back how it was and give the machine a try again.


Those are very generic instructions and vary from motherboard to motherboard, if you can find out the exact model you have I can give you specific instructions.