Computer won't start

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

Had my older model computer shut down for a week and now it won't turn on.

Doesn't do a thing when I press the power button. Yes, there is power coming into it through the power cord, I tested that by hooking up my new computer to it.

I suspect a power supply issue. Anything else it might be?

[Nutty Fisherman]

I had the same thing happen on mine a while back and it was the mother board. Are you sure the button isn't sticking?

[Bucksnort101]

Are there any lights coming up on the Computer. Also, when you first try to turn the computer on do you notice if the three lights on your keyboard flash on and then off quickly? That will tell you that there is at least power getting to the system.

If no lights, then it is probably the power supply, if there are lights then something else is happening. Hard to tell without seeing it in person, but could very well be the motherboard.

On thing you could do is open up the case, and reseat the Memory, video card, any other add on cards, and press down on any connectors you see and make sure nothing is loose. While your in there get a can of compressed are and blow out all the nasties that are in there.

Depending on how old your "old computer" is there may actually be a glass fuse on the system board, check to make sure it is not blown if there is.

Good luck.

[DTro]

I would say power supply or mother board. Lean more towards power supply.

[IFallsRon]

Dead clock battery?

[CJH]

Y2K??!!!!

Probably the power supply or motherboard. Follow the steps mentioned above.

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

Dead clock battery?

Since this is the least expensive, I'll replace it first.

[PierBridge]

I highly doubt its the battery.

Any problems with the machine of late? Usually there are symptoms for power supply and mother board failures.

[Whoaru99]

Afaik, they'll usually at least partially boot up if the battery is dead. Might not fully start up, but again, afaik, should at least begin the boot process.

[Bucksnort101]

Me thinks IFallsRon was pulling your leg about the clock battery?

Clcok battery (otherwise known as the CMOS battery) will not cause the system not to have power. It should still boot if that battery is dead, but will give you errors about the Time & Date not being set and possible boot errors due to some settings not being held by that battery.

[PierBridge]

I think you're right and I believe there's a warning nag/alert also when the Battery fails like bucknort said.

Plus the battery may not even be replaceable that will depend on how the Mother-Board was manufactured.

[Whoaru99]

The battery thing ticks me off.

I have an old laptop that I used for some older apps I had (Win 98 stuff) and the CMOS battery recently died. It'll start to boot, get to the battery warning, then shut down.

It's ACER something or another, was a very reliable unit. However, I guess the battery is a real %#*^$ to replace on this model.

$^*@(&$#....

[Nick Kuhn]

Having dealt with this before (and receiving a pretty solid computer from an electronic recycling bin back in college), it may just be that the power button on the case went bad, else the power supply is bad. Usually though there are signs of dying power supplies or motherboards...

When you boot, lights don't necessarily have to come on. The fans however will start to spin up. With no fans spinning you are looking at 3 possibilities, dead power supply (can only check by swapping power supplies really), bad power button (the way to test this is to find the manual for the motherboard, find the front panel connectors, disconnect the power button connectors from the header, then short the power button pins on the header with a screwdriver). If neither of those work, you probably fried the motherboard, at which case it's probably time to retire the old model.

[upnorth]

1st thing, look at the power supply(back of the PC) in some cases they have a switch on them than can be turned off. I would also be sure to try a different power source and cord if you have one.

It also wouldn't hurt to pop the hood and disconnect and reconnect the wires from the power supply to the motherboard, I have seen time where the connect was faulty and the reconnect did the trick.

[Surface Tension]

Lots of good info there.

Check the on/off switch in the back.

Check the 110/220 volt switch in the back.

Unplug the power cord.

Open the access panel (left side) Unplug the wires from the switch to the mother board and plug back in. Unplug harness from power supply to mother board and reseat.

A bad device A: C: video, sound, and so on would at least get the puter to the splash screen but while your in there reseat all those. Memory too.

[Whoaru99]

1st thing, look at the power supply(back of the PC) in some cases they have a switch on them than can be turned off.

Great suggestion!

I forget about that myself sometimes.

[Sandmannd]

Don't forget to check your power strip first! I've had cats walk behind the PC and turn that off. Check the power supply on the back of the box. Maybe a different power cable. Start simple and work your way up.

[opsirc]

did you check the gas level , sorry couldn't help it. If it is more than a few years old, you would be better off just getting a new one. Computers are pretty much out dated by the time you take one off the shelf.

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

did you check the gas level , sorry couldn't help it. If it is more than a few years old, you would be better off just getting a new one. Computers are pretty much out dated by the time you take one off the shelf.

Yes, I actually just finished building a new screamer, but would like to pull some things off the old one still. Luckily I backed the important stuff into a portable HD before I shut it down.

Crazy thing is it was off a week while I was on vacation and now it won't turn on.

[Nick Kuhn]

Originally Posted By: opsirc

did you check the gas level , sorry couldn't help it. If it is more than a few years old, you would be better off just getting a new one. Computers are pretty much out dated by the time you take one off the shelf.

Yes, I actually just finished building a new screamer, but would like to pull some things off the old one still. Luckily I backed the important stuff into a portable HD before I shut it down.

Crazy thing is it was off a week while I was on vacation and now it won't turn on.

Even if you hadn't backed it up you still could have hooked it up in the new system and nabbed the files off of it (having done it myself a few times before). The drive currently in my USB enclosure has a full install of XP on it...

Also my computer is more than a year old and it's still pretty much on par with what you could build today for the same price, maybe 5% slower in most benchmarks...

[Gus]

unplug cord from power supply. Flip switch on the back to Off. Plug cord back in. Flip switch on back to on. Now try power button on front of case. Some power supply's have a built in protection of some kind that can get tripped.

[upnorth]

unplug cord from power supply. Flip switch on the back to Off. Plug cord back in. Flip switch on back to on. Now try power button on front of case. Some power supply's have a built in protection of some kind that can get tripped.

Good point! We have had a few PCs that something similar with and worked. I work in a Hospital IT dept and we have taken PCs that wouldn't boot and brought them back the the dept and found that when we plugged after being off power/uplugged for a couple hours something reset and they fired right up.

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

unplug cord from power supply. Flip switch on the back to Off. Plug cord back in. Flip switch on back to on. Now try power button on front of case. Some power supply's have a built in protection of some kind that can get tripped.

Yep, that did it! Thanks!

I also took it apart and cleaned it out. Once I got in there I thought I might as well pull the HD and put it in my 'puter, so I did.

Makes for much faster file transfer to the new drive then the USB connected portable drive that I back up my files on.

Thanks again for all the input!