Computer won't power on at all.

[Kabob]

The past few days I've been been having an issue. Sometimes after putting the computer to sleep or turning it off it will not turn on when I hit the power button. I turned my power strip off and then back on and this remedied the issue temporarily, the computer would start after doing this.

Now though I just arrived home and the computer will not start at all. I've tried cycling the power, I've opened the case and checked all the power connections, etc. My mobo has power and reset buttons in it but they will not start it either. Everything is lit up like its receiving power though.

Where should I start looking for the fix? I recently installed an OCZ Vertex 3 SSD and its been fine, running with no issues for maybe 3-4 weeks. Could this be the culprit? I would think the computer would at least start of this was the cause, even if it wouldn't boot. Would a more likely culprit be the watch battery on the mobo? Something else entirely?

Thanks in advance for any ideas!

 

[denis280]

i would suspect the psu.

 

[Kabob]

Any way to test without a spare PSU around??

 

[Kabob]

That's it? One response in 12 hours?

 

[VirtualLarry]

sounds like PSU to me too

 

[Synthet1X]

They make PSU testers you should be able to pick one up at a local computer shop or they are $19 on Newegg.



Most of the time if you aren't getting any signs of your machine trying to boot it is the PSU. If it were another piece of hard ware you would at least get an attempted boot with post beep errors. I would suggest getting your hand on one of those testers.

 

[Ike0069]

Best to take out of case and see if it starts with only one HDD, VC, CPU/fan, one stick RAM.

Or you could just unhook everything but the above mentioned, including case fans and ALL case connections (front USB, pwr/reset buttons, etc.) and see if it powers up. This will not eliminate any "short" concerns though.

If it powers up, connect one thing at a time. If not, get another PSU and try it.

 

[slayernine]

If the system is overclocked it has a much higher chance of failing to resume from sleep. Also cheap motherboards often have power sleep cycle and power management.

If none of these apply I would also throw my hat into the power supply pile.

 

[brett42]

An easy PSU test is disconnecting all the internal cables and jumpering the green pin to a black pin with a paper clip on the 20/24 pin connector. If the PSU fan doesnʻt start spinning, itʻs definitely dead. If you have access to a voltmeter, the purple pin is the 5 volt standby, if itʻs delivering low voltage, it will light up the motherboard, but not power up the PC. I saw a lot of that on Dells with capacitor problems.

One trick that worked for me for a while with a failing motherboard was pulling the cable from the back of the power supply, holding down power button for a while to drain the capacitors, then plugging it back in.

 

[Kabob]

If the system is overclocked it has a much higher chance of failing to resume from sleep. Also cheap motherboards often have power sleep cycle and power management.

If none of these apply I would also throw my hat into the power supply pile.

Stock speed/voltage.

An easy PSU test is disconnecting all the internal cables and jumpering the green pin to a black pin with a paper clip on the 20/24 pin connector. If the PSU fan doesnʻt start spinning, itʻs definitely dead. If you have access to a voltmeter, the purple pin is the 5 volt standby, if itʻs delivering low voltage, it will light up the motherboard, but not power up the PC. I saw a lot of that on Dells with capacitor problems.

One trick that worked for me for a while with a failing motherboard was pulling the cable from the back of the power supply, holding down power button for a while to drain the capacitors, then plugging it back in.

Jumped it no issue so I thought it must be the mobo. Then I took my PSU over to my brother-in-law's place to see if I could start his computer with it, as with mine his mobo lit up but it would not start. I was going to bring my tower over to his place after work to try his PSU but I got to work and asked our IT department if they had a spare PSU, all they could dig up was an old Dell 300W PSU but since I only needed it to power the mobo I thought it might work. Sure enough I plugged it up and hit the onboard power button and my CPU fans and whatnot started up, looks like it's a short in the PSU.

Thanks for all the help!