Computer Won't Post

R

Rich

Windows XP SP-3
eMachine T3306 (AMD SempronT 3300+ Processor) purchased 2-2006

Please help. I posted my operating system first to deter the newsgroup
police ("this isn't a hardware group") long enough for the excellent
experienced computer experts in this group to help or tell to give up &
stick a fork in it.
This is my wife's computer. I turned it off last night; all was normal. On
the way to driving my son to his baseball game, I get a call from my wife
that her computer does not turn on when she presses the button.
When I got home, sure enough, when I press the power button I can hear an
electronic popping noise from the speakers but nothing else; power supply
did not turn on. Suspecting the power supply, I removed it & hooked it up to
my daughters much newer eMachine (just to the motherboard connectors, no
drives), pressed the power button & the power supply immediately powered up
& all system fans spun up. I figure the power supply is good.
Back to the dead computer, I reinstall the power supply, remove & reseat the
CPU & press the power button. Now the case fan & CPU fan spin for 2 seconds
& stop. Excited, I press the button again & it is back to square one:
speaker "popping". Later on, dejected & dreading the process of buying a new
computer & transitioning all the data & programs (this is my wife's nerve
center of the household), I put the heat sink assembly/fan back on to close
things up & pressed the power button again for old time's sake. Once again,
the case & CPU fans spin for 2 seconds & stop, never to start again on
repeated power button presses.
What's going on?! Is the motherboard bad or not getting information from a
bad CPU? Or is it something totally unrelated to an amateur.
Thanks in advance.
Regards,
Rich S.
 
D

DL

Motherboard or cpu failure, more likely mobo.
Try opening case & reseating all connections, including fans

BTW you can move data but you cannot, in general move programs, programs
need to be reinstalled from instalation media
 
L

Lil' Dave

DL said:
Motherboard or cpu failure, more likely mobo.
Try opening case & reseating all connections, including fans

BTW you can move data but you cannot, in general move programs, programs
need to be reinstalled from instalation media

In order to more isolate the problem, you have to take some steps towards
isolation. Remove all external peripherals including printers, external
hard drive, usb flash drive, mouse, and keyboard. If the PC now starts POST
but protests lack of keyboard, turn it off. Plug in the keyboard, and try
it again. If you have the old symptoms, you know the problem. If this part
of isolation doesn't resolve anything, try removing all hard drives and CD
devices. No change, remove all add-on cards except video card if you have
one.

If you've come this far, and all external peripherals are removed and all
removable internals, you can reasonably conclude its one or more of the ram,
cpu, or mobo, or video card. An exception would be a chassis ground
problem. To eliminate that, remove the motherboard from the case and set it
on suitably sized piece of cardboard or other insulating material. If you
don't have any experience with from scratch PC assembly/disassembly, don't
do it. Leave the RAM and CPU in place. Leave the monitor connected.
Connect the power supply and make conducting contact with the proper pins on
the motherboard to power it up.
 
P

philo

Rich said:
Windows XP SP-3
eMachine T3306 (AMD SempronT 3300+ Processor) purchased 2-2006



I do a lot of computer repair and unfortunately find
that most of the eMachines I get in have bad motherboards.
You'de have to do a bit more checking to be 100% sure...
but they do have a rather poor history in that area.

The only good news though, is the harddrive is more than likely
perfectly good, so all your data are still there.
The drive can be slaved to another machine for retrieval
 
R

Rich

Lil' Dave said:
In order to more isolate the problem, you have to take some steps towards
isolation. Remove all external peripherals including printers, external
hard drive, usb flash drive, mouse, and keyboard. If the PC now starts
POST but protests lack of keyboard, turn it off. Plug in the keyboard,
and try it again. If you have the old symptoms, you know the problem. If
this part of isolation doesn't resolve anything, try removing all hard
drives and CD devices. No change, remove all add-on cards except video
card if you have one.

If you've come this far, and all external peripherals are removed and all
removable internals, you can reasonably conclude its one or more of the
ram, cpu, or mobo, or video card. An exception would be a chassis ground
problem. To eliminate that, remove the motherboard from the case and set
it on suitably sized piece of cardboard or other insulating material. If
you don't have any experience with from scratch PC assembly/disassembly,
don't do it. Leave the RAM and CPU in place. Leave the monitor
connected. Connect the power supply and make conducting contact with the
proper pins on the motherboard to power it up.
--
Dave

If it looks like fish, smells like fish, its not
a cantaloupe.

