Need some help: computer won't start, no fans even, only an amber light occasionally

ionapaul

Hi all,

Well, as the thread title states, I need some help: my gaming PC of a few years old (which has always had very occasional issues starting, the fans would whirr a few times, power would die, then without prompting the fans would start up again and it would boot as normal) died suddenly this evening, just as I loaded up Crysis - it literally died the very second the previous game load had finished and the FPS screen appeared. Now pressing the button sometimes (only sometimes) results in a very lonely looking amber light turning on in the front of the case. The fans do not start and the PC doesn't go to post, no post beeps or anything. I did the usual, held the power button down to drain the capacitors (like I know what that actually means! ), disconnected the mobo from the power supply, disconnected the graphics card, nothing seems to work, the PSU just doesn't seem to power up.

From reading other threads, it seems like it is either a dead PSU (had one of those many moons ago with a previous PC) or maybe a dead mobo (never had one of those). Any way for an amateur to figure out which it is? A dead PSU would be fairly easy for me to sort out, a dead mobo would make me think about replacing the machine.

Many thanks to anyone who reads this and can offer some advice!

Biggins

At a brief guess, I'd say at the very least too, your looking at the power supply unit (as you thought yourself) as the problem.
End of the day you will probably indeed be bringing it somewhere to get fixed, just make sure the place is reliable and/or its a good friend who really knows what they are doing.

Skerries

it sounds like the psu alright
the only way to be sure is to try and get your hands on another one from another pc or a friend and test it

hearny

Agree with previous posts about the PSU.

Usually I disconnect any PCI cards and take out the RAM too before replacing the PSU.

If you are around Waterford you can have a loan of one to check it out.