Computer Gurus Help!

[400exrider707]

Ok to start off I am by no means a computer geek, but I know what parts are what and how to change parts, but troubleshooting is not my thing with comps!

Ok so I walk in my room and go to get on my comp and its frozen. Ok so I hit the restart button. Computer is still running, and sounds like its rebooting. The light on the monitor, stays amber however showing that its not "running" I hit the restart again, same thing, just the amber light. This time I hold in the power button to shut it down. Now I go to turn it back on and nothing! It will not turn on. The switch for the power button still seems good. At first I thought power supply maybe? But there is a little green light on my motherboard which is still working showing that there is power coming in!? This is a custom built computer which is roughly a year old and has what I thought to be very good quality parts, even though I've had problems all along with it. I tore the power supply apart just to look around. Nothing looks burnt out in there, but I still haven't ruled anything out yet.

One of my computer geek buddies from school suggested taking stuff out and trying to turn it on without certain stuff in there to see if that is the cause. I have no idea what to take out though. Any thoughts on this? Ill try and dig up the specs on my hardware as that will probably help to assess the situation a little better, but in the mean time and ideas guys and gals?

[ballisticpb]

two things that come to mind... most common power supply failed.. i would look at trying with another one and see if things change... the other that i think of first it a stick of ram has failed.. remove the ram and re seat. see if this changes anything.

any power supply has 5 voltages.. if one of the 5 have failed then the system could be receiving some but not all the power that is required to run...

pull the power supply out and take it to any computer shop they can test it for you

[400exrider707]

Here in lies the problem, there isn't a computer shop anywheres around me and I dont have a spare power supply to try out. I know I will have to spend money to fix this thing, but I honestly dont want to buy extra parts I dont need. I can try the ram I suppose, but that seems odd that it would work and then all of a sudden shut off. How would a stick of ram come loose anyways?



Originally posted by ballisticpb
two things that come to mind... most common power supply failed.. i would look at trying with another one and see if things change... the other that i think of first it a stick of ram has failed.. remove the ram and re seat. see if this changes anything.

any power supply has 5 voltages.. if one of the 5 have failed then the system could be receiving some but not all the power that is required to run...

pull the power supply out and take it to any computer shop they can test it for you

[400exrider707]

anyone else have any thoughts?

[ballisticpb]

it is possible for the ram to "chip creep" but the reason for removal and replace removes all data out of ram.... if there is an issue with it and you remove it from the main board. and reseat it. the system will look at it as a new peice of hardware....but i would still be leaning toward a power supply. what computer are you on now? 99% of the power supplys are interchangeable. can you remove this one to test?

[ballisticpb]

Originally posted by 400exrider707
This is a custom built computer which is roughly a year old and has what I thought to be very good quality parts, even though I've had problems all along with it.

you say you have been having problems with it for a while.. anything that you think could be related

[Guy400]

This same thing happened to mine a few months ago. I noticed after a storm where the house lost power my PC wouldn't always start up. You'd press the button and it acted totally dead. Try it again a few minutes later and it would start up. One day I came home from work and it wouldn't turn on at all. I removed all the devices, RAM, drives, etc. and same thing. I had a green light on the motherboard and that was it. I took my Fluke meter and metered the power supply outputs and all I had was 5vdc. All the others were completely dead. Fortunately I called Dell and explained the situation and they came out and replaced the supply and mobo under my service contract.

[ballz2thewall]

I had that problem, got mad walked away turned around unhooked it and took it out back and shot it with my 3030. That's why I am using this freakin lap top! The computer was old anyways:D

[chal23]

Unplug everything including power so nothing at all is plugged in. Then just plug in the monitor and Power Cord. See if it comes on, if it does just shut pull the power and hook everything back up.

I once had a USB device that was attached to my computer that hosed the whole thing, I never found out why but when I unplugged everything it worked.

[400exrider707]

I've tried unplugging and plugging back in a million times. Im currently just using my parents desktop (dell) but no way in hell am I tearing into this thing, it hasn't been touched since we got it like 4 years ago, and I am sure as heck am not going to screw with this one! Mine I could care less because I paid for all the pieces.

[400exrider707]

Originally posted by ballisticpb
you say you have been having problems with it for a while.. anything that you think could be related


Well I believe I've had a motherboard problem since day 1. When we originally built the computer we set it up using SATA drives. When I would try to play a game, the comp would freeze. So I sent it back and got a new hard-drive still SATA. Same thing. Switched in a IDE drive and it worked fine. So I bought myself an IDE drive. Right there I knew it was a motherboard problem, but I really didn't feel like removing the processor from the board, cause its a PITA from what I hear. So it worked fine like that for a while. It worked fine all this past summer, then once I brought it back to school, it would freeze all the time. (once every two days approximately) I have it back home now, had it working for about a week and then this. I will try and remove the ram and reseat it and see if that helps at all.

