Dead Computer - Help Needed Please!

SimonMaher

Hello all,

Computer repair problem here.

I am fixing a PC of mine for a friend. Its a HP Pavillion, 1.2Ghz Athlon and its about 19 months old.

Basically it took to freezing on her regularly and the only way to get it to start again was to forced switch it off. I took a look at it, and it seemed fine (maybe being shaken around in my car on the way home had an effect?) but now theres nothing, it won't start at all.

I initially reckoned on the power supply, but changed that, and indeed used her power supply to power my own.

Any ideas as to what the problem might be? Nothing happens when you press the switch, no fans, nothing. Ive done all the usual bits (reseating cards, checking connectors etc.

All help much appreciated, even if in the end its the name of someone/somewhere that I could get it repaired.

Cheers,

Pete

_sheep

Boot the system using nothing but essentials, psu, mobo, cpu ram see how you get on, (make sure power s/w is connected and make sure mobo isnt in contact with case)

Also if possible swap out mobo / cpu into different systems to test, trial and error.

ssh

Could be either bad ventilation or bad RAM. At least, I'd reckon those are the culprits.

Get yourself a copy of memtest86, and run that. It stresses the computer pretty hard as well, so if it hangs, you've probably got a heating problem.

SouperComputer

before you do any of this, reset the cmos settings for the crack

SimonMaher

Hello all,

Thanks for your help so far. Unplugged all the external bits (cd rom drives, floppy etc) and tried to get it to go but nothing. I took the psu out and used it to power up my own machine and its fine, multimeter read right volts from right pins etc.

But when its in this other machine, nothing. If I could get any life out of it I would run tests and scans etc, but there is just no life at all.

Is there anything power management wise on the board that maybe can be reset that might be causing this problem. Would have to be something I can reset by hand or with jumpers or whatever of course, because I cant start the feckin thing! The switch is physically fine (did a test to see did it do the two positions thing) but its attached to two pins on the board which presumably trigger the PSU into action.

Help!

Pete

Kali

As SouperComputer already mentioned try and reset the CMOS, the majority of stored settings are in there.. its a three pin jumper on the motherboard, two pins should be covered, just switch the jumper to the other two...
If theres still no beeps or anything after that, remove the hard-drive and try and replace the memory if possible.. if after that you've still got nothing then get a bin and put the motherboard in it

marrakesh

R u sure the board is earthed ? Sounds suspiciously like its not....

Take the motherboad out of the case unscrew everything and attempt to once again power on. (Place on wood whilst doing and in a clean area blah blah blah...)
Insert PSU and RAM only and if the error checker is through beeps or a PCI card insert if needed.

gamer

Setup up pc with just power supply grapics card 2 simm cards push down sims, attach speakers to sound output direct if possible, and turn on ,,if u dont get display or bios menu, then chances are,,either motherboard or simms are faulty ,,swap round simms, u cud try another power supply if u have a spare from another pc,,if mb faulty is simpler to buy another one than replace it, are sys fans processor fan coming on,if not then theres no power goin thru motherboard,,look at kb ,,do keyboard lights come on when u switch on pc, try replacing grafixcard with a standard pci card mb may not be set for agp functionality or bios may have set it self back to default settings and pci grafix output ...dont use any expensive grapics cards when testing pc cos it cud get damaged.if mb dead u,ll prbly get no lights coming on or display. if u have manual ud can use no of beeps for sys diagnostic help.or go to mb mamufacturers website ..eg mercury or intel ,sis,kombian for more detailed help.most likely fault is motherboard or faulty simm memory chip.try it with 1 simm in slot 0.grapics card may need reseating reinsertion.