Come Home From Work and PC Won't Start

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rusty12

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 2, 2007
Messages
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I just walked in the door from a long day at work and one of the first things I did was power up the PC. However, my PC began acting very weird from the get-go. When I hit the power button, the PC began booting up, and then all of a sudden it shut-down and then restarted all by itself. It did this 3 times I believe. It finally got past the point of where it would mysteriously restart itself, however, I noticed that my monitor was not awakening out of power-saving mode as if it was not receiving a signal and my CPU heatsink fan was not spinning. The rest of the case fans were spinning and it sounded like HDD activity was occurring but I was not receiving any signal on my monitor nor was the CPU fan spinning.

This morning before I left work, I checked my e-mail and shut it down and everything was working perfectly at the time I shut the PC down. Now I come home and its acting all weird…?

Any suggestions? I have to use my laptop right now to write this since my desktop is being gay.

Help appreciated. Thanks!:confused:
 
Anybody? I just removed the CMOS battery to try and reset that but I still get no activity on my monitor, my heatsink fan still does not turn, and after closer examination, I am led to believe that there is no activity occurring with the HDD.
 
Try some of these suggestions:
enginurd said:
If your system doesn't POST...

This is basic troubleshooting if your system has never POSTed (as in, you just put it together); Though, it may be helpful to others whose system no longer POSTs...

If you have both the 20/24 pin main ATX connector plugged in, AND the 4-Pin (or 8-pin) ATX12V P4 CPU connector plugged in, then the board should boot fine (unless it requires more power connectors from the PSU). First, try clearing the CMOS w/ the proper jumper or button.

The next thing you could do is test the PSU. Jump start it (on the main atx connector, short the green wire with any black wire, using a paperclip), and see if it stays on. If not, then its probably a faulty PSU. If it works then you can proceed with the suggestions below. ***NOTE: The paperclip trick is a simple test for those that do not have PSU testers, multimeters, nor a spare PSU to test with. It is not a 100% conclusive test of the PSU.

How to test with a multimeter @ BFG

Setup everything outside of the case, with the mobo on top of its cardboard box. Plug in only the essentials:
- PSU (namely: main 20/24-pin ATX connector and 4-pin ATX12V P4 CPU Connector; The 4-pin should work in the 8-pin EPS12v plugs, too)
- CPU w/ HSF
- Single stick of ram
- Videocard if there is no onboard video (along with its power connector, if it has one)
- System speaker/buzzer (your board may have an on-board tweeter/buzzer/speaker)
- Monitor & Keyboard

Reset/Clear the CMOS by following the instructions in your mobo manual.

* Use a screwdriver if your board doesnt have an onboard power switch. Jump the two power switch leads to turn the power on.

If it won't post, try different RAM slots. If it still won't post, pull out the ram (so no ram in the system) and listen for error beeps. If none, pull the vidcard and listen for error beeps. If none, re-seat the CPU and HSF, then try again. Report back with results if you're still having issues.
Click to expand...
 
I haven't had a chance yet to try the paperclip method for testing my PSU, but my question about whether it could be a dead PSU is how could it be when I hit the power button the case fans still get power to spin as well as my V-card fan?

When I get home from work tonight I will try the paperclip test and report back with results.
 
Keep in mind there is a new string of Malware going around that is keeping systems from booting up or causes them to simply go into an endless reboot cycle. It's pretty common. I've encountered it 3 times int he past 2 weeks on different machines and thankfully it hasn't effected my system.

You need to pull the hard drive, attach it to another computer and run a Malware scan on it. Only way to fix it.

If you see a display coming up, then It's more likely this than a failed component. Generally with hardware, especially PSU's, GPU's etc, you know something is starting to fail. The only part I've had outright fail without notice was a motherboard and the system would not even post. If your system is powering on, going through the ropes but simply not loading Windows, I'd bet it's this new malware, considering how common it is.

If your NOT seeing anything display at all, as in the monitor is staying in sleep mode/not flashing on, then it's a failing component.
 
Well, in the most bizarre set of circumstances my computer started up today when I accidentally hit a button on my keyboard. I have no idea what I hit nor do I know why its working all of a sudden now. Needless to say I am happy that it's up and running though. I'm sure glad I didn't have a hardware failure! Thanks for the input guys!
 
rusty12 said:
I haven't had a chance yet to try the paperclip method for testing my PSU, but my question about whether it could be a dead PSU is how could it be when I hit the power button the case fans still get power to spin as well as my V-card fan? ...
Click to expand...

Heh, I guess I was sleepy at 12am, cuz I remember reading that those things were NOT spinning up, lol. My bad. :eek:
 
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