Can anyone help me

Ok I am posting here becuase with my limited computer knowledge I assume my problem is something with hardware, if this thread should be somewhere else please let me know.

I just finished moving into my new house. I had put my comp tower on the floor inthe back seat passenger side of my car for transprtation, and when i had brought it over to other peoples houses in the past i had put it there too so i know that it was pretty safe during the ride. When I start to set everything up inside my computer won't turn on.
There is a little green light just below where the power cord plugs in to the tower, and when i pulg it in the light begins to blink, computer still won't turn on, and if i unplug my comp the green light starts to slow down and eventually stop blinking all together. I have never noticed the little light before so im not sure if that normal or not. I did check all of the cables/cords ont he inside to make sure that none of them had come loose.

Can anyone tell me what could be wrong with my computer?

Maybe power supply...\

Or bad cord??

Try a different line cord...(power cord)...may have a short??

I have had power supplies go....

Make sure all cables are plugged in properly...specially monitor, keyboard and mouse??

Some computers will not boot without them..

Also...are there any beeps??

You could pop off the case...and ensure all cables are connected to the board, hardrives etc....although if your not familar with that...you may want help from someone alittle more knowledgable???

MLF

I tried a different cord so i know its not that.

My computer has booted before with nothng but the monitor plugged in so its not that, and i did go back and make sure everything of that nature was plugged in

There are no beeps

I did pop the case and make sure everything was plugged in correctly

Hi JewishIntent,

You don't get ' beeps '...do you get anything...eg. fans??? Any noise at all???

What system do you have??? details please.

Eg ;)

Well...

Sounds like a power supply then.

You said you have just moved....maybe something wrong with the actual wall socket??

Have you tried another location in your house...another wall socket..??

MLF

Ok, my comp is Windows XP sp1, yes i know i really need sp2 but at the moment it doesn't matter. There are no beeps, no nothing. When i said it won't turn on i was being very litteral. There is absolutly no activity when i hit the power button. Nothing happens except that little green light on the back. I would get my computer to react more right now if i were to unplug it and start to poke it with a stick.

As for the wall socket it ried pluggin in other things like my monitor and a lamp and they worked fine. I switched out the power cord with my monitor and tried that. My monitor still powers up but i get the same results with the computer so its not a power cord issue or a bad socket.

Well..if it not proprietary machine like dell\hp etc

Replace your power supply....write all the specs down off the back....and visit your local computer shop...get a new one...you may have to contact the vendor for a dell\hp etc type machine

Pretty straight forward to change....if that doesnt work..... its your board

MLF

Could it be possible that the magnets from the car speakers has some how disturbed the computer?
Did you happen to drop or bang the computer against anything during the time you removed it from your house, into the car then into friends house?

Is there a Volt switch on the back of the mother board?
{It should be were you plug the power cord into}
Have you accidently switched it to the other position?
If you have then i'd say that you've most likely fried something.

The switch should be on the volt setting that the CPU is.
For instance for a 500watt then it would be set to 500watts.
350Watts then the switch would be on 350Watts.
etc etc

front2back

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Well..if it not proprietary machine like dell\hp etc

Replace your power supply....write all the specs down off the back....and visit your local computer shop...get a new one...you may have to contact the vendor for a dell\hp etc type machine

Pretty straight forward to change....if that doesnt work..... its your board

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yes it is my machine, and grrr i was hoping to not have to buy anything to fix it. . . .

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Could it be possible that the magnets from the car speakers has some how disturbed the computer?

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No, the computer was transported on the floor in the back seat passenger side so it was not near any of my speakers.

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Is there a Volt switch on the back of the mother board?
{It should be were you plug the power cord into}
Have you accidently switched it to the other position?

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Yes, and no i didn't switch it on purpose or accident, and that is something i checked before i even oppened the case to check the plugs.

Is there any way to visualy tell if the mobo got fried, like a specific area to look for discoloring or somethig like that?

Can anyone tell me what that little green light i mentioned is?

And is anyone able to tell me if its more likely to be a mobo issue or a power supply issue, i would really hate to get one and realize it was the other that i needed to replace.

Well...we cant tell...cause we dont have access to the board...

Are there any fans running when you power up...(or try too)

Power supplies are cheap...compared to a board.. ;)

And no...unless you remove the board..and use a good magnifying glass...is will be hard to tell if your board is fried...

