Y hello thar...halp? Dead PC

Moos3h · 3 May 2007 at 20:25

Hi all,

Just installed something this afternoon and then restarted the pc and now nothing. The fans power up and the drive lights flash, but I can't hear the hard disk accessing and there's no output from the screen.

Dead PSU? It's an ebay cheapy (the PC) and the PSU I see is some Q-tec 450w one. The machine itself is an AMD 64 XP3200+, 1 GB Ram, FX5200 (it's used as a music PC).

The weird thing is that up until this point, the machine has sometimes had trouble starting if there are items plugged into the USB. Sometimes as well, the machine would boot fine but the USB mouse wouldn't work and needed unplugging/replugging.

Does this sound like the machine was struggling for power and now the PSU has finally given up totally? No big flashes or anything, but it's dead as now...

Cheers,
James

semi-pro waster · 3 May 2007 at 20:27

It could be a dead PSU although it is difficult to tell with certainty unless you can test a few of the parts. Getting a decent new PSU wouldn't be a bad idea though even if in this case it wasn't the fault of the Q-Tec.

Will_3rd · 3 May 2007 at 20:27

QTEC lol, when will they ever learn

try another PSU

slap ed · 3 May 2007 at 20:29

what did you install ? try taking it back out and see !

Moos3h · 3 May 2007 at 20:31

Sorry, didn't choose my words carefully. I was actually installing software - Live Onecare...

The machine won't even POST, so I'm hoping it's the PSU and that it hasn't taken out any of the other components with it...

Cheers,
James

Moos3h · 3 May 2007 at 20:46

...and now it switches on!

Right, i'm turning it off and throwing the QTEC pewp out tomorrow...

Now I know why the machine was so cheap!

Cheers,
James

semi-pro waster · 3 May 2007 at 20:53

That is good news about it working, you should edit out the swearing though as otherwise it might lead to a suspension.

Moos3h · 3 May 2007 at 21:27

Ta for that. Sorry, I've edit the post.

It's now stripped down ready for a new PSU.

Cheers,
James

Moos3h · 5 May 2007 at 10:01

New PSU fitted, same problem!

PC passes (when I can finally start it up) memtest86 okay.

Oddly, if I remove the BIOS battery and give it 5 mins, it will start...

Anyone any ideas before I chuck it all away and buy a new 'un?

Cheers,
James

Will_3rd · 5 May 2007 at 10:03

Resetting the CMOS i.e. taking out the battery probably fixed one of the problems.