Computer Won't start

majere · April 6th, 2007, 04:13 PM

We had a power surge in our office a couple of days ago and since then one of the computers won't start. We hit the power button and nothing happens at all. No sounds, no lights, nothing at all.

So can anyone tell me reliably what is wrong? It's a cheap $300 office computer so it would be easy to replace, but if it would be easy to fix than we would rather do that.

Any suggestions?

#43 fan · April 6th, 2007, 04:28 PM

Sounds like a power issue. Probably, the power supply went dead, especially since the PC was cheap, the Power Supply was probably cheap.
So, assuming the PSU is ATX (it'll say on the Power Supply), you can replace it, with something like this-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817104953
If the new Power Supply doesn't work, that PC probably has a fried part(s).
The power supply might also be a micro-ATX (m-ATX), so this would be a decent one to replace it with-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817104036
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817104016

elroy · April 6th, 2007, 05:37 PM

Could also be a peripheral card like a modem or NIC that has been shorted out and then prevents the system from starting. I've seen systems that wouldn't start until a bad card was removed and then everything was fine.

If you know enough about computers you may need to disassemble the system and try running it with the bare minimum of components. Ram, cpu, video, board and power supply.

Micro Bean · April 6th, 2007, 06:07 PM

Quote:

Sounds like a power issue. Probably, the power supply went dead, especially since the PC was cheap, the Power Supply was probably cheap.
So, assuming the PSU is ATX (it'll say on the Power Supply), you can replace it, with something like this-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817104953
If the new Power Supply doesn't work, that PC probably has a fried part(s).
The power supply might also be a micro-ATX (m-ATX), so this would be a decent one to replace it with-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817104036
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817104016

Thats a Quick assumption no offense. One we dont even know what name model of a system he has that doesnt work. Just because it doesnt power on or lights doesnt come on doesnt mean the PSU is dead. Even with a Dead motherboard the system will not power on. So there could be those reasons. So lets just not jump the gun here

heheh there have been many situation where people said that the PSU was dead. Im glad I had one of those handy $12 buck PSU tester laying around I unpluged everything connected to the PSU and PSU worked

It was a dead mobo so new mobo came plugged it in System fired up.

#43 fan · April 6th, 2007, 11:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Micro Bean

Thats a Quick assumption no offense. One we dont even know what name model of a system he has that doesnt work. Just because it doesnt power on or lights doesnt come on doesnt mean the PSU is dead. Even with a Dead motherboard the system will not power on. So there could be those reasons. So lets just not jump the gun here

heheh there have been many situation where people said that the PSU was dead. Im glad I had one of those handy $12 buck PSU tester laying around I unpluged everything connected to the PSU and PSU worked

It was a dead mobo so new mobo came plugged it in System fired up.

I probably did jump the gun, but considering there was a power surge, and afterwards the PC didn't work, it certainly sounds like a power issue.
Try running a bare system, and see if it boots.

majere · April 7th, 2007, 05:04 PM

I replaced the power supply with an identical one from one of the other office computers, just to see if that was the problem. As predicted, the computer turns on with the new power supply, but now it just takes me to the boot up screen with a big E (its an E machine T3990) and <F10> for bootup, <F2> for Bios settings.

The problem now is that the keyboard seems to be unresponsive and no matter what i type the screen just stays frozen. It isn't the keyboard because it works with other computers.

So what's the problem now?

majere · April 7th, 2007, 06:11 PM

I got it to work. I unplugged a USB cable from one of the ports in the back and now it will start up just fine. I followed the cable to this huge black box that says tripp-lite internet office UPS. It looks like a massive power strip/surge protector with usb ports.....

Yeah, we have no idea what it is. But if I unplug it then the computer boots soo.....I guess everything is solved lol.