My reasonably new (5-6 year old) PC that doesn’t get used a lot but is useful for working on has decided to stop working. When you turn it on it makes a few whirs and clicks and switches the monitor on but then the monitor times out and switches off. I don’t even get the slightest bit of loading/start up happening.

I’ve opened it up and had a look to check connections of the various components and reseated things but it has made no difference.

I need to get a boot disc sorted to see if I can fire it up that way but I would appreciate any pointers on what to try to see if I can identify the fault and fix it. Or some steps to eliminate different problems?

Thanks

Potentially the hard disk is on it’s way out

If it was the Hard Disk the bios would still load up.

Could be the PSU, its a cheap fix, I see it quite a lot on the stuff I fix for people. Its worth a try.

Could be a few things but as above, PSU is a good bet.

Before swapping it out it’s worth disconnecting everything from the PSU except the motherboard (and grapics card if it has a seperate power feed).

Also worth blowing any dust out of the PSU and off the board.

Power up again and see if you get any further. If so, plug things back in one at a time and see when it stops powering up.
Either the last component is pulling the PSU down by drawing too much power ot the PSU isn’t able to put out enough power any more (so, faulty).

If you get no joy with just motherboard connected then I’d guess the PSU to be at fault.

I assume you’re not getting any beeps or flashing error lights from the BIOS btw?

HTH

Si

Thanks for replies. The power comes on in the case with the fans for the CPU, case and PSU all spinning and the CD drive whirring.

But nothing makes it on to the screen – no bios or hint of loading.

Cheers Si and others

Will buy a new PSU and see where it takes me with plugging things back in one at a time.

Any beeps on start up, if so how many long/short beeps

If it has a separate graphics card, check it is fully pushed in. I had this with an old Tiny desktop PC and it turned out that the graphics card had somehow become slightly dislodged. Pushing it back in sorted it.

@chrssmale will check beeps, but I think its just the regular couple.

@stumpy – I did check the various cards and RAM etc for being corectly seated but will run throuh them all again tonight.

If you get any beep codes, then that would suggest the BIOS is doing something.

http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm

No beeps at all.

Removed graphics card, wireless modem and then the soundcard noticing that the lead that connects from soundcard to motherboard had broken a couple of wires that were touching the bottom of the case.

Swapped leads round and booted up straight away 🙂

Thanks all.

Just need a new lead for a few pence!

Cool! Always nice to get a simple solution!

My reasonably new (5-6 year old) PC

That’s only one step up from a stone tablet and a chisel these days… 😉

Not so simple bit now seems to be that it doesn’t want to work with any of the cards fitted…

And yes its reasonably ancient in IT terms but it does have a quad core processor, albeit an AMD one 🙂

According to the windows 8 screen it is “attempting repairs”

That’s only one step up from a stone tablet and a chisel these days…

There’s a rubber keyed ZX Spectrum in this house that still works just fine, a week or so shy of it’s thirtieth birthday. Excel is a tad slow though.

PSU is the likeliest suspect here, followed by the motherboard.

If the Spectrum is still fully functional I bet you never played Hypersports on it – there is only so many times keys can be pressed that hard that fast!

Can you post a photo of these leads?

It was the tiny SPIDIF (sp)lead from the soundcard that was broken with wires touching the casing. But as it won’t boot with any of the cards fitted there must be another problem or this has caused further problems.

This still sounds like PSU, as they fail they make less power, so it will boot without any cards etc but as you add them the PSU falls over.
I use 4x high power PC’s for my business, and always keep a spare PSU as failure is so common…

You can get a cheap PSU from maplin or elsewhere mail order. Try it, if that doesn’t work, pack it up carefully and return “un-used..” or keep as a spare..

A less Machiavellian way is to take the PSU out and test it on another machine.

Thanks Toys19 you may be right. I’ve got it to work with the sound and network card but not the graphics card – which I guess is the one the draws most juice.

yeah, I have had exactly this. I’m not saying it defo is, but worth a try if you can get hold of a PSU.