Computer won't start

It usually means one of your drive data cables is not in properly
Or the drive itself (CD or Hard Drive or Floppy Drive) is faulty
Here's what I'd do, remove all drive data cables fully
Then check the computer at least turns on ;)

If it works, put the hard drive data cable in only, then test again
 
I'm thinkin

This may strike you as offensive, but sometimes the simplest things are the answer.

Are you on a laptop? Is it plugged in? If the battery is really low, it may only have enough power to get to the startup page then die.

I only say it cause I did it once, I couldnt believe I did it. I had just returned from a trip and had forgotten to plug it in. And I thought there was some major problem with my laptop! lol!

So i plugged it in. Problem fixed.

eh?
 
It is a desktop.
I have tried changing the ribbon cable. I have tried several hard drives and none of them run. I installed the hard drive in another computer and it ran. Of course it didn't boot but it ran.
I just tried plugging the hard drive in with only power plugged in. The hard drive ran. Tried it again with the ribbon cable plugged in. Did not run. Change to ribbon cable that was originally in. Still did not run.
Two bad cables?
 
willjm3931 said:
Two bad cables?
Click to expand...
Or faulty drive, or worse - faulty motherboard :(

Try plugging the DVD drive into where the hard Drive is, to confirm the Motherboard port is ok

Also confirm that the small jumper on the end of the Hard Drive (itself) is in "CS" (Cable Select) position, and that its on its own 80wire data cable
 
Unplug all unessentials. GPU, HDD, Add-in cards, DVD drives and anything else not required to run. You should just have you CPU and HSF, along with your RAM and all motherboard power connectors in. If it boots up, add things 1 at a time to determine anything faulty. If it still doesn't boot up, then it's a mobo or CPU issue.
 
Just to be sure I took the cable out of this computer and put it in the one that is giving me fits. Still the same. Hard drive will spin without ribbon cable plugged in. Will not spin with cable plugged in.
I have tried the jumper in both cable select and master no slave.
I guess it is the MB.
Just to be 110% sure that it is nothing really stupid. How would computer act if the little quarter size battery was bad. I had one go bad several years ago on another computer but don't remember how it acted.
 
The battery only saves the cmos settings from getting reset everytime you turn the computer off, it has nothing to do with the hard drive not working correctly.
 
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