PC suddenly not booting

[FalvinP]

Ok…..I’ll admit it……….. I was a sucker. I bought a computer for cheap from a guy on Craig’s List. I didn’t pay much for it, but it was better than the seven-year–old Pentium III I was using and I am now, unfortunately, using it once again. In his CL ad, he said there was Windows XP Pro with all updates installed. Long story short…..I ended up with an illegal copy of Windows on the machine, for which the seller takes absolutely no responsibility.

.Suddenly, yesterday, my computer, out of the blue, refused to boot past the post screen.

I typed out the gist of this post on this old machine, which I hooked back up to the internet. I then had a sudden inspiration and took the side panel off. I didn’t notice if the hard drives were spinning or not before I checked the power and data cables. They didn’t seem to be loose. I then turned on the machine and it booted up normally. I even posted a question in this forum earlier today. In following some advice received, I needed to reboot the machine.

OOPS! It wouldn’t boot again and that’s where I sit now. I’ve checked the cables again, both at the drives and the motherboard and don’t see that they’re loose. I tried connecting the power cord from the second drive to the first drive. I couldn’t connect t he second drive because the cord from the first drive is not long enough. There is no other available power cord. I doubt is the power anyway, since the drive seems to be spinning and the disk drive light initially comes on.

Here is the boot-up sequence:

Power-on

Fans and disk drive light come on

Nvidia FX 5500 256 Mb video memory flashes on screen (sometimes)

One beep

Post screen with MSI logo appears

Floppy drive light and disk drive come on with the sound of drive working

One beep

Disk drive light comes on for about one second and then goes out.

Blank screen…………..fans continue to work

Nothing

I have an 8 in 1 card reader and a thumb drive attached to a Belkin powered USB 2.0 hub. The lights on the card reader, thumb drive, and usb hub all display normally after Windows won’t start.

When I push the power button the unit turns off almost immediately, not the normal four seconds it normally takes.

The seller gave me a Windows disk that didn’t look like a regular Windows disk. I haven’t tried booting from it because I’m not sure what would happen. If I decide to do that, I realize I will have to change the boot sequence. I’m not sure if I can get into the bios or not.


As far as I can tell, the computer has the following specs:

Pentium 4 2.53 Ghz processor

MSI MS-6728-Platinum (Intel 865PE Neo2-Platinum) motherboard

Nvidia FX 5500 with 256 MB ram

512 Mb memory -- seller said PC 2700, but when I used a program to check this out, it said there was one stick of PC2100 and I think one stick of PC2300. Not sure exactly what type of memory.

Viewsonic Professional series P225f 21 inched monitor- the cord on this seems to have a bit of a short in it at the plug at the rear of the computer. It has four RCA (I think) type plugs that go to the monitor. Depending on how the cord is placed, the screen goes extremely pink. I don’t know if this has anyting to do with this problem.

Soundblaster Live value soundcard

2 hard drives………… 80 Gig (master) and 40 Gig (slave). Belarc advisor (printed out a few weeks ago) reports primary drive is NTFS and slave is FAT32. I’ve had no problems reading or writing data to either drive.

Cd rom

It has an Ethernet card which must be used, even though the motherboard supports Ethernet and has a port on the I/O port at the rear. I tried using it, even changing the use of it in the bios and it wouldn’t work so I switched it back.

I’m trying to provide as much information as possible to see if anything could be the problem. This is very frustrating. I realize the solution could be any one of many different things.

I’d appreciate any advice you can give.

[Cricket]

What brand power supply is in that computer?

Cricket

[FalvinP]

A red sticker on the side of the power supply says:

ATX Switching Power Supply 450W (not sure if this is the manufacturer or not)

AC input 115v/230v 10a/6a 60/50Hz

DC output +3.3v +5v +12v -12v -5v +5vsb
26a 35a 15a .8a .5a 2a

I don't know if giving the amps on each rail is useful, but there it is.............

Thanks for your help.

[glc]

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=154613

See who made it that way.

