Computer won't start up

minimad1970

Hi, When my son switches on his computer the light comes on and the fan kicks in but then nothing happens, the monitor is blank. I've checked it's not the monitor and it isn't. Also I can't get it to eject the disc that's in the drive. My computer knowledge is really limited so it's more a question of does it sound like something bad ie.expensive? I was just after an idea of what it might be before I decide what to do about it. Many thanks for any help.

PasturesNew

It could be something simple, like something not seating correctly ... or it could be a component failure, maybe a cracked main board.

You can check everything's seated properly if you: plug in the unit, turned off. Remove the back. With one hand hold onto the metal and with your other hand go round checking everything is plugged into the board by applying medium/even pressure to everything that's slotted in.

The purpose of holding the side is to make sure you don't blow up the components by transferring any static-type energy.

minimad1970

Thanks PN, I've checked the connections, and given it a quick dust That is the limit of my ability though.

johnmc

Are there any BIOS beeps?

minimad1970

johnmc wrote: »

Are there any BIOS beeps?

I've just switched it on and can't hear any beeps at all, is that possible? I know my computer beeps once when I switch it on. Thanks.

bubbles0169

not long after we got our first pc it wouldnt boot up, got the engineer out and it was because of a disc still in the drive, he said he doesnt know why it happens but it sometimes does, i dont know how to get the disc out though sorry, our eject button worked

Stooby2

There's a tiny hole in the front of the drive, below the disk tray. With everything switched off, you can push the straight end of a paperclip in and it will open the drive (it's what it's there for).

As for the PC not starting, it may well be your power supply has given up - and although it's supplying some power, there's not enough to the right places. They are fairly simple to replace, jut a matter of unplugging all the leads from the power unit inside the pc (take photos to remind of what goes where). Four screws usually hold the unit in.

closed

hold down the button for a few seconds.

check fans are spinning inside, check disk is vibrating

minimad1970

Well I've got the disc out now, thanks and that is now working again. I thought the screen was blank, I'm sure it was, but it says "no signal input". The monitor then switches to standyby.

fat_tony10

If there is no information on the screen then troubleshooting is somewhat harder. It is likely that this is a hardware problem and the first step is to make sure that everything is seated correctly as has already been said.

As the fan turns on then the power supply is probably fine. If it is not a simple unseating then so early in the boot-up process the most likely candidates are motherboard and CPU. Unfortunately the list of possible problems is quite long - so I suggest starting with the simple ones; here is my list.

0) To re-iterate the re-seating issue pay particular attention to the graphics card - that coming unseated could cause this issue.

1) Remove keyboards, mice, network cables anything. If this fixes it, start re-adding things one-by-one until the problem recurs.

2) Check which fan is turning - if the CPU fan is not turning then this could be broken and the CPU is possibly overheating. It shouldn't happen that quickly but different BIOSs provide protection in different ways.

3) Take the RAM out, this will definitely stop the computer working but it might cause an error message to appear on the screen.

4) Now we are probably chasing a hardware fault. The simplest one is probably a motherboard fuse. A broken CPU is probably the next most likely in any case a definitive diagnosis will probably involve some component swapping.

A possible, but unlikely, red-herring is a dodgy power supply not supplying power to all voltage rails. Again without a multi-meter this is hard to confirm - don't go poking around inside the power supply. Even with the power off the capacitors can give a nasty shock.

minimad1970

Thanks Tony, I'm ok with options 1 and 2 but any of the options beyond that go way over my head. I think I'll just take it to be looked at by an expert. Thanks everyone.