PC not starting

Yarmy

Hi,

My dads PC isn't starting - I suspect it is probably the power supply unit, but wondered if there could be any other reasons ? I opened the box this afternoon and the light on the motherboard is on, but when I press the on button the processor fan gives a very brief stutter but nothing else happens.

Thanks for any help.

NorfolkCanary

Assume you've no other power supply you can use for testing?

Depending on how experienced you or competent you're feeling you could try and follow the general info. here:

https://help.corsair.com/hc/en-us/articles/360025085372-PSU-How-to-test-a-PSU-Power-Supply-Unit

Long time since I've needed to try this, so may need to adapt for your Dad's own PSU brand.

It's possible that the main board (or hardware connected to it) has an issue. Any other symptoms before it stopped working? Extra noises, error messages, freezing?

Vitor

The brief CPU fan twitch is typical of over-current or undervoltage protection kicking in. If it’s an older or budget PSU, I’d put good money on this being the issue.

Cisco001

Try clearing CMOS and resitting RAM/ GPU first.

Yarmy

Hi,

So I've removed the ram sticks and tried putting one in at a time and have also put a new battery on the motherboard neither of which seemed to make any difference.

I've bought a new PSU and, as far as I'm aware I've plugged it into everything - the fans are now spinning which is an improvement on before, but no beeps or boot into windows. Is there anything else I can try ?

Thanks in advance.

grumpycrab

Is the screen showing any signs of life? Back to removing memory. Add one stick at a time in different slots.

Yarmy

No, nothing on the screen. No beeps or anything to suggest that Windows has started to load.

I'll have another look in the morning and see how I get on.

grumpycrab

Not all motherboards have a beeper/buzzer (unless you tell me it used to beep!). If the fans are spinning then I'd definitely check the memory. If you already took them out then try again - one at a time in different slots. If you want to hear beeping you'll need one of these.

https://amzn.eu/d/0hW1Wa3v