PC won't power on

Tallon

Right guys, come home from work to find me PC won't power on.

I am so sad

If I plug the power lead out and back in then press on, the green light flashes, the fan on the case & the fan on the motherboard spin 1 revolution then nothing. No noise the whole time either.

I have tried various power leads and they all work on this PC so I know its not the lead, the next thing I can think of is the power supply.

Now, does this sound like a power issue and can I fix it by swapping the power units? I dont want to risk blowing everything so I said I'd ask you guys.

This is the (working) PC that I am on





And this is the one that wont power up



Sorry about the bad quality photos


Can I swith these to test if its the power supply?

Thanks in advance for your help guys

Tallon

polyfusion

Unless your computer took a shunt, and a card inside got moved a bit, then yes, I'd reckon it's the power supply.

Power supplies will generally work in any computer (there was a Dell power supply that had an unusual motherboard power connection though), as long as they have the correct connections for motherboard (20/24 pin), processor (if applicable) and drives. The only issue you may have is if the power supply isn't powerful enough if you have lots of drives and thirsty graphics card(s). But as long as the connections are suitable, just connect up one hard drive initially and see if the computer starts normally. Will help you determine if the PSU really is at fault.

If you have lots of drives, maybe upgrading to a higher wattage power supply would help. 245W is fine for the average user (1 or 2 hard drives, and an optical drive).

Tallon

This is the exact advice I got off a friend in work today
I was jsut hoping to get it sorted alst night

So, I think what happened was, I installed a graphics card several months ago because I am doing a lot of video & picture editing and was working away fine with it. If I was rendering video the fan would always be running due to the quality of the videos...

it appears It put the crappy 250w PSU under too much pressure and it blew, the other one in the pic is a 300 and it should do as a workaround until I get a 400w so i will try that tonight.

Cheers for your help, can't tell you how appreciated it is

EDIT: I'll probably go for this: http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=404885

polyfusion

That sounds about right with the graphics card. The 400W should sort you out.

I've found that with faulty PSUs, it's often because the fan inside has become faulty. If the fan doesn't start, then the rest of the circuitry inside the PSU is prevented from starting up as a safety feature. I've seen a PSU that failed to rotate only if it was in a certain position trying to start from rest (something to do with trying to energise the coil it was sitting close to) - giving it a helping hand to begin rotating, and the PSU would start normally. The fans inside PSUs are usually fairly standard yokes too, I've replaced a couple, and they're still working fine. More of a "see-if-I-can-do" it experiment than anything else. You'd want to be fairly confident with electricity to go poking around inside a PSU though.

Also, giving the PSU a clean-out a couple of times a year might help prolong it's life. Bring it to a garage when you're checking your tyre pressures if you don't have access to a compressor at home. 5 or 10 seconds is all you'll need to blast through it.

DanGlee

Just to throw it out there, but can I suggest you check the PSU on its own before you go getting a new one!

I had something similar a while back and luckily nabbed an old PSU from the network guys from where I worked, took the PC apart, screwed it in, plugged it up... powered it on... NOTHING

After snooping around, turned out the mobo had just givin up the ghost! Everything else worked, the CPU was fine, mobo just gave in. It was old, very old. But Once I replaced it, put everything back it was fine. I even put the original PSU back!

Just something to consider!

Good luck.

Tallon

yeah, im going to try the PSU above, if that doesnt work and its the MOBO ill be pissed, since its only 8 months old

Tallon

YAY

I tried the other PSU and look at me now, posting here with 'ol faithful'

Thanks for all the help guys, off tomorrow to buy a 400w


Cheers

Tallon

Kinetic^

Question, did that Bestec PSU come out of a HP? Was tidying this evening and came across something exactly like it.

death1234567

Tallon wrote: »

Thanks for all the help guys, off tomorrow to buy a 400w

Buy a Corsair one. 5 year guarantee and if anything goes wrong you just post it back to them and they'll send you a new one free of charge.

Tallon

death1234567 wrote: »

Buy a Corsair one. 5 year guarantee and if anything goes wrong you just post it back to them and they'll send you a new one free of charge.

Yeah, the one in the link above is a Corsair

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=404885

lockers55

If you are sending back a psu to corsair.Yes they will send you a new one but you have to pay postage to Amsterdam which costs a fair a bit.

Solitaire

Nope, he's buying a new one. It was the old Delta that gave up the ghost - possibly too much pressure on the 12V rail for too long with that video card in; they're usually dead reliable (which is why Dell and other big boys use them). The CX400 has twice the 12V grunt