computer wont start

J

Joe Bogan

New Member
I know there are a lot of "computer wont start" threads. I looked through them and cant find someone with the same problem as I so I will tell you my circumstances.

I went to start up my computer first thing in the morning and nothing happened (It was working the previous night). I smelt something burning so I thought it was the PSU. Checked inside case and no motherboard light was on. Bought a new PSU today (Numan 500W) and installed it. When I press the power button on my computer case the motherboard light turns on but nothing else happens, no fans, nothing. Anyone know what the problem is?
 
This happened to me just two weeks ago!
I swapped out the power supply on a friend's Celeron machine that simply died on him without any warning or symptoms. Hooking up my keyboard and mouse to his machine destroyed both, and I smelled such a burning stink from the keyboard it wasn't funny. I asked around and the general consensus is that the motherboard and/or proc died somehow. The PSU was fine after all. Now my pal doesn't know what else has been ruined: CD-RW, RAM, HD... so he has decided to go back to his old Dell Pentium II box running Win98!
Tom
 
did you plug in both mainboard power connectors ( intel p4 type) ? the 20 or 24 pin and the square 4 pin.
 
mrBlind said:
Can you tell what machine do you have? (MB, CPU etc)
Click to expand...
MB: Gigabyte GA-8IPE1000 Pro-G
CPU: Intel P4 3.0E
RAM: 2Gb Kingston PC 3200
VIDEO: ATI Radeon 9600 Pro 256Mb
OS: winxp sp2

Viking said:
did you plug in both mainboard power connectors ( intel p4 type) ? the 20 or 24 pin and the square 4 pin.
Click to expand...
Yes they both need to be plugged in for the motherboard light to come on.
 
Try unplugging various things such as Harddrives and CDRoms, when your PSU died it might have fried one of those out causeing the motherboard to short out.
 
justin3 said:
Try unplugging various things such as Harddrives and CDRoms, when your PSU died it might have fried one of those out causeing the motherboard to short out.
Click to expand...
Just tried that and nothing different happened. I have just realised that the light on the motherboard comes on only when the 20 pin power is connected, it doesnt matter if the 4 pin is connected or not.
 
I used to get short continuous beeps when booting up at random times. I just restarted the computer and everything appeared to be normal again.
 
TheChef said:
Normal as in it's booting?

How many beeps were you getting and what lengths were they?
Click to expand...
It booted normally after I reset it because it was beeping. It doesnt boot at all now since PSU burnt out.

The beeps were short and continuous with no breaks in between each one. It would continue beeping until i reset it.
 
Im pretty sure I have Award Bios so it would indicate that its a RAM problem.
If i had an IBM bios it would be:
Repeating Short Beep: No Power, Loose Card, or Short.

To negate the RAM problem I put each mem stick (4 i have) in 1st slot and tried to start it but nothing happened.

I have just bought a new PSU and reseated all my cards, (nothing happened)
i have removed processor, looked ok, removed old thermal paste and put new stuff on. Then connected only processor, HDD, video, and keyboard but still not working, swapped HDD for cdrom but still not
starting up.

How would i establish if a short is stopping the computer from booting? Just remove the motherboard from the case and fire it up?
 
Last edited:
I've given up trying to reseat things etc. Went to the computer shop and was told it was definitely a mobo issue so i'll be going to the computer fair tomorrow also going to pick a UPS so it doesnt happen again. Thanks for all your help
 
Just tried that and nothing different happened. I have just realised that the light on the motherboard comes on only when the 20 pin power is connected, it doesnt matter if the 4 pin is connected or not.
Click to expand...
Well you should have both connectors plugged in :)

The beeps were short and continuous with no breaks in between each one. It would continue beeping until i reset it.
Click to expand...
Did you reset the CMOS? :)

Ive installed a new motherboard and a new cpu and still it wont boot up.
What could be wrong with it? Video card?
Click to expand...
Questions 101
 
Hmmm I would try checking each part individually in a machine confirmed to be working to try and isolate the nonfunctional component.
 
Took it to another computer shop, they put in another power supply and it went. :o So much for the one I bought a week ago. Thanks for your help anyhow.
 
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