comp not starting up

SimpleAgony

New Member
Hi one day while watching one of my favorite shows, my computer just died on me! And since then it doesnt start up! I press the power button and the light flashes for about half a second and nothing happens! I don't know whats going on? I've already took out the cmos battery and messed with some of the jumper pins but nothing was fixed.. Any suggestions anyway?? Thanks in advance!
 
Supply, cpu, memory would see an error or beeps would be heard. Recently on an older Socket A board the cpu was the culprit when it overheated. After about a week the system suddenly came back to life. It did the same by the description the owner gave. It ran a week until the board went along with the cpu. A second person grabbed the cpu to upgrade his case before warning could be given not to touch it. His board also cooked. It's likely one of the two where a bad cap could be the reason in the supply itself. Do you have a spare supply around? If it still fails look at a possible cpu problem.
 
I thought it could be the power supply but, no I don't happen to have another PS lying around.. and my comp has been like this for about two months.. I just didnt start to miss it until the other day... :(

I found this to test the PS:

jumperset.gif


Is that safe?? And if so what kind of wire??

Perhaps there is a safer way?
 
Last edited:
First you would have the supply unplugged from the ac to start with. Figure a wire that is rated for 12v at 30-40 amps for the 12v feed. To be absolute grab an old ac small appliance that has a good insulated wire you can grab from that and strip about no more then 1/4" of insulation off at each end. Basically a good heavy wire with good insulation will work. Another way would be to put the supply into another case to see if that case will run off of it.

Some will actually put the board out of a case entirely to place it on a non-conductive surface for firing it up without any drives attached to see if the board itself is the problem. That is one other thing to note here.
 
Last edited:
SimpleAgony said:
I thought it could be the power supply but, no I don't happen to have another PS lying around.. and my comp has been like this for about two months.. I just didnt start to miss it until the other day... :(

I found this to test the PS:

jumperset.gif


Is that safe?? And if so what kind of wire??

Perhaps there is a safer way?

heck, just do it with a paper clip, that's what i did
 
liuliuboy said:
heck, just do it with a paper clip, that's what i did


Ha sounds kinda unsafe to me... Idk.. Id need detailed intructions to know whats up..

I read something about a multimeter, will it work?
 
There are a few over the counter testers you can get at a place like Circuit City that use indicator lights if the correct output is seen. Antec has one model sold there. I'll add a few links here to give you an idea. http://www.pcpowerandcooling.com/products/viewproduct.php?show=VBT
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=PS-101&cat=CAS
http://www.thinkcomputers.org/v2/index.php?x=reviews&id=296
http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/smpsfaq.htm
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2223995
 
Back
Top