PC decides not to boot

[L M entry]

Intro - never built my own PC, never upgraded anything.

Problem - pressed the on button my PC, get a flicker of green light then nothing.

info - started yesterday. I was playing a PC game I bought recently, got the blue screen that said my system crashed and for me to press F8 when loading to choose safe mode and find the problem.

Pressed reset, then I get just a part of the initial load screen. Had this happen recently, needing another reset to get a proper load. So I pressed reset again, when ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE!

It went through the initial screen in a breeze. So far so good. Then as it tried to search for devices, I hear something inside the PC revving up faster and faster. Immediately after, I smell...burning?! Power off don't work, reset don't work, in panic mode I flip off my surge protector.

Having to meet someone, I went out after this and came back about 2 hours later. Opened up the PC, and was shocked! Enough dust to create an army of bunnies! I did what I could with a q-tip and some compressed air in a can to clear up any entry and exit point from inside the PC.

Turn on PC, monitor is working but not displaying anything. The PC's greenlight is on, but the orange light flickers on, off for 2 seconds, on, repeat. My CD-R and DVD drive's light is both flickering, as if PC is searching for something there. Open up CD-R, comes open partway before closing again. DVD drive isn't even opening.

Off PC, open again. T his time I check for any loose or frayed wires. Can't find any, and don't know if all this extra ends from the power supply needs to go somewhere or were just extra incase of upgrade kinda deal. I then look around to see if any cards came unseated. A firm push and wiggle here and there (more to reassure myself I'm doing something cause I can't see anything wrong).

Close, power on, samething. Sleep on it, I decided.

Woke up today, and the 'problem' I mentioned above is what I'm faced with.

I remembered to ground myself whenever I opened up the PC, but it was a "I touched the case with both hands, n ow I'm safe" kinda deal.

Replacesomething? Still need more dustin? Did I ruin my Thousand and three hundred dollar piece of technology?

Specs - Athlon 2100, XP pro, 512 MB two Corsair (think that's what I read) RAM sticks, 100 GB HD, GA-7VRX Mobo, GeForce Ti-4600, Antec case.

[bigandy]

Something burning, hmmm. Might have been the dust, or maybe the power supply. I'm assuming it's an Antec PSU, since you have an Antec case.

Do you get a POST beep? If not, any other beeps at all?

Maybe try this method.

[L M entry]

no reassuring beep. A brief flicker of green life light, then deadness.

I'll give the suggestion on that thread a try.

If not...heck, what better time to build my first PC.

[SamuraiWarrior]

Just a shot in the dark. but if nothing shows up it is possible you might have a fried board. You did say you smelt something burning. Did you check to see if all the fans are spinning? Could be a fried processor to. One thing to remember (even when building own pc) always clean out the box every maybe 3 months, because a lot of dust build up will cause overheating problems.

I would also say if you heard a fast spinning sound coming from the psu I would thing it is time for a new one.

[SanjuroNord]

Might want to try unplugging all your drives and try to turn it on without any of those in there. If it works like that, than try putting in one drive at a time until you reach the spot where it won't boot.

How old is the comp also? I know you said you didn't build or upgrade but is it a relatively old comp? Or perhaps new enough that it might still be under warranty or tech support?

Also when you turn it on does it stay on and just not do anything or does it come on and die right afterwards?

[Cricket]

Did you see any burned spots on the motherboard or any of the cards? If not, sniff the back of the power supply by the fan. If the burnt odor is strong, the power supply may have gone.

If you're comfortable with working with the computer, you might want to disassemble it out of the case to inspect all the parts. Then assemble the base components (motherboard, CPU, heatsink, video card, 1 stick of RAM, PC case speaker, power supply and monitor) and try for POST. If you're not comfortable with this, you might have to take the computer to a shop or a friend who knows how to troubleshoot computers.

Exactly what kind of computer is this? A store bought name brand or a home built one?

Cricket

[L M entry]

During the first days of the problem, the fans were spinning and the PC turned on but just got stuck in limbo. Right now, it won't even turn on save for that flicker of light (isn't that the couple volts create to jump start the computer? Would that mean the power supply is a-ok?)

The PC was custom built through an online site, and is near 2 years old. All the boards seemed spotless (save for dusts), and I would suspect even my untrained eyes would notice burn marks.

The rapid spinning I heard sounded pretty close, and my thought right now is that it could have been my HD.

As for taking things out. The ribbon type connection. Take it out with force or finess?

appreciating all your replies.

[Cricket]

Originally posted by L M entry Right now, it won't even turn on save for that flicker of light (isn't that the couple volts create to jump start the computer? Would that mean the power supply is a-ok?)

No, that only means the power supply is sending just enough power to light up the LED. The power supply could still be bad. What brand is it?

Originally posted by L M entry The rapid spinning I heard sounded pretty close, and my thought right now is that it could have been my HD.

I'm beginning to wonder if your power supply sent a surge of power to your system. If this is the case, something might have gotten fried. Did you look at the bottom of the hard drive where the PCB (printed circuit board) is to see if something there got fried?

Originally posted by L M entry As for taking things out. The ribbon type connection. Take it out with force or finess?

Pull it straight out if you can. If it's stubborn, wiggle it back and forth a bit while pulling it out. Shouldn't take too much force to get the IDE connector out...but the power connector might be a bit harder to remove.

Cricket

[SanjuroNord]

My second computer suffered a nasty power surge and i've never found the source of the problem. When the problem got really bad it would no longer load to windows, would look like it was loading and just keep going forever. Eventually it would no longer even get to the loading windows screen. At it's nastiest moment it killed the system and turning on the computer would result in a brief moment of power to the system. Fans would briefly turn, very briefly, and the comp would immediately go back to being off. You may want to inspect the power supply and see if any visible burn marks are in the interior of the power supply (mine had some nasty black spots in it). The most apparant solution to this would simply seem to replace the power supply, however in my case doing so resulted in a second dead power supply. Had to root out what else had been fried during the surge (before all was said and done i had lost an 80gig hard drive and two cd drives ) Not trying to scare you but you might seriously want to consider taking the comp to a technician/repair guy to look at your comp for you, should be able to find one in your phone book if you live in even a slightly populated area.

[Cricket]

Hey SanjuroNord, this isn't that Athlon 64 you're working on now,is it?

You using a good surge suppressor or UPS?

Cricket

[SanjuroNord]

Nope that would be my old Athlon 1800 XP, it's still here, just afraid to touch it with a ten foot pole. Used it to test my new hard drive earlier today, the computer still works but the power supply on it recently died. Because of the issues i had with it in the past i sat the computer aside and pulled out my older athlon 700mhz thunderbird (crap comp, but damn if it isn't reliable...). Far as i can tell the comp is fine and maybe (optimistic) the power supply just went and died on it's own but i'm a computer science major and can't risk losing any of the data for class. I'm also lazy and can't risk backing up my data

The atholn 64 is still not getting into windows, but other than that everything on it seems to be working fine. Only thing the two really have in common is the motherboards were both from Gigabyte (damn if they don't both look pretty, but oh what a headache).

[L M entry]

Finally scrapped together enough money to buy a new PSU, but still problem.

Problem - took apart PC and assembled minimum outside on cardboard box. No POST beep from mobo. I've tried with vid card, ram, cpu, mobo and power and nothing but cpu and video card fan spinning. Took out vid card, same. Took out ram, same. Even with just cpu and mobo, I get no beep.

Bad cpu or bad mobo? Both?

Also, since the fan on it were spinning, is the Video card (Geforce 4 Ti-4600) still good?

just a gee wheez info - replace Antec Truepower 330 with Antec Smartpower 350