PC will not boot up?

I hope this is the right section for this question.


My daughters PC will not boot up .....................ie:- when it is switched on .......it powers up ok fans kick in and work .........then nothing happens ............no screen comes on ..........hard drive does not make any noises............no bios beeps ..............any ideas please.
I put her spare 40g hard drive in (her old one ) and that does not work either.
As My daughter is at collage , she need her PC for her exams urgently ..........so any help would be apreciated.

 

I managed to get my daughters PC up and running ........I got to the blue bios screen saying that I had removed or replaced CPU and that pc was running at a slower speed ...........................then pc screen went off , and a fast clicking sound was comming from inside...........now it`s back to not booting up again.
I need some help here please

 

Hello Brian,

I've moved your thread to the Hardware section.

The hardware people will look at this. I think you have a damaged MOBO.

Regards - Charles

 

That`s my thinks too Charles ................need some advice from experts on here first before I sling motherboard out and get new on .

 

You said this is urgent. Suggest you (or she) take it to a shop or local expert for repair.

If there's no shop or local expert, you need to remove the cover and check internal fans and try to identify what's clicking, like a hard drive, etc. Problem could be power supply affecting the CPU and other hardware, or a dying CPU. Think it's difficult for a novice to tackle.

If you have a spare computer, you can attach her HDD as a slave and she can access her data if the disk is not the problem.

 

I'll throw some possibilities.

You say the fans start, open the case and check that all the fans are spinning freely, especially the CPU fan and don't forget the power supply fan. Check for dust build-up around the fans (and in the fins of the CPU heatsink...don't remove the heatsink from over the CPU to clean it, just loosen the dust, take the case outside and blow the dust out).

It may be that the power supply is dying. If it is a branded computer you may need to replace it with their proprietary brand.

Clicking, I can only think of a drive or fan propellers. It may not be the HDD, but the floppy drive making the clicking noise. Check if the LED for the floppy drive or CD drive stays on constantly. Disconnect that drive if it does. You can start up without any drives connected and see if it goes to through the POST screens.

It would probably be worth resetting the CMOS. Check the instructions in the motherboard manual or remove the CMOS battery for, say, 30 minutes or so.

REPLACE THE CMOS BATTERY. It is not supposed to have this effect, but it happened that way when I was helping someone with their Compaq machine (and the resetting of the CPU settings in the BIOS may also point this way).

Let us know how those go. I would not think any major parts have failed yet if you had that "resuscitation" .

Matt

 

Thanks for that Matt............I`ll try that today and let you know how it goes later tonight.

 

I have gone through user manual for Asus A7V8X mother board with a fine tooth comb and still this board will not boot up ...........not even a bios beep .
I removed battery , re-set jumpers, installed a new 40g hard drive ,..............nothing ..........narda,..........ziltch..............it will not boot up at all......screen will not even come on ...............hard drive does not even spin or make any noise at all.
I have come to the conclusion that the motherboard is goosed.........or the CPU is beyond salvage.
Thanks for all your help in trying to help me sort it out first before it goes in the bin.

Thank you all.

 

I read this a little differently ............

You mentioned her "old drive ", so I'm led to believe that you were "fixing" this machine or at least changing a drive and it appears that there may be considerably more historical information which has been overlooked or omitted. What else did you do to this machine before it became "un-bootable ". Was the CPU physically removed or was the heatsink removed? Did this machine just wake up one day and decide it didn't want to work? Can you give us some background?

 

Sure..........

Nothing was added to stack system PC before it started to go wrong ...............my daughter complained that it would boot up to a bios screen (blue screen ) then it would just shut down altogether,and would not restart at all....not even a bios bleep.
I presumed it was her hard drive (replacement drive ).....so I tried her "old hard drive " .and that would not boot either .......so I purchased a new hard drive for her ............and even that would not boot up .......not even the screen would light up .
I have taken out the graphic card and power supply and checked it on my brothers PC ...............both card and power supply work his machine ..........so it`s not them.
I now think that the CPU or the motherboard is fried.

 

I'd like you to try something relatively straight forward if you don't mind.

Disconnect the main power cord from your computer and open the case. Disconnect the 20 or 24 pin ATX power header from the motherboard itself. Now, locate the CMOS jumper (3 pin header with a 2 pin jumper) which should be in close proximaty to the CMOS battery. Remove the jumper from pins 1&2 and put it on pins 2&3 and let it sit there for 10-15 seconds. Then rejumper back to 1&2, reconnect your ATX Power Connector to the motherboard and then plug your machine back in and fire it up while tapping the delete key or F2 or whatever your system requires to get into the BIOS. If you fire up, set everything at default setup and then F10 your way out.

If no go, I'd say you're right - chances are pretty decent that the board or the CPU or both are considering early retirement. While you are inside that case, you might also want to inspect those little trash-can shaped capacitors and see if there is any bulging, leaking or corosion apparent. The tops should be flat.

 

I tried that with the cmos jumper , and disconected power lead from board ................still nothing.................
the only thing I havent tried like you sugested was the del key and F2 key .............even when pc is powered up the screen still does not come on ..........yet all the fans work and the green power led on the board lights up .

 

Been following the thread and note that, judging by the MoBo, this machine seems to be custom built, but was it home made? A new motherboard and CPU are relatively easy to install if you built it originally, and even if you didn't.

First test the disk as a slave in your computer and back up any files your daughter requires - of course it may need to be jumpered as slave and you may also have to re-jumper your present disk as master. That's easier than just replacing the disk for your master, since windows probably won't start in a strange (to it) computer.

 

Your right ther sparrow m8.......it was custom built .
I have ordered another board and CPU .

 

Just as a word of warning (is it caveat? ) If you find any strange problems with the new system, change the power supply immediately. I've just replaced a friend's motherboard (+CPU) and power supply, it even fried a keyboard.

Matt

 

I tested power supply (ATX Q-TEC ) 500w on my brothers Pc and every think seems ok ....................but I`ll watch out when I install new board an CPU....

thanks Matt