Also would that green light still stay on if the power supply is bad? I suppose it could still have enough juice to power that little light though right? Thanks again guys.

Do you have a volt meter? If so, hold the black lead to the chassis for ground and probe all the molex pins on every connector coming out of the power supply to see if you have all your voltages. You should see +5, +12, -12 and +3.3 volts, all DC. You may also have -5 volts too. If you are missing any of these or they are not at least this amount or higher, you've got a bad power supply.

http://web2.murraystate.edu/andy.batts/ps/POWERSUPPLY.HTM

[ballisticpb]

yes a power supply can give a +5v power to power that little light. the +5 can also run some fans...

could be a bad motherboard. due to the past problems you have had. but i would go and buy a power supply and replace it first.. they are cheaper and easer to replace and a good start to change.
your power supply could also be causing the system to lock up, if there is a dip in the +12v to as little as 11.2v your harddrive will not have enough power to keep its speed up and then miss where it is reading/writing. causing your system to lock up.

spend the money on a good power supply.. if that is not the issue it would be a good thing to replace anyway if you are going to have a good video card or going to install one in the future. buy at least a 450W power supply..

[400exrider707]

Originally posted by ballisticpb
yes a power supply can give a +5v power to power that little light. the +5 can also run some fans...

could be a bad motherboard. due to the past problems you have had. but i would go and buy a power supply and replace it first.. they are cheaper and easer to replace and a good start to change.
your power supply could also be causing the system to lock up, if there is a dip in the +12v to as little as 11.2v your harddrive will not have enough power to keep its speed up and then miss where it is reading/writing. causing your system to lock up.

spend the money on a good power supply.. if that is not the issue it would be a good thing to replace anyway if you are going to have a good video card or going to install one in the future. buy at least a 450W power supply..


I think its already a 480w power supply, and I already have a video card, sound card, and a wireless internet card. I will try to do the readings on the back because I konw I have the meter here somewhere. So if its not that, then are we assuming its the motherboard?

Also any good brands of powersupplies? I usually get my parts off of newegg, so any suggestions would be great. Thanks a LOT guys!

[400exrider707]

Oh and by the way I did unplug all external components and it still did not fire up, then I reseated the ram like suggested and still nothing so Im going to try and test the power supply tonight. Thanks

[ballisticpb]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817153023

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817153006

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817159053

[400exrider707]

Thanks a lot man, now is one of those better than the other? Im assuming the most expensive is usually better but I've been wrong before!

[ballisticpb]

not really... you can get most any of them and they are of good quality.. they all have different options in what and how many connections you can have with it.. some have larger fans then others.. from here on out it is just what you want to spend

[400exrider707]

Should I get a larger capacity one than that? Will the 400ish be enough? Im also going to add a tv tuner very shortly as well. (I dont even know if that makes a difference or not) Thanks, and Ill keep you posted on the power supply situation.

[400exrider707]

Ok so I tried the Volt meter. Im not sure I did this correct but I think I did. I just put the black probe against the metal part of the case, then the red into the slots of the plug that comes out of the power supply and connects to the motherboard!? Is that right?

Well anyways after trying this:
ORANGE +3.3 V
YELLOW +12 V
BLUE -12 V
RED +5 V
WHITE -5 V (May not be present on recently manufactured supplies)
BLACK GND
GREEN POWER-ON (Active high -- must be shorted to ground to force power up)
GRAY POWER-OK What is this??
PURPLE +5 V STANDBY
BROWN +3.3 V REMOTE SENSING

I got a reading of 5.08 for the purple one, and 4.95 for the green one, and then I got 0.000 for EVERYTHING else! So either I didn't do this correct or I have a bad power supply! So I guess Ill just order one in the morning. Can anyone verify if this sounds remotely correct!? Thanks guys and gals again.

You're definitely missing twelve volts!

[400exrider707]

Originally posted by Kyle_TQRA
You're definitely missing twelve volts!


Lol, I noticed. So thats definitely the power supply then right? Did I even do the readings correctly?

[ballisticpb]

yea your test shows a bad power supply..
did you replace yet?

[400exrider707]

Originally posted by ballisticpb
yea your test shows a bad power supply..
did you replace yet?

Put in the NEW power supply and I still have the same problem. I thought maybe DOA, so I tested it and got the same results as my last power supply, Everything read 0.0volts except for two wires where I got 5.02 or somethign of the sort. Any other ideas here guys? Is it really possible that I got this thing on DOA?

[400exrider707]

Originally posted by ballisticpb
yea your test shows a bad power supply..
did you replace yet?

Put in the NEW power supply and I still have the same problem. I thought maybe DOA, so I tested it and got the same results as my last power supply, Everything read 0.0volts except for two wires where I got 5.02 or somethign of the sort. Any other ideas here guys? Is it really possible that I got this thing on DOA?