Computer won't power up

[Riverrick]

Hi guys!

My computer won't power up, suddenly. It comes on for 3 seconds and then shuts off. I have to unplug it and plug it back in to even get it to do that again.

I opened it up and started unplugging peripherals on by one, and when I unplugged the power to the hard drive, it came on and stayed on.

Does this mean my hard drive is fried?

 

[Apollo]

When you turn on your computer, does it beep? This means it is working right. If you no longer hear the beep, than you need a new power supply, or just a new computer.

I think regardless of the beep or not. You might just need a new power supply. It might not have enough power left to finish the sign on process.

Of course Noelie, could explain it more. I know that the beep means the power has posted and the power supply is working well.

 

[Riverrick]

When you turn on your computer, does it beep? This means it is working right. If you no longer hear the beep, than you need a new power supply, or just a new computer.

I think regardless of the beep or not. You might just need a new power supply. It might not have enough power left to finish the sign on process.

Of course Noelie, could explain it more. I know that the beep means the power has posted and the power supply is working well.

Nope...no Beep.

It doesn't get that far.

But I unplugged the power to the hard drive and successfully booted it from an old Windows 95 boot disk I found. To the A: prompt.

 

[Apollo]

Yeah, I think it is time for a new power supply, but wait for Noelie or one of the others to tell you this. I could be wrong. I do know the beep is important though.

 

[Riverrick]

Thanks BlackWolf.

I'm hoping to put off buying a new computer for a year or so. This is a P4 with 1.8GHz and I've got 1GB of memory in it. It serves me well, so far.

 

[stryderblaze]

hey whats the wattage of your power supply and it might be your hard drive might be dead cause it sounds to me your power supply is working fineif it could still supply the computer with power it might be just your hard drive no longer works and what kind of hard drive is it? what brand is it?

 

[jft245]

Before trying a new power supply or hard drive, try removing and then re-seating the memory sticks in their slots. Make sure the clips at the ends of the slots click back in and the stick is seated firmly in the slot. I had the same problem and the tech at Dell had me do that and it totally worked. Even though the memory sticks were locked in place with the clips, one of them had become loose just enough to cause this problem.

 

[trawler69]

Sounds like power supply to me. The hard drive starting up takes quite a bit of power and it could cause a drop in voltage sufficient to cause a reset. I think it unlikely to be any form of corruption on the hard drive though it could be a hardware failure causing it to overload the supply when it tries to start. Computer supplies have an overload system that causes them to lock out and not to try to restart until completely powered down. Try plugging thew drive into another computer and see if it missbehaves.

Edit: Thinking about it again, quite likely a drive problem but try the substitution method first to determine. It may well be possible with some surgery and an identical replacement drive to recover data if necessary. Let's hope it is the power supply!

 

[Riverrick]

Power supply is 250 Watts.

I pulled the hard drive out. Its a Seagate 80Gb. I think its SCSI. It has a ribbon cable.

 

[Riverrick]

Before trying a new power supply or hard drive, try removing and then re-seating the memory sticks in their slots. Make sure the clips at the ends of the slots click back in and the stick is seated firmly in the slot. I had the same problem and the tech at Dell had me do that and it totally worked. Even though the memory sticks were locked in place with the clips, one of them had become loose just enough to cause this problem.

I tried it but it still powers off. Thanks anyhow.

Sounds like power supply to me. The hard drive starting up takes quite a bit of power and it could cause a drop in voltage sufficient to cause a reset. I think it unlikely to be any form of corruption on the hard drive though it could be a hardware failure causing it to overload the supply when it tries to start. Computer supplies have an overload system that causes them to lock out and not to try to restart until completely powered down. Try plugging thew drive into another computer and see if it missbehaves.

Boy, you guys are making me work.

I have an old P2 upstairs. Will that work for the test?

 

[trawler69]

P2 will work fine. Just pull power connector from cd drive and plug HD into it and see if the comp cuts out like you other one. You may need the ribbon cable as well and if you do the computer will get confused but should report an error rather than cut out. IDE / Pata and scsi drives both have wide ribbon cable.

 

[Riverrick]

Well.....it seems I threw that computer out when I was cleaning this summer. What are the odds of that?

So....put money into a power supply, a hard drive, or a new computer?

 

[Riverrick]

Don't you have another plug from the PS to try in place of the one that WAS in the HD?
If not, unplug from the CD drive and use that in the HD and see what happens.......

Yes, I did that and the same thing happens. So its not the plug.

Power supplies are $20. That seems to be the place to start.

 

[trawler69]

^ The supplies to all these components are commoned together so trying the CD supply won't help. For some reason your power supply is getting overloaded. There are two possibilities: 1) faulty power supply. 2) faulty Hard drive. If you unplug the HD then the computer can boot from the CD drive so it has enough power for that. Thinking on my feet, to check whether it is the power supply now, you need to reduce all loads on it to a minimum whilst leaving the HD connected, to which end I would pull the power plugs to the CD and floppy drives and also to your graphics card. If it derives it's supply from the socket it plugs into just take the card out. Now power it up. If it cuts out ie all leds go off fans stop etc. then it is your hard drive, prove by removing its power plug and try again. Fans should now keep running.

If on removing these loads the HD spins up and the power doesn't fail then the problem is in the Power supply not being able to deliver enough and this can be for a number of causes.

I hope my reasoning makes sense, I'm trying to describe the way I do fault finding with little to no equipment and am making it up as I go along it is however based on the way I have earned my living most of my life. I don't want you buying the wrong thing.

EDIT: Silly thought but you are communicating using some computer, maybe it is a laptop? If not then... well you know what I mean.

 

[mike_n_herrin]

edit: sorry i moved my suggestions around so you should try the CD thing before buying a new power supply i thinkg.

you could try to boot from a CD like maybe linux (like knoppix or ubuntu) or if you have a widnows install cd, while unplugging the hard drive to see if you can get the computer to run that way.

try the power supply first if they are only 20 bucks. ? that's pretty low. i would get something maybe around 300 watts. 280 is pretty low, but if you don't have that many things plugged into the expansion slots then maybe not a big deal.

noelie is on a break. he may pop in, but don't expect it immediately.