Easiest way is to try another power supply...

By the way...power supplies blow all the time

MLF
edit> if money is an issue...pull a power supply from another computer (friends) and try it...

Check the specs on the back....for compatibility

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Well...we cant tell...cause we dont have access to the board...

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O come on I know you guys here all have that super elite extra mega zoomy vision :D

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Are there any fans running when you power up...(or try too)

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No, nothing does anything when i plug it in and try to power up.

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By the way...power supplies blow all the time

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Now i know this is isn't the easiest question to answer, but how long on average should a power supply last? My old computer is about 2 years older than this one and its still running fine, well as fine as it can running Windows ME.

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Power supplies are cheap...compared to a board..

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While this may be true, i would almost hope it was the mobo and not the ps because i was looking into getting a new computer in the near future anyway, and this way i can just carefully ripp out the ram, hdd, ps,vid card, and anything else that i could/would still use and just buy a new mobo and have an instant franken-pewter.

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Is there any way to visualy tell if the mobo got fried, like a specific area to look for discoloring or somethig like that?

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Well when you popped the casing did you happen to notice a Burnt smell. or any wierd smell coming from the inside of the casing?

I am 100% sure it is a power supply problem... let me guess.... you have an HP desktop?? Replace the power supply... I know from experience that power supply with blinking green LED that won't turn on is faulty... In fact I started a thread about this very thing a couple months ago...

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Well when you popped the casing did you happen to notice a Burnt smell. or any wierd smell coming from the inside of the casing?

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unfortunatly since my computer was the first thing i started to unpack/setup after the truck was unloaded and returned, gotta have unpacking and furniture arranging tunes, i wouldn't have noticed a smell due to the 3.5 metric **** tons of dust i had been exposed to during the move.

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I am 100% sure it is a power supply problem... let me guess.... you have an HP desktop

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Well since it is an HP, see i knew you guys all had the uber vision i mentioned a few posts up, i will then get a new power supply.

Thank you all for the quick responses to my questions.

hi,
sry was just reading quickly and maybe somone already mention this but if you have little bit better power supply they have switch on them.is it any chance you bumped this switch and its gone to zero position?
just my little tought

A few powersupplies have a "safety feature" where if they're unplugged you need to toggle the switch on the back and/or pull the cord out. None of my power supplies needed that, but I knew someone whose supply had that kind of "safety feature" and it was annoying... So just plug it in, rock the switch on the back to off, wait a few secs, rock it on and try. Then maybe unplug, play with the switch, etc. See if that changes anything...


Otherwise open it up and make sure the power button on the front is connected to the right headers on the motherboard. It could be the button worked loose or something...but I'm not exactly sure what's up since I can't physically examine the machine...

A final check?

Do you get lights on your CD, 3.5" floppy or hard drive?..............any noise from the hard drive?

These all get their power direct from the PSU, so if nothing happens then it is almost certainly the PSU that has a problem.

:)


Tim_axe's suggestion is worth a try, I have come across that "feature" before.

I could show this person how to make a dummy load with the 24-pin to cause a loop to see if it's the PSU or not, but someone could get killed. If you can take the PSU out of the case and try it in another box vice versa that would tell you.

Since you have a working power supply in your old computer, perhaps you could use this power supply to test your new mobo. You should be able to narrow down the problem.

Steve

That's what I was thinking.

Ok, well when i went home last night i tried to look for this on/off switch on the psu and couldn't find one. the only switch i noticed was the one that changes the voltage. do some psu's just not have one or do i actually have to un-screw the psu from its case mount.

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A final check?

Do you get lights on your CD, 3.5" floppy or hard drive?..............any noise from the hard drive?

These all get their power direct from the PSU, so if nothing happens then it is almost certainly the PSU that has a problem.

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nope the only light i get is the little green flashy one on the back right below and to the left of where the cord plugs into the computer.

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A few powersupplies have a "safety feature" where if they're unplugged you need to toggle the switch on the back and/or pull the cord out. None of my power supplies needed that, but I knew someone whose supply had that kind of "safety feature" and it was annoying... So just plug it in, rock the switch on the back to off, wait a few secs, rock it on and try. Then maybe unplug, play with the switch, etc. See if that changes anything...