First of all thanks to all of you who took the time to reply.
I already had a computer picked out to buy quickly from Best Buy. While I
could troubleshoot & replace a motherboard, the time it would take precluded
the need to have a working computer up & running almost immediately. Also,
the time & expense invested in a 3 year old $400 computer isn't worth it.
So, despite being sure it had to be the motherboard, I regardless proceeded
to go through the motions of disconnecting everything except the video card,
pressed the power button & naturally the computer proceeded to boot. I
finally narrowed it down to a 4 port USB hub.
Based on the symptoms, I never would have assumed a simple device like that
would stop a computer cold overnight.

Thanks Again,

Rich S.
 
P

philo

First of all thanks to all of you who took the time to reply.
I already had a computer picked out to buy quickly from Best Buy. While I
could troubleshoot & replace a motherboard, the time it would take precluded
the need to have a working computer up & running almost immediately. Also,
the time & expense invested in a 3 year old $400 computer isn't worth it.
So, despite being sure it had to be the motherboard, I regardless proceeded
to go through the motions of disconnecting everything except the video card,
pressed the power button & naturally the computer proceeded to boot. I
finally narrowed it down to a 4 port USB hub.
Based on the symptoms, I never would have assumed a simple device like that
would stop a computer cold overnight.

Thanks Again,

Rich S.

Good trouble-shooting on your part
and thanks for posting back
 
L

Lil' Dave

Rich said:
First of all thanks to all of you who took the time to reply.
I already had a computer picked out to buy quickly from Best Buy. While I
could troubleshoot & replace a motherboard, the time it would take
precluded the need to have a working computer up & running almost
immediately. Also, the time & expense invested in a 3 year old $400
computer isn't worth it. So, despite being sure it had to be the
motherboard, I regardless proceeded to go through the motions of
disconnecting everything except the video card, pressed the power button &
naturally the computer proceeded to boot. I finally narrowed it down to a
4 port USB hub.
Based on the symptoms, I never would have assumed a simple device like
that would stop a computer cold overnight.

Thanks Again,

Rich S.

Glad to hear you got it going again.

For me anyway, if I bought a new OEM PC, I would have to consider both what
3rd party software came with it, and time and effort it would take me to
glean all the useless windows boot items on such a machine. And removing
all the 3rd party software that simply didn't want. Some may be stubborn
like some AV software that doesn't appeal to me. 3rd party firewalls that
impede internet usage. 3rd party software with limited functionality is
another example that I simply don't like. Some 3rd party "gotcha" software
running in the background that may cause problems in the future. The list
goes on.
 
R

Rich

Glad to hear you got it going again.

For me anyway, if I bought a new OEM PC, I would have to consider both
what 3rd party software came with it, and time and effort it would take me
to glean all the useless windows boot items on such a machine. And
removing all the 3rd party software that simply didn't want. Some may be
stubborn like some AV software that doesn't appeal to me. 3rd party
firewalls that impede internet usage. 3rd party software with limited
functionality is another example that I simply don't like. Some 3rd party
"gotcha" software running in the background that may cause problems in the
future. The list goes on.
--
Dave

If it looks like fish, smells like fish, its not
a cantaloupe.

Definitely, if I were buying a computer for myself, that would be my same
reaction. However, I am the amateur IT support for a home network of 4
computers for myself, wife & two kids. If you are married you would know
that in that IT support role, if a meteorite came through the roof of our
house & struck my wife's computer it would be my fault & then annoyance that
I can not correct the problem & get the smoking pile of molten metal to boot
to my wife's desktop. So, my point is, when I purchase a new computer for my
wife, I set it up, make sure it boots to the desktop & back away from the
computer. At that point, installation of our own software &/or removal of
existing bloatware will be performed by me only by my wife's request. I then
will proceed only after she recites the disclaimer that she is requesting
the action & accepts full responsibility for any consequences. I learned my
lesson being self-taught on computer hardware & software since 1994:)
 

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