PC won't start after powercut – help please :-(

Tapping this out on my phone… just had a powercut whilst on the PC, no UPS but everything is plugged into a Belkin Surgemaster powerboard. Have tried to switch it back on now the power’s back, but all that happens is a brief spin of the fans and then it dies, then a brief spin of the fans and it dies… repeat… have to switch it off at the power supply to stop the cycle…

All ideas on what I should do to try and troubleshooting this appreciated. I built the machine myself so know a little bit about it, but no idea on troubleshooting!

thanks in advance 🙂

Ooh! See if any of the capacitors have blown, then I could fix it!

I fixed my monitor on Monday. I’m well chuffed. 🙂

First thing I’d suggest is plugging it into a regular power outlet, take the Belkin strip out of the equation.

Sounds like a banjaxed PSU to me, though.

I’ve got a spare 250W PSU if you want to try it, Psy?

Sorry for the delay in replying chaps! Might be an idea Elf, thanks for the offer, shall let you now if I need it. My system is pretty beefy though, so not sure a 250W will power it (current one is 650W).

Be blingin annoyed if it has killed my PSU, it’s not a cheap one (it’s a £100 Be Quiet ‘Dark Power’ 650W jobbie), it is 2-3 years old now, so maybe it’s just died?

Do these Belkin Surgemater boards actually protect your gear from spikes etc?

Do these Belkin Surgemater boards actually protect your gear from spikes etc?

we had a power surge back when I was at uni, there were 5 pcs in the house, 4 had surge protectors on them.

We had four knackered surge protecters and one knackered pc, so in my experience, yes.

If it is knackered it may be worth pursuing their warranty[/url]..

Plug it into a normal socket. Then try holding the power button in for 30 seconds, release, and then try normal power up. May sound daft, but a similar thing happened to my brothers Dell machine a couple of weeks ago and this is what someone recommended to him and it worked.

If it is knackered it may be worth pursuing their warranty..

Ah, thanks for that. I thought there was some sort of warranty/insurance thing from Belkin, shall look into it.

Try holding the power button in for 30 seconds, release, and then try normal power up.

Will give this a go, thanks 🙂

My system is pretty beefy though, so not sure a 250W will power it (current one is 650W).

De-beef it for testing purposes?

On the subject of warranties, does the PSU have a longer warranty perhaps?

Try this too, if you can…

Remove the side panel from the PC, then disconnect all the power connections from hard drive, cd rom etc and leave it for a few minutes…

BUT first….if you have a warranty, then dont touch it. Also be aware of static etc.

When I worked at a computer firm a few years back, we use to do this to quite a few pc’s, most of them worked….

Have you checked to see if there is a light/led on, on the motherboard ? Could be the power supply.

Righty-o, an update… tried the ‘holding the power button in for 30 seconds, release’, didn’t help (had the PC plugged into a separate wall point as well). Definitely getting power to the motherboard, it has a wee little LCD display that show’s the various POST codes as it goes, this is working and there’s also a ‘power’ LED that’s on.

What’s happening is that I switch the PC on, it starts up for about 1-2 seconds (fans spin up, the motherboard LCD display flashes a code or two) but I don’t get a POST beep… PC then switches off before doing the same thing in a continuous cycle (without me pushing the power button) until I pull the power cord from the back…

I’m thinking the PSU is OK, but maybe something on the mobo is fubared?

Mobo.

A thunderstorm fried my parents’ PC once. I didn’t think that could really happen but it did.

just google your motherboard model with diagnostic beeps after it.

look/listen to what code the board is bleeping/flashing as that should tell you whats kanckered

failing that up plug everythign apart from the CPU and fan and lug them in bit by bit starting with memory.

Ah, now we’re getting somewhere… I get code 8.3 then 9.0 then 8.3 repeat ad infinitum, according to this list of codes/errors from Abit, this could mean:

Award BIOS initial stop processing 1.OC too high 2.BIOS dead

Not running an OC at the moment, so maybe the powercut corrupted/killed the BIOS chip? I’ll try holding down the ‘CMOS reset’ button to reset it, maybe that’ll fix it?

If not, I think I’ll need to ‘flash’ the BIOS, right? How the heck do I do that? 😕

If the BIOS is dead, it is most likely b0rked the chip (In my experience anyhew) Get on ebay for spare chips, fit it and fingers crossed – if you cannot find one on ebay, go to the manufacturers.

Rysz.

I still think you’re speculating until you can get a known good PSU on it, even temporarily.

If the BIOS is borked (which would be … atypical) then I’d be replacing the motherboard as a precautionary measure anyway, who knows what else has been frazzled.

Unplug the power cable at the back and leave for 30 seconds.
Plug back in and try again

Might not fix anything but it’s always worth doing 1st before you start taking things to bits

Is it unusual for a powercut to kill a mobo BIOS? esp. if it’s connected to a surge protecter?

What’s the minimum I need to plug in to a donor PSU to test the mobo? Can I get away with just the board & boot HD (with no GPU?)

Of course, this might be the excuse I need to upgrade/update to i7… 😆

Unplug the power cable at the back and leave for 30 seconds.

Have tried this… have also tried unplugging everything from the PSU as well, no joy 🙁

OP, where are youi geographically, are you within stomping distance of East Lancs?

OP, where are you geographically, are you within stomping distance of East Lancs?

North London…

Is it unusual for a powercut to kill a mobo BIOS? esp. if it’s connected to a surge protecter?

Without BFing the mobo? I’ve never seen it.

What’s the minimum I need to plug in to a donor PSU to test the mobo? Can I get away with just the board & boot HD (with no GPU?)

Mainboard power, and any auxilliary PCI-E connections. I’d disconnect the HDD completely, and if you’ve onboard graphics I’d remove the video card along with any other non-essetial boards.

Bare minimum is mobo, CPU, RAM, video.

North London…

Sods. Just a thought.

Have any capacitor’s blown? I can fix those! 😀

Psy; mobo + HD + graphics card should be fine with my 250w PSU. 650w is way overkill!

graphics card

It ain’t no lightweight GPU elfin, it’s a HD6970 (needs around 140W just at idle, rises to around 300W under full load!)

Still, I reckon a 250W would be OK just for booting up? Depends if it has the required 8 pin GPU lead though?

Hmm, does it have onboard graphics? WTF are you running off such a monster?? 😯

250w should be fine with just a small, single monitor surely?

Spose I could dig out the 430w one out of the HTPC….

Cougar – member

if you’ve onboard graphics I’d remove the video card

Not sure if I do have onboard graphics… mobo is the Abit IP35 Pro

Hm. Doesn’t look like it from that, annoyingly.

Success! And it was an easy fix too… just had to reset the CMOS (so I guess the BIOS) by switching the jumper around, easy done 🙂

Thanks for your assistance Cougar and co, appreciated 8)

No way.

*applauds* well done sir.

Excellent! That’s two electronic failures sorted in one week! 😀

Is there anything we can’t do??

Sterling work!

might not all be fixed actually… PC decided to shut down during a game for no apparent reason, didn’t completely shutdown though, had to ‘force’ power it off (holding the power button in)… started back up fine though, and has been working OK for the past 30 minutes or so… hmmmm…