Has my PS or MB died - PC won't power up but MB power light is lit

Forums › Desktop computing › Has my PS or MB died - PC won't power up but MB power light is lit

lchiu7

6474 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#39148 10-Aug-2009 14:49

Tried to turn on one of my PC's this morning onl to find it wouldn't even power up. The light is on the MB but pressing the Power button does nothing - no fans, no sounds at all. Disconnected the power from the mains and then reconnected after waiting a bit - nothing, even though the MB light comes on.

Will be trying out a new PS when I get the chance but since the light is on the MB, I wonder if the MB has failed on me? This is a Asus SLI MB with a Athlon AM2 3500 CPU in it.

Any other ideas before I head out and get a new MB?

Thanks

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

richms

28172 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#244733 10-Aug-2009 14:53

Try another power supply first - the power light usually runs on the 5vsb supply which is a totally seperate powersupply within the power supply. Fans and drives and CPU are on a 12v supply.

Get a multimeter and check all the voltages will tell you if the psu is powering up.

Richard rich.ms

lchiu7

6474 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#244826 10-Aug-2009 16:30

Thanks - will check it out tonight. I have a DVM and also have a spare PS coming in.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

drajk

202 posts

Master Geek

Trusted

#244937 10-Aug-2009 19:55

lchiu7: Tried to turn on one of my PC's this morning onl to find it wouldn't even power up. The light is on the MB but pressing the Power button does nothing - no fans, no sounds at all. Disconnected the power from the mains and then reconnected after waiting a bit - nothing, even though the MB light comes on.

Will be trying out a new PS when I get the chance but since the light is on the MB, I wonder if the MB has failed on me? This is a Asus SLI MB with a Athlon AM2 3500 CPU in it.

Any other ideas before I head out and get a new MB?

Thanks

Many PCs do a self check before booting and in the past I have seen many things which can cause no powerup - for example on some Socket 478 Pentium4 motherboards a poorly fitted heatsink can cause no boot - also check memory seated correctly, graphics card, all cables which attach to motherboard etc etc... .

lchiu7

6474 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#245095 11-Aug-2009 09:46

Well it fixed itself for some strange reason.

Since I needed data from the drives, I popped the hood and connected a USB adapter to one of the drives and grabbed the information I needed. Then out of interest tried to power it on again and saw the case fan turn briefly and then stop. Thinking the PS might be overloaded, disconnected one of the drives and powered the unit on. To my surprise it powered up. Then in a daring moment, reconnected the drive I had removed and it powered up again!

So far it's running fine at the moment but I did take the opportunity to reseat cables, vacuum out any dust I could see (and there was lots of it) and do a general clean.

Strange since the unit hadn't been modified when it failed and now it starts fine.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.