The time has come, I need your help...

Last night I went to bad leaving my moms computer on overnight, which is nothing new, I leave always leave it on overnight. Well, last night, while everyone was sleeping the power temporarily wen't out, resetting our clocks and stuff. This is also nothing new, it has happened numerous times. Well After resetting my clocks and stuff I wen't to my mothers computer and tried turning it on, it wouldn't turn on. Immediatly I considered the power supply wen't bad after the power outage. I never really looked at my mom's computer before, my step dad bought it (it's an HP) and installed it before he passed away. So this is my first time looking at it from a troubleshooting point of view.

As I took the computer out from underneath the desk, I looked behind the computer where the power supply is and saw a blinking green light on the PSU. The computer was still plugged into the surge protector so I'm guessing that means it is receiving power. So a horrifying thought came into mind, maybe it's the motherboard! Or worse, maybe a number of things are damaged. But as for now, I'm trying to figure out why it won't turn on, and my 2 thoughts are the PSU or the mobo.

What do you guys think? The only thing stopping me from trying another PSU is the green blinking light. So I want to be sure before I go through the hastle because I opened the case up and it looks like I'll have to take half the components out to exchange PSU's (Damn HP!). I unfortunatly don't have a voltimeter handy. And I hope it's not the mobo, and my mom is flipping out because she can't afford a new computer, though If it's the mobo i'll end up buying the a new mobo.

The thing is I really hope it's not the mobo, because if it is then I have to find out the right size and everything, and it will be the biggest hastle ever, HP managed to JAM everything in such a small case, it's almost worth buying a new computer then removing everything and stuff...

Thanks for your reply's :)

And sorry for the long explination, it probably doesn't need to be this long but I wanted to make sure everyone understood my predicament.

Well if you have Volt meter you could test the PSU..

you need a wire to jump start the PSU.. then measure off the various voltages..

the jumper needs to go from Pin 14 to one of the grounds..

check the attached Pinout diagram..

cheers

Some psu units have a fuse or two inside ..might want to check that as well..If it was a power surge your surge protector should have taken care of it but i have seen pc,s get blown even with that installed, especially with things like lightning..

One question though??Can you hear anything running like the harddisk or any sound from the inside or maybe a led on the mobo ??If so your screencard or modem (if you have one)or the ram could have gone..

hope it helps
cheers
vanman

I wouldn't dare open my PSU, that's just unsafe, as I, I suspect very few here are qualified to work on such things like PSU's and monitors. And no, I don't here anything because the computer doesn't even turn on, if it were a ram problem or video card problem, the computer would still turn on. And There is no LED on the mobo, at least I couldn't find one, and if there is one and I couldn't find it it's not lighting up lol, which would not be good.

Thanks for trying though, I appreciate it :).

Well I have no idea what the problem is, but let my experience serve as a warning to you.

In a case such as this, tread the PSU as if it were dead. If it is in fact fried, it could be a short curcuited transformer sending out the wrong voltages, or not regulationg those voltages properly (a voltmener will pick up the voltage bu what that voltage does under a load is rather difficult to predect even with a voltmeter). A bad PSU can fry almost any component.

Replace it.

It's not worth the $40 (and that's for a decent one - a cheapo should run you $15-$20) loss to run the risk of a motherboard you may decide to try and install first.

I had a bad PSU which burnt out two CD drives, a mobo and a processor before I wisened up and replaced the PSU before going further. It's just not worth the risk

Sorry I can't help you other than that, but I though I'd throw in the benefit of one of my bigger brain farts for you.

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I suspect very few here are qualified to work on such things like PSU's and monitors.

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I have been shocked twice by 20 - 50 thousand volt plate current on the electron guns inside CRT monitors while adjusting the exlectron beam. Wonder how many years that took off. :D

Not to make light of the situation, but nowhere in the thread do I see where you said you unplugged it. I have seen cases where the powersupply dropped into a safety state and unplugging the machine for 5 minutes fixed it. Give this a shot as it can't hurt anything

I have seen that blinking green light on HP PSU's a couple of times. No clue why it does that, but replacing the PSU has always solved the problem.

Hi The Duck,

This guy had a similiar problem...it doesn't look like there was an answer but...the power cord was mentioned as a possibility...

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The power supply is very easy to test. Here is how you do it:
Take the power supply out of the computer and before you plug it in take a paper clip and short the green wire (pwr on wire)from one side to any black wire (ground wire) on the other side, then plug the power cord and turn the Power supply on. If the fan does not start, that means the power supply is dead and you have to replace it.
Sometimes the fan gets overheated and the rotor dislodges from the case, but the PS is still O.K. check if the fan rotor is loose and if it is, may be you just have to replace the fan only

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http://www.techspot.com/vb/all/windo...rn-onHELP.html
My computer doesn't TUrn on..HELP!! - TechSpot Troubleshooting

Eg ;)

Eg > that's about the worst advice I've seen in a while ;)
I bet a lot of people have ruined a perfectly good PSU by trying that "trick"...
What happened to just getting a $7 multi-meter at RadioShack, checking out the voltages that each cord is supposed to have, and testing it...

A blinking green led on a HP means a bad PSU... it's as simple as that.

Hi Neg,

I'm glad you pointed that out :D ...guess that's one forum I'll avoid in the future ;)

Eg ;)

Striek, you actually brought up my worst fear. That is, since the power supply wen't down, it brought a number of components down with it.

Zenger, I actually did do that, sorry I failed to mention, it is still unplugged, I havn't been back to plug it in to see if it worked, I guess we'll find out tomorrow...

Negative, thank you for pointing that out, I have a cheap PSU replacement handy, 350 watts, problem is I don't know if that's enough watts...

And EG, Thanks for trying, I would green you on your efforts, but apparently I have already greened you within ten times of me greening people... if that makes sense lol...

LOL road closed, I bet getting shocked didn't feel to well...

Thanks for all your help guys, it looks as though I will be going through the hassle of uncondensing everything out of this small HP case, replacing the power supply, and then recondensing everything back in. If that doesn't solve it then I'm gonna flip because this is gonna be a huge hassle.

350 should be plenty for an HP... Unless it has a really powerful video card and a P4 and more than one hard drive... Otherwise, should be fine with jsut one of those items... (the P4 I would guess)

Yeh it has a P4, 3.0e 800 fsp (I think), and the vid card is decent as well, Nvidia fx 5200...

It's not an old machine, infact it's a very nice machine, I think it's less then a year old...

And keep in mind the 350 watt PSU I have is one of those cheap ones that came in a case that I used for a machine I built... So I think next time I go to the store i'm gonna pick up like a 450 watt psu, just to be safe...


***EDIT***

Wow, this whole time I forgot about any kind of warranty my mom might have on it, i'm gonna have to look into that, I don't wanna void the warranty lol...

I just wanted to let you all know, that I successfully repaired the computer. Today I just went ahead and bought a 400 watt PSU and swapped it with the bad one and the computer booted up fine. It was a hassle because HP loves jamming things in small cases... I'm just happy the bad PSU didn't bring anything else down with it like the mobo and ram, etc...

Thanks again for everyone's help.

And I guess now we can all assume that a blinking green LED on an HP PSU means BAD PSU lol.

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LOL road closed, I bet getting shocked didn't feel to well...

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I have been shocked so many times I can't count them. However, a huge metro telephone switch got me in the ear once, that hurt like hell. But the worst was a nixie tube. I had to be escorted around after the monitor though, didn't know who I was for 2 hours cause I stuck on it for a bit until it lurched me enough to toss me off the circuit. :D Or course i do that every saturday down the pub.

Glad you fixed it. ;)