Computer won't power on

[jason]

I went to turn on my computer the other day, and nothing happened. The
lights on my motherboad light up, the power light on the front the of
case comes on, and the activity light on the integrated NIC flashes as
well. But that's it....none of the fans spin up and nothing else
happens.

I've searched through online forums and other newsgroups for similar
symptoms, and it seems as if there's a fairly even split between
people that say that this type of problem is "definitely the power
supply", and people that say this is "definitely the motherboad".

Is there anything that I can do to test or further troubleshoot this
before I start buying replacement parts?

 

[Guest]

On Tue, 02 Oct 2007 14:13:06 -0400 (e-mail address removed) wrote:

| I went to turn on my computer the other day, and nothing happened. The
| lights on my motherboad light up, the power light on the front the of
| case comes on, and the activity light on the integrated NIC flashes as
| well. But that's it....none of the fans spin up and nothing else
| happens.
|
| I've searched through online forums and other newsgroups for similar
| symptoms, and it seems as if there's a fairly even split between
| people that say that this type of problem is "definitely the power
| supply", and people that say this is "definitely the motherboad".
|
| Is there anything that I can do to test or further troubleshoot this
| before I start buying replacement parts?

It can be anything at this point. Maybe one of the voltage lines from the
power supply is dead. Maybe some chip on the mainboard is toast. Swap
around parts logically to see what all is live and what all is dead.

 

[Ken]

I went to turn on my computer the other day, and nothing happened. The
lights on my motherboad light up, the power light on the front the of
case comes on, and the activity light on the integrated NIC flashes as
well. But that's it....none of the fans spin up and nothing else
happens.

I've searched through online forums and other newsgroups for similar
symptoms, and it seems as if there's a fairly even split between
people that say that this type of problem is "definitely the power
supply", and people that say this is "definitely the motherboad".

Is there anything that I can do to test or further troubleshoot this
before I start buying replacement parts?

Borrow a power supply equal to your current one, and one you know works
under a similar load. If your MB powers up, it is the PS. Although it
could be either component along with bad RAM or some attached component
i.e. a HD etc., it is most likely the PS. It is always good to simplify
your problem by disconnecting all but the essential components for a
boot up. All that is needed to tell if the computer booted up is the
PS, MB with RAM, and a video card so you can see the status on a
monitor. Often as a PS gets older, the caps in it become marginal and
do not allow the 3.3 volts to come up fast enough. That has been my
experience.

 

[GT]

I went to turn on my computer the other day, and nothing happened. The
lights on my motherboad light up, the power light on the front the of
case comes on, and the activity light on the integrated NIC flashes as
well. But that's it....none of the fans spin up and nothing else
happens.

I've searched through online forums and other newsgroups for similar
symptoms, and it seems as if there's a fairly even split between
people that say that this type of problem is "definitely the power
supply", and people that say this is "definitely the motherboad".

Is there anything that I can do to test or further troubleshoot this
before I start buying replacement parts?

Spend just a few pounds on a voltage meter and check what the power supply
is putting out to the motherboard connector (shove the multimeter sensors on
the live wires and read the results). This is cheaper than buying either
motherboard and PSU. Alternative is to borrow another (known working) PSU or
take your motherboard (with CPU, cooler and system speaker) to another PC
and plug in the motherboard connector from its PSU. Then short the power
connector on themotherboard and listen to the beeps. If no beeps, then the
board is shot!

 

[contigodesu]

I went to turn on my computer the other day, and nothing happened. The
lights on my motherboad light up, the power light on the front the of
case comes on, and the activity light on the integrated NIC flashes as
well. But that's it....none of the fans spin up and nothing else
happens.

I've searched through online forums and other newsgroups for similar
symptoms, and it seems as if there's a fairly even split between
people that say that this type of problem is "definitely the power
supply", and people that say this is "definitely the motherboad".

Is there anything that I can do to test or further troubleshoot this
before I start buying replacement parts?

You may have too many applications running on and it's using all the
power that your psu supplies. Are you using all the available
connections on your psu? Did you hook up the 4 0r 8 pin to your mobo?
You may just need to get a cable and take more power from you psu (for
instance, the extra hd or fd connector)to your mobo.

You can get some info from this site: They sell those cables.
http://www.powersupplycables.com/

 

[Paul]

You may have too many applications running on and it's using all the
power that your psu supplies. Are you using all the available
connections on your psu? Did you hook up the 4 0r 8 pin to your mobo?
You may just need to get a cable and take more power from you psu (for
instance, the extra hd or fd connector)to your mobo.

You can get some info from this site: They sell those cables.
http://www.powersupplycables.com/

Hilarious.

Ya. Thats how it works. You put too many applications on a
computer, and smoke starts coming out the back. Happens all the
time. A lot of smoke stained computer rooms out there...
/sarcasm

If you're gonna spam, make a more credible attempt.
In this case, a cable will not help at all. The
guy's supply already has cables, and they're already
plugged in.

Testing with another power supply may yield more answers.

Paul

 

[meow2222]

Hilarious.

weird huh


A first move you can do is to unplug everything that isnt essential
in the pc and try again, in case a card, hdd etc is faulty and
overloading the psu. In most cases this doesnt pinpoint the problem,
but does eliminate some susptects, and it needs no swap parts or
meter.

I've got 3 pcs down with power problems, maybe theyre powered
by london buses - none for ages then 3 at once.


NT