PC starts 5 minutes after pressing power

S

StickS

New Member
Got a friends computer to look at, said it won't turn on at first, then comes alive after 5 minutes. I does exactly that. You press the power button and nothing happens at all, no lights, fans nothing. Then after about 5 minutes it starts up as normal????? Never seen this before. I took the side off, and straight away saw that the heatsink from the northbridge was missing. It was stuck to the hdd caddy! One of the clips that holding the spring on the heatsink had fell off. Managed to put it all back together and it seems to be staying in place, but i'm wondering if the northbridge has overheated or something shorted when the heatsink fell off!

Once its been running you can turn it off and restart it fine, but if its been left for the day it won't start straight away. Swapped the power supply with a spare i have, but no good, still the same.

Its an old ish pc, so probably tell him its had it, but i like to have a go at fixing it. Any ideas? or bin it?
 
Bin it.

Heatsink gone haywire on the mobo means just turning it on is damaging the parts. It's an older PC, so it doesn't have the fail-safe startup where it will turn on but turn off when it detects a short or overheating, so it's probably turning on and eating away at everything, then when it actually starts to run...wow. Can you see any sign of melting or burn marks on any of the components?

I think the easiest thing to do would be to help him put together his own. Will be far more powerful and will cost a lot less than just getting a new one right off that bat. :D
 
Oh yes, I didn't mean literally just throw it in the big black trash can that sits on the side of your house until it needs to be brought to the curb. :P
 
oscaryu1 said:
Can you start it when shorting the 2 pins?
Click to expand...

what 2 pins? the 2 the power switch goes to?. I'll have a look.



Ironed Maidens said:
Bin it.

Heatsink gone haywire on the mobo means just turning it on is damaging the parts. It's an older PC, so it doesn't have the fail-safe startup where it will turn on but turn off when it detects a short or overheating, so it's probably turning on and eating away at everything, then when it actually starts to run...wow. Can you see any sign of melting or burn marks on any of the components?

I think the easiest thing to do would be to help him put together his own. Will be far more powerful and will cost a lot less than just getting a new one right off that bat. :D
Click to expand...

Can't see any burns or anything. The heatsink would have landed on the video card first off, not sure if i've got another card to try.
 
StickS said:
Can't see any burns or anything. The heatsink would have landed on the video card first off, not sure if i've got another card to try.
Click to expand...


Yeah, I'm surprised to see it ended up on the HD clip. :confused: :P

That's a sign. A sign for your friend to upgrade, and get into the times. And be cool like all the other video game junkies in the world. And such.
 
New PC time,

would you like us / me to recommend a system??? If so, what is your friends budget?
 
Ironed Maidens said:
I don't see the use for that. I agree with him. The MOBO is probably causing damage to the PC just being turned on. Easiest way to go would be to just build a new system. Non-top-of-the-line systems are really cheap, so it's not a bad idea.
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I didn't say it was a bad idea. Give him some time. From the information he provided, you don't know HOW new it is. How many files does he need on his HDD?

And you could always salvage quite alot of parts. These days, people are so wasteful. "If it don't work, junk it".
 
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