pc wont start up, help please

archamedes

archamedes

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Dave
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I got a very big problem with my pc. Last night it started up, worked perfectly fine and shut down as normal. This morning, it will not load up. It doesn't even have the bios beep or have any start up dos text. The pc powers up but its as if my monitor is switched off. Can anyone give any ideas as to what is causing the problem? And how much will it cost to fix? I just hope my hard drives are ok because they have everything i need that i wont be able to get back work wise.

p.s. i am using the wifes laptop in case you are wondering how i am writing this
 
Bummer, can you give more info about the PC? Is it likely you have have downloaded a virus? Would you consider yourself high/low risk for it being malware?
 
ChrisJ_SLH said:
No offence Jeff but if it isn't even getting to the BIOS POST (power on self test) then there is zero chance of it being a software issue.
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So is it impossible for malware to trash a bios? I thought I had heard that they could affect this. I'm no expert though, so diagnose away and I'll just read lol :)
 
yeah my pc is pretty much guarded against all adaware, malware, viruses and spyware. my firewall is always on and my av has the forcefield feature activated at all times, and i always do a scan for everything twice a month just in case so its unlikely to be a viral problem. It just decided to stop overnight. At first i thought my monitor had blown, but after turning it off and on again i get the monitor screen menu appear, then i realised that i never heard the start up beep, which for one is a big problem
 
archamedes said:
yeah my pc is pretty much guarded against all adaware, malware, viruses and spyware. my firewall is always on and my av has the forcefield feature activated at all times, and i always do a scan for everything twice a month just in case so its unlikely to be a viral problem. It just decided to stop overnight. At first i thought my monitor had blown, but after turning it off and on again i get the monitor screen menu appear, then i realised that i never heard the start up beep, which for one is a big problem
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Dave, are any of your fans running and/or drives spinning up?
 
Try removing as many cards from your machine as possible. If it starts then you can add them back in one at a time. Could be a hardware failure in one of the cards that is causing the problem. If that fails try removing memory as well.
 
If *nothing at all* is happening. Check the fuse in the plug, sounds obvious but I've had a power supply fail in this manner before.

If it is blown, and it blows a replacement, don't be tempted to replace it with an over-rated fuse to see what happens. There *may* be a bang, I speak from experience...:cuckoo:
 
Power button is another favourite for totally dead computer as is unfortunately the power supply.
 
Have you checked the monitor on another machine just to make sure that has'nt packed up or maybe the cables from the machine to the monitor sometimes its the simplest things that go wrong
 
the disc drives open and close and the fan IS running. I have opened up the case, but i really have no idea what im looking for, im more of a software person than hardware person. There were no obvious black burnt out parts that would obviously highlight a problem

As to the fuse problem, if the fuse had blown would that not allow the pc to power up at all? because my pc does power up, the cd drive lights flash, the disc drives open and the fans are running so there is power going to it and certain things are working, but no beep, no bios/dos text and no booting up. The monitor does work because i get the menu appear on screen when i turn it on
 
Right if the drives open etc then it sounds like a video problem either the monitor is faulty, the video lead, the connection or the video card.

Start by removing the video card and plugging it back in again. (they can often become mis seated)

Then test the monitor and lead on another computer.

Then try your computer on another monitor.
 
As people have said, PSU most likely.

I'm afraid to say a toasted motherboard can also have these symptoms.

But the first thing to try is disconnect your PC from the mains, hold in the power button for 5 seconds. Despite your computer being detached from the mains you might see the power light flash. Now reconnect to the mains and see if it works, this technique is always worth trying.

Next thing I'd do is replace the PSU, or try to borrow one for testing.
 
KC Leblanc said:
As people have said, PSU most likely.

I'm afraid to say a toasted motherboard can also have these symptoms.

But the first thing to try is disconnect your PC from the mains, hold in the power button for 5 seconds. Despite your computer being detached from the mains you might see the power light flash. Now reconnect to the mains and see if it works, this technique is always worth trying.

Next thing I'd do is replace the PSU, or try to borrow one for testing.
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If the drives open etc then it is not likely to be the PSU now (although there is a very small chance)
 
Yes, if things are happening as you describe then ignore the fuse suggestion.

From what you have said, I would now try removing the video card completely and trying to boot. If the PC POST's and beeps* to indicate a missing video card then it could well be the culprit. Try re-seating it at least and have another go.

*(You need to look up the POST beep codes for your particular Mother Board)

It could still be a PSU related issue, (loss of particular voltage rails etc), which would cause drives to get power and the processor and parts of the motherboard not too. Specifically if the 12V rails are still working (which supply the drives) and the lower voltage rails (which power the processor) are kaput.
 
a long shot i had something like this it was one of two things

as you say its opening the draw the fan running etc but not booting up
it cost me £1.50 to sort i had to replace the motherboards BATTERY that's on the board it looks a bit like a 10p peace

also as stated ^^^ i had this a few times and had to re-seat the graphics card and or remove it and try the onboard graphics to get it to boot the monitor up
when i pick bits and bobs up at car boots graphics cards etc i try them on a test rig and many times i had to re-seat the graphics card and use the onboard graphics connection to get the system to boot when the graphics card was a duffer.
dont think its HDrive or virus prob seems more a graphics prob or driver.try monitor on another system to rule that out
 
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