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when you say rock the switch are you refering to just switching it or are you using rock because its one of those non-flat switches that actually requires it to be rocked. and which cord are you refering to, the on from psu-wall or psu-mobo?

Hi, it is a rocker switch on the PSU..............it sounds as if you don't have one.

From the lack of lights and other activity I would certainly say that your PSU has failed.

:(

something that i realize now was monumentally stupid of me, was since it was raining when i was moving, actually the day we rented the moving truck it began raining as soon as we started to load it and didn't stop until we had just finished unloading, i had put a plastic garbage bag over my comp and monitor to bring out to my car. So i assume my fried whatever is due to some sort of static shock. whith this little extra bit of knowledge does it just make your belief that its a bad psu even more concrete or does it point you in any other directions such as add some jam to my mobo and enjoy the toast?

Soooooooooooo...um......... what happened to the other PSU ????????? did you give it a go?

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Originally posted here by JewishIntent
something that i realize now was monumentally stupid of me, was since it was raining when i was moving, actually the day we rented the moving truck it began raining as soon as we started to load it and didn't stop until we had just finished unloading, i had put a plastic garbage bag over my comp and monitor to bring out to my car. So i assume my fried whatever is due to some sort of static shock. whith this little extra bit of knowledge does it just make your belief that its a bad psu even more concrete or does it point you in any other directions such as add some jam to my mobo and enjoy the toast?

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Doubt it. I've done that exact thing plenty of times with no problems. It's more likely to have been the vibrations from the car journey tipping a (soon to fail anyway) PSU over the edge.

I've had plenty of computers come to get fixed but develop a second fault in the act of moving it for repair.

Best for you to identify what exactly is broken now and what needs to be replaced.

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Soooooooooooo...um......... what happened to the other PSU ????????? did you give it a go?

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not yet. since i currently spend over 12 hours a day doing work related **** i have almost no freetime during the week, and what i do have know is all dedicated to finishing the moveing. hopefully tonight when i get in ill try swapping the psu.

http://www.antionline.com/showthread...hreadid=268699

I guess I don't know what I'm talking about :rolleyes:...

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I am 100% sure it is a power supply problem... let me guess.... you have an HP desktop


Well since it is an HP, see i knew you guys all had the uber vision i mentioned a few posts up, i will then get a new power supply.

Thank you all for the quick responses to my questions.

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hey i had agreed that you were right as soon as you asserted yourself in an assured way. But what you guys don't know about me, which is understandable since its not like any of you know me and vice-versa, is i really am Jewish. Its not just my handle or my religion, but a way of life. and if there was even a .00000000001% chance that the problem with my computer was fixable without having to go buy a new psu no matter how cheep, im gonna jump all over it.

I guess it depends on how much you value your time then...

For a thirty dollar part cdn....I wouldn't have spent all the time you have..trouble shooting a power supply...cause I do not have the time

MHO of course

As far as I can see....we had your problem pegged a loooooong time ago.


FYI

Do not try and fix a power supply as suggested here by !mitationRust

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I could show this person how to make a dummy load with the 24-pin to cause a loop to see if it's the PSU or not, but someone could get killed. If you can take the PSU out of the case and try it in another box vice versa that would tell you.

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MLF

Normally i wouldn't spend this much time on it, but since i don't have the free time to do any gaming at the moment anyway, and all my correspondence on this site is done at work during off/slow times its not that big of a deal. How else am i going to spend at least 10 hours a day at work without going postal. Heck, you all should receive some sort of award for keeping me grounded and saving the life of o so many of my co-workers. :D

Well, I don't know about everyone else's system board, but when mine is connected to the outlet, a little green light turn on around the PCI slots, if it's on, I'd say the power button cables were disconnected on the ride over. Maybe some got lose and aren't visually noticeable since they were just unplugged but stayed in place (sounds a bit confusing, even for me :P) just my 2 cents.

Well i decided i had had enough of work around 3 yesterday, normally i get out about 6-7, and took off to go play with my copmuter. so i get home and carefully diagram how the psu connects to everything, and how it is mounted in my case. . . . . swap it. . . . . didn't stop gaming until i had to go to work today :D :D :D

yet another problem fixed by the handy crew here at AO