computer won't boot suddenly

[mangled]

All of a sudden today, my computer stopped booting. Yesterday all was fine an no signs of problems. But today, when I went to turn it on, it wouldn't even post. I turn it on, the fans power up, and nothing else happens, screen is black. Bios doesn't even come up.

Could my moboard be fried? I don't know how it happened, no storms, and it's connected to a backup source. The board is also fairly new, about a year old.

Am I correct that the board is fried? I'm assuming if the hard drive was fried I'd at least be able to get in to bios, right?

Thanks for any help.

 

[mangled]

bump, any help?

 

[pspada]

Could be the CPU, motherboard, video card, power supply, or even power switch. I'd first try a different video card, and then try a different, known working power supply. And short the jumpers to turn it on, rather than using the switch. If that does not help, it's either the CPU or mobo.

 

[daveymark]

take out the battery and reset the cmos

 

[SigmaOrionis]

I've seen this several times with friends and families computers and it always turned out to be the power supply. Fans would come on sometimes the drives would power up but they would never post. Change power supply and all was fixed. Good Luck.

 

[mangled]

well, I tried resetting the cmos, and nothing.

BTW, it's an L7S7A2 board.

However the comments on the power supply have me wondering. When I first try to turn the computer on, I hear something sounding like it's reving up and down again. All the fans are turning and it lights up, but for a few seconds I hear this quiet reving. I thought it was the hard drive spinning, but putting my ear up to the power supply, and I think that's where it's coming from.

So could the power supply just be on it's last leg and can't supply enough to boot up but can at least start up and power the fans?

I'll try replacing that first. Thanks for the help.

 

[daveymark]

Also, unplug some components and see what happens. For instance, my cheap amamax case and psu can't handle the usb external drive along with the rca out hooked up to the tv as well as the speakers plugged in. Once they were all taken out, the pc powered up fine. yet another psu issue of course...

 

[mangled]

Thanks. I'm assuming if it was a hard drive problem, I'd at least be able to get in to the bios, right?

 

[SigmaOrionis]

Yes if it was just a hard drive problem you would be able to get into bios. All you need connected to your computer to post is a video card, memory and a cpu.

If I was you I would go to a local electronics store and pick up a Power Supply. If it doesnt fix the problem you can always take it back. But with the symptoms youre describing that would be the first thing I would eliminate in my troubleshooting.

Good luck hope you get it fixed.

 

[mangled]

well, installed a new power supply over the weekend and that didn't fix it.

I tried installing a different video card as well and that didn't fix it.

So my guess is, this less than a year old motherboard is probably the culprit?

 

[philmore47]

If it has a pentium in it, its the CPU

 

[mangled]

Originally posted by: philmore47
If it has a pentium in it, its the CPU

It's an Athlon XP 2400. Also less than a year old. No overclocking either.

 

[KaGee]

Originally posted by: SigmaOrionis
I've seen this several times with friends and families computers and it always turned out to be the power supply. Fans would come on sometimes the drives would power up but they would never post. Change power supply and all was fixed. Good Luck.

I agree, except the one I worked on did end up being a dead board. Try and get another powersupply from someone before declaring your mobo dead.
Good luck!

 

[novice]

If you disconnected your drives and tried it with just the CPU, video card and ram and still didn't get it to post, then either you have bad ram, CPU, video card or motherboard. The scary thing about the CPU vs Motherboard question is that you have to test each in a known good board/CPU and if the part is bad, it could ruin the "test" part, too. You could just pony up $120 or so for a new Shuttle AN35N (love mine) and XP1800 from newegg and replace them both at the same time. Chances are very good that the XP1800 will clock to equal your old 2400. (My XP1700 is running as an XP2400 as I type.) Of course, if it was me with your problem, that's what I would do only to find out my ram was bad!

Good Luck, and let us know how it turns out.