Went away at weekend .....PC dead!

[Donnacha]

as title says, the PC won't power on after being away for the weekend!! I checked the fuse that's OK, as are all other appliances on the 5 way board. Does this mean the PSU is dead? Any tell-tale signs?

Cheers

[Paul Shirley]

1st check for obvious signs of failure - burning smells or obvious PSU damage.

It can sometimes just be a badly seated CPU or RAM, heat cycling can drift them out. If the CPU fan moves at all during a power up that's athe likely problem. Reseat the CPU & RAM (you can cheat by pressing the CPU heatsink straight down and wiggling it a little, but even if that works you should remove and reinsert for a proper job). Try it a few times before giving up and you might as well reseat any connectors while you're at it.

[wormvortex]

the pc will still turn on without ram or a cpu connected it just won't past the POST.

Does your motherboard have a LED showing when it's conencted to the mains? That be a good way of seeing if the PSU works. That and you could try resting the CMOS, though dunno if it would help.

[Donnacha]

Thanks Guys,

absolutely nothing from the PC. The LED on the front of PC does not come on, the fan does not spin when first plugged in (like it used to). I haven't tried any of the suggestions yet though. In addition, when I unplug the machine, I can hear something inside power down! Don't know what it is though (battery maybe?)!

A real bummer as I had just got it all working nicely for blu ray!!

[Dragy2k]

try the fuse in your psu plug too or different lead if you have 1 !

[Donnacha]

Originally Posted by Dragy2k

try the fuse in your psu plug too or different lead if you have 1 !

already did - that was the first thing I did. Haven't tried another cable though, so will give that a go! Other than that I'm close to ordering a new PSU - any recommendations? A nice quite. reasonably priced one. Reckon I only need around 500w max

[Dragy2k]

£61 - ex del
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...123&subcat=239

antec budget £39 - ex del
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...id=123&subcat=

akasa quiet 500w £53 - ex del

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...id=123&subcat=

overkill and for when u win the lottery
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...id=123&subcat=

but shop around overclockers are good but these can be had for cheaper !

[MarkE19]

I've just put one of These in my new PC and even with the side off the case I can't hear the fans (well not over the jet engines that are the fans in my old PC ).

Mark.

[Donnacha]

Ok, finally got the PC open to have another look. There's a light on on the motehrboard, so I assume its getting power, i.e. not the PSU!!! What else could it be????

[Dragy2k]

hi
to be honest it could be a few things , a friend of mine thought he had a dead board ,the light would come on and fan would spin 1 quarter and that was it.
i took the board out after removing most components and and reseated the board ,installed minimum items back inside and it fired up ,this happened twice so i think he had something short the board or he was tinkering inside.
in 8/9 years ive lost 1 board that was dead on arrival.
is there any burnt / charred items in your case ?
fingers crossed for ya!

[Donnacha]

Originally Posted by Dragy2k

hi
to be honest it could be a few things , a friend of mine thought he had a dead board ,the light would come on and fan would spin 1 quarter and that was it.
i took the board out after removing most components and and reseated the board ,installed minimum items back inside and it fired up ,this happened twice so i think he had something short the board or he was tinkering inside.
in 8/9 years ive lost 1 board that was dead on arrival.
is there any burnt / charred items in your case ?
fingers crossed for ya!

Cheers Dragy2k.

I'll try taking everything out and refitting it all piece by piece to see what has gone. I'm half-tempted t drop it into the local PC shop for them to check it out and diagnose the problem. But I might try the DIY version first! If a part has gone I don't mind having to get a new one as long as its not the mobo or processor! I recently got a new graphics card and blu-ray drive to enable my P4 2.8 processor to handle hi-def without having a full technology refresh. It would be a shame if I have to end up replacing all the kit anway!!

[Dragy2k]

hi
yeah try the pc shop as a last resort thou and make sure you trust the shop 99% of "pc shops" are good and honest but theres always that 1%.
a work mate of mine put hit p4 machine in the shop as the shop said the mobo was dead ,after replacing the mobo he ended up with a celeron instead of a spanking new p4.
good luck hope you get it on its feet before you need to get it looked at.

[wormvortex]

I know its unlikely to be this but is the cable that connects to the power switch connected? My brother knocked his out of his motherboard and was ready to shell out on a new board until I pointed out he just needed to connect a cable

[Donnacha]

QUOTE=wormvortex1337;5965144]I know its unlikely to be this but is the cable that connects to the power switch connected? My brother knocked his out of his motherboard and was ready to shell out on a new board until I pointed out he just needed to connect a cable[/quote]

Yep, checked that one Already in! I took out all teh components one by one last night and still no joy. The little green light on the MOBO is still on though! I think I'm going to swallow my pride and drop it into the local PC store to see what the story is - they'll probably have the correct tools to check the PSU etc.....and should in theory know what they're doing compared to me!! Will report back when diagnosed

....at least I have my standalone HD DVD player to keep me going for now!

Cheers

[Donnacha]

Well the shop have said its either the MOBO or the CPU!! You'd think they'd know! ...and as its a 478 socket board they can't hold of 'em anymore....but they reckon its the board rather than the cpu!! So off to ebay I go!!! After upgrading the GFX card rather than the full PC in order to do the full HD experience the board goes an dies within a month!! Annoyed!!