62 replies to this topic

[mysticalmoose]

I've built one computer in my life, and it's the one i have been using for the past two years. It has worked nearly flawlessly (a few little hiccups that I fixed myself), but now i have a problem that my limited computer knowledge is unable to fix. The other day, I went to turn on my computer, and it booted up normally, got to my desktop, then suddenly died. It has not been able to turn on since. What happens is it turns on for litterally a flash, than dies. The only reason i know it even starts to turn on is because all the fans in my computer do like 1/18 of a rotation, than stop. this onlyl happens when i unplug my computer, wait a minute, and plug it back in. when i don't do that, it just doesn't respond to the on button being pushed. So far i've tried everything i can think of, and havent had any luck. If anyones got any ideas, i would love to hear them, as i am kinda in need of my computer for school work.

Also, i'm not sure if this is relevant (i kinda hope it's not), but about a week ago I was playing B&W 2, (kinda graphically hard for the computer) and my computer just died. This problem I actually fixed, by looking inside my computer and finding it full of dust (the area between the GPU fan and heatsink was completely blocked off, so no air got to the GPU at all.) Given that, i decided that my gpu had overheated, causing the computer to automatically turn off. Once i had let the GPU cool down, and cleaned out all the dust, I booted up and my computer worked fine for about a week, untill this incidedn i just talked about.

Any help would be very much appreciated!

[m.oreilly]

just had that happen to the little woman's rig: it was the psu. it all started when the system acted as if it were set to hibernate, then powering down in the middle of the day. one of her drives was making a "clack" sound, so i thought she had a bad drive. i removed the suspect drive, and the system booted, and reached desktop. for 5 minutes. then the fan on the gpu stopped running. must of lost a rail or two. do you have a spare, or a buddy who would let you swap for a test?

[Nvyseal]

Just went through this problem last Friday with one of my folding rigs, it was the power supply. installed a new spare along with the necessary banj0 recommended "psu drivers" and all is fine now

[mysticalmoose]

after another 5 mins of tinkering, i think it turned out it was the graphics card. correct me if i'm wrong, but the fact that when i took out the graphics card it turned on fine (couldn't see anthing on the screen cause there was no graphics card), does that not mean that my g-card is shot? also, will this card work with the comp in my sig? it seems to have gotten good reviews and looks to suit my needs

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductRevie...N82E16814150229

[m.oreilly]

it could mean your psu hasn't enough juice to boot w/ the card in. i'd try booting in safe mode, with the card intact (stock 2D drivers are loaded in safe mode). my daughter's previous gpu went out awhile back (6800gt), she could boot to desktop, but not with any 3D drivers loaded (safe mode, or delete the 3D drivers, and run with the stock microsoft 2D ones). i'd try the safe mode thing first, and see what happens

[Nvyseal]

its a PCI-Express 16x slot. do you have that? or AGP

and yes, i agree with MO on this, id look at the PSU before getting a new GPU

[Roadrunner]

[quote name='mysticalmoose' date='Oct 28 2007, 05:33 PM' post='46073']
after another 5 mins of tinkering, i think it turned out it was the graphics card. correct me if i'm wrong, but the fact that when i took out the graphics card it turned on fine (couldn't see anthing on the screen cause there was no graphics card), does that not mean that my g-card is shot? also, will this card work with the comp in my sig? it seems to have gotten good reviews and looks to suit my needs""


Could be that without powering your graphics card there was enough power.
Have you tried disconnecting all your drives except for what hard drive your OS system is on? Also- swap some of the cables around. Too bad you don't have a PSU checker- I got one just for this purpose, cause a bad PSU can look like alot of different problems depending on what voltages are affected.
Although a bad graphics card could keep your computer from posting I have not heard of it keeping it from turning on, unless the MB was bad.
It is becoming more evident that to solve this mystery you will have to start doing what MO suggested and swap out parts. You could also try taking your video card to another computer- an easy swap and it will tell you quickly if something is wrong there.

[Roadrunner]

m.oreilly, on Oct 28 2007, 05:58 PM, said:

it could mean your psu hasn't enough juice to boot w/ the card in.

JINX

[Roadrunner]

Good tool to have - saves alot of headaches tracing down problems-

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...Tpk=psu%2bcheck

You can find less expensive ones also--

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?s...op=1&fsoo=1



Anyway-- just some advice-- I spent $70 on a PSU when it turned out to be a bad memory module.

Edited by Roadrunner, 29 October 2007 - 01:19 AM.

[mysticalmoose]

well i hope my its not my PSU, cause i kinda recently bought a 580watt HIPER PSU. also, it won't let me get far enough in to boot safe mode with the g-card in. It literally shows signs of life for under a quarter of a second, then dies.

edit: also i'm tempted to think its the g-card, cause i did overheat it like hell the other day. it burned my finger

edit2: yes its PCIexpress x16

edit3: are there any things i can do with just my one computer to see whats wrong with it? unfortunately i don't have another one to swap with to check to see if certain parts work

Edited by mysticalmoose, 29 October 2007 - 02:23 AM.

[Camaro]

im inclined to go with the guys on this, the psu power is most likely, if you have just bought a psu it should be under warrenty

[Roadrunner]

electronics are so complicated to diagnose these days that almost all manuals have in them the saying "replace with known good part " whenever trying to diagnose.
It's probably why most of us keep extra parts around- just to make diagnosing easier.

[m.oreilly]

if you can't get to the desktop in safe mode, chances are it is really the psu. hint: the only component that has failed consistently in the rigs i've dealt with is the psu. it's a fine line, voltage wise, between "it works" and "the worst case scenario...". try the 850 without the psu molex. it really sounds like a lack of power to support the system

[banj0]

Is a DVD/CD ROM/burner enough to load up a bad PSU? I'm wondering if he can't pull his PSU and connect to an optical drive and then start the PSU with a paperclip. If it shuts down right away, that's a for-sure sign, yes?

[m.oreilly]

i dunno...might depend on the offending rail(s). i wish MM could get hold of a spare psu, or the tester that roady linked to.