I'm having problems with my computer again. (Writing from another one.)

When I press the ON button, nothing happens at all. Does it have power? 
Yes - the little green LED on the motherboard is lit just fine. I just can't 
turn the thing on...!

Any suggestions what to do, or even just finding out in which part of the 
computer the problem lies?
(Remember that I am totally clueless when it comes to hardware...)

It worked just fine last night. Shut down normally and everything. Then 
simply didn't work this morning... :(

Rune

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Rune <aut### [at] runevisioncom> wrote:
> Any suggestions what to do, or even just finding out in which part of the 
> computer the problem lies?

  Power supply, most likely. Even if that led in the motherboard is on
it's still a typical broken power supply symptom.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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Wow, sounds bad. Things I'd try...

Unplug it, plug it back in.

Look for a little breaker switch on the back of
the computer near the top. I think it's usually red.

Do the same for the power strip.

Open up the case and vacuum out the dust.

Check the monitor on another computer if possible.

Make sure stuff is actually plugged in, like the keyboard.

Does the box beep? If so, the beeps are an error code
you can look that up to see what hardware it thinks failed.
http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm

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Rune wrote:
> I'm having problems with my computer again. (Writing from another one.)
> 
> When I press the ON button, nothing happens at all. Does it have power? 
> Yes - the little green LED on the motherboard is lit just fine. I just can't 
> turn the thing on...!
> 
> Any suggestions what to do, or even just finding out in which part of the 
> computer the problem lies?
> (Remember that I am totally clueless when it comes to hardware...)
> 
> It worked just fine last night. Shut down normally and everything. Then 
> simply didn't work this morning... :(
> 


Of course - look at all of the hardware issues - it is likely hardware.

But I did run into one case with the exact same symptoms that was not 
hardware, but a software problem.

When the computer was shut down it would not turn back on.  And there 
was nothing that we could do to get it to come on.  We went as far as 
replacing the motherboard (under warranty), but the problem didn't go away.

Reformatting the PC made the problem go away.  Apparently win2K was 
doing something on shutdown with the power settings that prevented the 
computer from coming back up.  Reformatting with the same win2k made the 
problem go away and the machine worked well from then on.

I believe that it had something to do with the power state that the OS 
put the computer in on power down.  Some states allow power on by 
different activities - such as keyboard events or WOL - while other 
states might restrict this to one or two events.  As the power button is 
'soft' now days, it may not be looked at any differently than a keyboard 
or WOL event - which can be set to not power on the system.

Some options are in the BIOS, but not all of them (if you can get to the 
BIOS :-)


I've been talking way over my head here and put together two things that 
I worked on years ago that were completely unrelated, but when I think 
about them it all starts to make some sense.

So if anyone here knows better, please set me straight.



BUT - it is likely that your trouble is due to hardware and I wouldn't 
spend a lot of time on the software unless you have no other routes and 
want to learn some deep ACPI (or is it APM) lore....


good luck!


Tom

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> I'm having problems with my computer again. (Writing from another one.)
>
> When I press the ON button, nothing happens at all. Does it have power? 
> Yes - the little green LED on the motherboard is lit just fine. I just 
> can't turn the thing on...!
>
> Any suggestions what to do, or even just finding out in which part of the 
> computer the problem lies?
> (Remember that I am totally clueless when it comes to hardware...)

As Warp said, likely the PSU, or just the On switch has broken/disconnected. 
You're going to have to get inside the PC to diagnose the problem further.

Step 1 : Unplug the big connector that goes onto the mainboard from the PSU. 
It will have 20 or 30 small cables going into it all different colours. 
Once unplugged, look for the green one (there should only be one, pin 14 
IIRC) and then find a black one (probably more than one).  With power 
disconnected, insert a paper-clip (or a bit of wire) into the socket where 
the green and black cables are, thus joining them together.  Then turn on 
the mains, the PSU should spin-up.  If it doesn't get a new PSU.

2) If the PSU is working ok then next check the On switch is working.  Look 
where the on switch is connected to the mainboard (usually in the bottom 
corner somewhere) and unplug it.  Try jumping the two connectors on the 
mainboard with a paper-clip again.  If the computer works then you have a 
problem with the On switch.  If it doesn't then you have a problem with the 
motherboard.  You could then try forcing the PSU to start by jumping the 
green and black wires as in step 1) while it is connected to the mainboard.

Of course you could just unplug and plug in everything to make sure first.

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This may sound crazy, but if the inside is dusty/dirty (particularly the 
power supply), try blasting it with compressed air and vacuum it out 
*really good*.  I recently had a problem with one of my systems here 
locking up (not exactly the same problem as you) about every 3 hours; 
pulled it open and cleaned it out in a desperate attempt to get it 
working properly, and it hasn't hung up since.

Jim

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I had exactly the same thing happen about a month and a half ago, right 
down to the green LED still working, no beeps.  My Hardware Guy (who is 
also my nephew) had me check the on/off switch, bridge the pins from the 
switch, etc., and finally reached the conclusion that the motherboard 
had just gone belly up.  He said he'd seen other boards of similar age 
(about 5 years old) do the same thing and that I probably just needed a 
new one.  :(

On the other hand, he was giving me instructions and diagnosing the 
thing over the phone (having just moved a few hundred miles away, 
dammit).  The good news was that I lucked into a replacement computer of 
similar age and quality that ended up not costing me anything.  Hey, I 
don't mind replacing things like sound cards, but thinking about that 
motherboard kept reminding me that programmers don't change light bulbs. 
  ;)  So the dead computer is still sitting here next to the live one.

But, anyway, Tom mentioned a situation a situation with Win2K...which my 
computer was running...and the motherboard's an Asus A7V266-C...don't 
suppose that gives anybody any clues about *my* dead computer...?

Just hoping,

Sherry Shaw


-- 
#macro T(E,N)sphere{x,.4rotate z*E*60translate y*N pigment{wrinkles scale
.3}finish{ambient 1}}#end#local I=0;#while(I<5)T(I,1)T(1-I,-1)#local I=I+
1;#end camera{location-5*z}plane{z,37 pigment{granite color_map{[.7rgb 0]
[1rgb 1]}}finish{ambient 2}}//                                   TenMoons

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"Jim Henderson" <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote in message 
news:46fd5352@news.povray.org...
> This may sound crazy, but if the inside is dusty/dirty (particularly the
> power supply), try blasting it with compressed air and vacuum it out
> *really good*.  I recently had a problem with one of my systems here
> locking up (not exactly the same problem as you) about every 3 hours;
> pulled it open and cleaned it out in a desperate attempt to get it
> working properly, and it hasn't hung up since.

      I've even been *inside* the power supply and cleaned it out! Now 
there's a sight for sore eyes!  ;)

       It's amazing how the dust builds up in there.


        ~Steve~



>
> Jim

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On Fri, 28 Sep 2007 21:56:46 +0100, St. wrote:

>      I've even been *inside* the power supply and cleaned it out! Now
> there's a sight for sore eyes!
> 
>        It's amazing how the dust builds up in there.

Yeah, it really is.  We've got three cats as well, so not only does dust 
end up in there, but cat hair.  I need to replace a couple of the fans, 
too - I've got three half-height 5.25" bays with bay fans in them, and at 
least one of them has stopped working (the fans have snapped off the 
motors).

Jim

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Rune wrote:

> When I press the ON button, nothing happens at all. 


My guess is power switch, per se. I've got a  box where the power switch
fell out of its casing and now every time I have to turn it on with two
hands and a pencil.

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