[FalvinP]

Thanks for the reply GLC. There is no UL symbol anywhere on the power supply. I even unscrewed it from the case and looked on all sides of it. It has the red sticker and then a white sticker that wraps around one corner. It says QC Pass and seems to indicate the date of manufacture (8/2005). That's it.

Thanks for your help.

[glc]

What you NEED to look for is a 6 digit number preceded by the letter E.

[FalvinP]

There is no six digit number preceded by an "E" anywhere on the unit. There is a number on the sticker that seems to indicate the date of manufacture, but there is no "E" with it, and it's an eight digit number preceded by "PS".

PS 05495251

Looks like a serial number to me. I tried putting in both the first six and then the last six digits of this number into the ul database (preceded by an “E”) and got nothing both times.

What is the implication of wanting to know about the power supply? Could the power supply all of a sudden not be adequate? It appears to be a rather cheap unit. It doesn't weigh very much and I've read that, in general, the heavier a power supply is, the better it is.

Your help is greatly aappreciated.

[glc]

We are thinking the power supply is not providing correct voltages and/or adequate current. If you have a spare power supply, that would be the first thing I would try.

Blow all the dust out of the computer so you can see everything clearly. Examine the standup capacitors on the motherboard for bulging tops and leaking electrolyte. I just had a MSI board of the same vintage with bad caps the other day.

[FalvinP]

The only power supply I have available is the power supply in this old Micron P III machine I'm using right now. I bought the machine in November 1999 and I'll bet dollars to doughnuts that the power supply in this case won't do the trick.

So............ I'm preparing to do a build. My timetable was about six months out..........maybe even closer to nine months out. To keep the P 4 machine going for a little bit longer I'd invest in a power supply now to be used later in the build. I know I can install it in the current case. I don't know the brand of this case, but it seems to be standard size. I have a diagram of the MSI motherboard printed out, but I'm not sure I'd know where to hook everything up after I put the ps in the case. I had the motherboard Pdf manual on the other machine, so I'm sure I could download it to this machine as well.

I've pretty much narrowed things down to getting an Antec case (P160). with an Antec power supply. Are Antec power supplies sold retail at places like CompUSA? Depending on the price, it might be worth it to just run down to CompUSA rather than order a unit from Newegg.

I had just started doing research on power supplies (bookmarked on the other machine of course). From what I remember, there are newer style power connectors (24 pin) that are used now. Is that the only consideration? I'm not a gamer, but I'd like to do video capture and rendering dvds, image manipulation etc. so I guess my system will be at the high end of mid-range. No need for dual video cards, or is there? I've seen an Antec 550W power supply that seems to be popular.

I just realized that maybe I should ask this question in a thread in the proper place, since this forum is for hard drives and the like...........

So the bottom line is........is there a good chance that the power supply suddenly got sick? I've had no problems up to now. I realize this may not be the fix, so just give your best informed opinion. I'll need a power supply anyway, so it won't be a terrible thing if it doesn't fix the problem.

[FalvinP]

BTW, I just checked the board for bulging/leaking capacitors. Didn't see anything unusual.

[glc]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817104952

That will work in your present machine, and also in a new build.

[FalvinP]

I have now bought an Antec Smartpower 2 500W powe supply. It was a pretty good deal with rebates, and I have it now, as opposed to waiting for Newegg to ship it.

I'm preparing to install it in my case but I've run into a little problem. I can't get the 20

pin power connector out of the motherboard's ATX poower slot. There is a little clip on the outside of the pug that doesn't seem to do anything. When the clip is pushed in toward the plug the bottom part moves out from the bottom of the plug, but the plug will still not budge. The floppy drive controller is right next to the power socket and I can't get that one to budge either.

Sometimes my fingers behave like an elephant in a china shop. I realize these componets are rather delicate and I don't want to break any wires or anything. Does anyone have a tip on how to safely remove these cords?

Thanks for your help.

[FalvinP]

Sucess!!!

I just kept graduallyworking on it and it finally came loose. I guess posting for help did the trick..............