Computer Won't Turn On!

[zepp1]

I'm going to try to give as much detail as possible.

The PC is a P4 2.53 (I think 915E mobo)...512 ram (1 stick).

PC was running fine. I decided to install a DVDrw. I opened it up and noticed a lot of dust. I used air to blow all the dust out. All I did was put the DVDRW in and plugged it in making sure I didnt dislodge any leads or any other cables. Tried to turn it on...nothing.

The motherboard has a green light that comes on when I plug the power in. When I press the "on" button the CPU fans spins once and stops. I never hear the HD or anything else try to turn on.

I've taken out the memory and put it back in trying different sockets. I've unplugged all the cables and plugged them back in. I've also tried a different power supply which didn't work either.

Now before this happened my pc from time to time would give me the blue screen of death (xp pro system) saying that the memory was overloaded and needed to reboot. But like I said, before I opened it and blew the dust out it was running fine...a little slow but fine.

Any suggestions?

 

[QuaziBee]

Hello zepp1, and welcome to T.F.!

Using caned air can cause condensation to form on the surface of what your using it on because it is cold when it decompresses. Give your components ample time and ventilation to dry off. It is possible a small bead of water can be causing a short some where. If it won't boot to POST I would try flashing the BIOS. and double checking critical components. One thing you can do is take out all non essential components like sound card, hard drive, disk drive, even your ram is not needed for the thing to turn on. If it will boot to an error screen saying its missing ram then you can start plugging things back in one at a time to find the culprit. If you still get nothing. try removing and reseating the CPU.

 

[zepp1]

Hey thanks for the welcome and the advice. I'll try that tonight when I get home.

The thing about it though is that I didn't use one of those cans. I used a little vacuum I have that blows air also. It doesn't blow hot or cold just room temperature air. And I used that to blow all the dust bunnies out. I've had this problem before with this pc when I've used the can and yeah after I let it dry out it would work. But this happened Sunday morning.

I'll try what you suggested and let you know what happens.

 

[QuaziBee]

Is it a vacuum designed for anti static protection? Some hand held vacs can cause a static discharge when used inside a computer.

 

[zepp1]

Is it a vacuum designed for anti static protection? Some hand held vacs can cause a static discharge when used inside a computer.

Actually no. Its just a vacuum.

Well to update you...last night I took the cpu you out and unplugged everything but the leads. I put everything back and what it appeared to be was that the power cable connecting to the floppy was plugged incorrectly. When I plugged it in the right way it turned on.

BUT now I have new problems.

I got all excited cuz the cpu turned on, the hard drive was spinning...but nothing came on the screen. I spent the entire night playing with the leads replugging everything and nothing.

Basically what happens is, it turns on..the hard drive light comes on but only comes on solid. Usually when its loading it flickers you know? Anyway the cpu turns on, I heard the hard drive spinning and it sounds like its about to load up something but nothing much happens after that. Nothing comes up on the screen and Ive checked the power and connection to the video card. The screen is getting no signal. Also no beeps or anything like that.

Also the case has a fan on its side that blows air out....that also was not coming on. So this morning I connected the cable that goes to this fan to another cable and it turned on but was running extremely weak. It would spin but at slow speeds and sometimes sputter.

Any thoughts?

 

[FlashDude]

It isn't beeping either is it? It sounds like it isn't posting. reset the cmos/remove battery reinstall the cpu again and check the p4 connector on the motherboard (square 4 pin) If that doesn't work unhook everything except the CPU and the motherboard power connectors. Remove all the ram, ide cables, molex connectors from devices, Video cards, and any add on cards. If it doesn't beep at you then the board is probably Toast. Next remove the board from the case and try it again. If it still will not post/beep then the board is garbage.

 

[zepp1]

No it doesn't beep at all although I haven't tried turning it on without the memory. I've just unplugged and replugged everything...Ive tried it with just cpu-ram-vidcard-hd....and like I said the cpu turns on, the hd spins and acts like its about to load up but doesn't load anything although you can still hear it spinning. Then of course the issue with the fan got my attention.

But ok I will try that. So I mean what couldve toasted the motherboard? The vacuum I used couldve done that?

 

[QuaziBee]

That is a possibility, unlikely but possible. The fan could be going bad, that happens to fans when they get old. But it could also be a PSU problem. If it isnt supplying enough power to the MOBO it can dammage anything attached to it. When you installed the new drive it could have been too much for the PSU to handle and that could of fried you then and there. If you have access to a hight wattage (500w+) power supply, try borrowing one from a friend maybe, use that one to see if it powers up to atleast POST. I have my fingers crossed nothing is seriously damaged.

 

[zepp1]

That is a possibility, unlikely but possible. The fan could be going bad, that happens to fans when they get old. But it could also be a PSU problem. If it isnt supplying enough power to the MOBO it can dammage anything attached to it. When you installed the new drive it could have been too much for the PSU to handle and that could of fried you then and there. If you have access to a hight wattage (500w+) power supply, try borrowing one from a friend maybe, use that one to see if it powers up to atleast POST. I have my fingers crossed nothing is seriously damaged.

Actually what I did was I had a cdrw already in there and in the past I had tried putting both in but for some reason the dvd would not work. So I just tried to see if the dvd would work without the cdrw plugged in.

So basically when I tried this there was just the same amount of drives installed as before. I just swapped out the cdrw for the dvdrw.

Its crazy though why would the PSU all of sudden go bad? I mean it was running before I had this brilliant idea.

 

[zepp1]

So here is the latest.

I bought a new power supply from cusa and tried it with just the cpu connected and leads and it did the same thing. The case fan would sputter and spin slowly and the mobo would not beep at me even though there was no ram in there.

I took out everything (cmos battery and put it back) and even removed the motherboard and tried it...same thing..cpu turns on and thats about it.

Then I plugged everything in again (hard drive, vid card, etc.) and tried it and at times the cpu heatsink would sputter while it was spinning as well. It sounded like it was accelerating then slow down then rev up again etc. This morning I tried it again and it just did what it did before...cpu turns on...hd spins...nothing loads and nothing shows up on screen.

So whats the verdict guys? Bad mobo or could it be something else? How the **** did it go bad too? All I did was opened it, blew the dust out and installed a dvdrw. Now in the past before when I installed drives it wouldn't turn on right away but I think that was because of the frost from those air cans.