PC fails to start...

owains

owains

owains

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Joined
16 Jan 2004
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231
Hey, hopefully can help me out with a problem I'm having with an old PC, which, until recently, has been working perfectly.

When the power button is pressed the fans sometimes do a 1/4 spin, sometimes they do nothing. After that nothing at all happens. It doesn't look like the thing is getting any power.

I thought it could be one of two things: either a dead PSU, or a dead CMOS battery, though this is pure guess work. But I don't want to invest in a new PSU for an aging PC only to find out the whole thing is dead!

Has anyone else experienced similar problems or have any suggestions?

Any help much appreciated.
 
Possible to test PSU in another PC? That way its possible to rule it out.

Also, helps to provide specs if you can :)
 
Hmmm unfortunately I can't check the PSU in another PC as all those I have access to are non-openable Dells. Is there some method of checking a PSU without having it connected? I may be wrong, but IIRC connecting certain wires allows you to start a PSU not connected to anything.

If it's useful, here's the specs:
Elite K7S5A mobo
AMD Athlon XP2000+
512MB RAM
GeForce2 MX
60GB IDE HDD
Soundblaster 5.1
Ethernet card
2x Optical drives

Cheers!
 
Ive seen this happen on a few occasions, sometimes it was the Motherboard and sometimes the CPU, i could be wrong though and it could be the PSU.
 
Just did the short green to black PSU test. Exactly the same thing happens: PSU fan grinds for 1/4 of a turn and then nothing. To me that would suggest a bad PSU, though I guess it's not a certainty. At this stage I suppose it's worth spending the £15 or so to find out. Hope it's not the MOBO or CPU!
 
B1aze said:
Just did the short green to black PSU test. Exactly the same thing happens: PSU fan grinds for 1/4 of a turn and then nothing. To me that would suggest a bad PSU, though I guess it's not a certainty. At this stage I suppose it's worth spending the £15 or so to find out. Hope it's not the MOBO or CPU!
Click to expand...

A load needs to be placed on the PSU for this to be an accurate test.Connect a fan and CDRom or similar then short green/black
 
When I did the PSU test I disconnected all the important stuff, but left a fan connected. It did the 1/4 turn thing, same as when nothing, or all of the components are connected up.
 
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