need some advice

[Matt]

I'm trying to get a friends older HP computer up and running for his kid to
use but I'm running into problems. The systems indicator light on the back
of the computer and the indicator light on the motherboard both light up
green when you power the system up and the fans all spin but the system does
not begin to boot. He said that it's been doing this for a while and that
sometimes he can unplug the DVD drive and everything will work. I've
unplugged everything except the system drive, removed all other cards except
the video card and I can't get it to boot. I've pulled the hard drive and
tested it in another system (also made sure the jumper settings were set to
cable select), replaced the video card and the IDE cable and the thing still
won't boot. I would assume that it's the power supply but I don't have a way
to test it at the moment... is there anything else I should be trying?

 

[spodosaurus]

I'm trying to get a friends older HP computer up and running for his kid to
use but I'm running into problems. The systems indicator light on the back
of the computer and the indicator light on the motherboard both light up
green when you power the system up and the fans all spin but the system does
not begin to boot. He said that it's been doing this for a while and that
sometimes he can unplug the DVD drive and everything will work.

Hmmm...PSU dead/dying?

I've
unplugged everything except the system drive

unplug that too and try to get it to POST.

, removed all other cards except
the video card and I can't get it to boot.

Let's just work on getting it to POST first. Strip it down to
motherboard, CPU, video card, and one stick of RAM.

I've pulled the hard drive and
tested it in another system (also made sure the jumper settings were set to
cable select), replaced the video card and the IDE cable and the thing still
won't boot. I would assume that it's the power supply but I don't have a way
to test it at the moment

Cheap little multimeter should do the job. Getting it to POST may also
be helpful as the values for the different rails are usually reported in
the BIOS (don't know about HP systems though).

... is there anything else I should be trying?

--
spammage trappage: remove the underscores to reply

I'm going to die rather sooner than I'd like. I tried to protect my
neighbours from crime, and became the victim of it. Complications in
hospital following this resulted in a serious illness. I now need a bone
marrow transplant. Many people around the world are waiting for a marrow
transplant, too. Please volunteer to be a marrow donor:
http://www.abmdr.org.au/
http://www.marrow.org/

 

[Matt]

Matt wrote:
Hmmm...PSU dead/dying?


unplug that too and try to get it to POST.


Let's just work on getting it to POST first. Strip it down to motherboard,
CPU, video card, and one stick of RAM.

Thanks I'll try that.. I just assumed that since the HD was good and he got
partial boot before I could skip trying to get it to post, but I shouldn't
have ignored the basics (plus I don't really know HP systems all that well).
I'm borrowing a multimeter tonight so that should shed some light on the PSU

 

[JAD]

Just fixed one....Power supply was dying....it had a non-standard PSU in it.
I had to manipulate a ATX to fit.(wasn't going to pay what HP wanted for a
PSU)