Booting problem.

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Wannabe Geek

#57832 26-Feb-2010 00:16

Hi all,

I'm having a problem with my bros PC and I'm all out of ideas. The problem is that his PC just doesn't seem to be turning on. I had a look at it and noticed the light on the PSU was on, along with one light on the front. I opened the case, played with the plugs (Made sure everything was plugged in correctly and such), but still no luck in getting it to boot. When pressing the 'On' button, nothing happens at all, no HDD noises, no fans, no beeping, nothing.

There are 3 sticks of RAM in there, so even if 1 stick had died, it should still be fine. And if a HDD had died, it would have at least powered up the fans and such.

I thought it was the PSU at first, but there still seems to be power going to it, so I'm thinking its the motherboard or CPU. But does anyone else have any ideas, maybe I've over looked something.

xpd

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#302380 26-Feb-2010 08:32

Could still be the PSU not putting through a certain voltage - best thing to do is borrow a PSU and try it.

XPD / Gavin

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Geek

#303155 28-Feb-2010 23:44

What I did in similar situations, was finding the cause with methodical approach, from the bottom.

1. Remove all the cables from the motherboard, remove all add-in cards, RAM sticks, and CPU, leaving a bare motherboard connected to power supply. Turn on the system.

2. If either MB or PSU are out of order, you'll still have them silent. In this case get another PSU just to test it with the MB and to determine, which of the two is the cause of the probem. (Maybe just bring the MB to the place where there's a PSU for several minutes.)

3. If both MB and PSU are alright, you'll hear beeps, and if MB has LED indicators, you'll see some lights. In this case consequently install the components, turning on the system after each of them: CPU, RAM (stick by stick), add-in cards (one by one), HDD, etc. The component, after which installation the system won't come up, will be the cause of the problem. I would even separate CPU and CPU+CPU-fan to different attempts - just for a case, and several seconds without a fan wouldn't burn a CPU. For the same reason I would plug every system case fan in a separate attempt.

Good luck, and wish you the cause of the problem turned out to be the least expensive component. :)