PC start but no life (No monitor, keyboard, mouse)

[maximusimo]

Hi all,

ok seems like a major problem. Have a computer user (Windows XP) who for the last two days has had her pc freeze and do absolutely nothing and so on cold reboot the monitor nor anything would work until about the 5th or 6th try at turning off and on. Now this morning it froze again and wouldnt restart - the green power light on the box comes on and the cd drive will open and close by pressing the button but nothing else.

I took it away and hooked it up to another monitor, keyboard and mouse and turned it on. It is on but still nothing happens apart from the lights on the keyboard blink when power button is pressed but after that nothing. The hard drive doesnt even seem as if it is being accessed. So i took out the hard drive and tried another one but still nothing, any ideas?

 

[G0AOZ]

Check inside to see that the PSU power plugs are in place on the motherboard. After that, my first step would be to swap out the PSU for a known good one. Make sure it's the same Wattage or higher.

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[maximusimo]

Hi G0AOZ,

thanks but have the computer powered on beside me since your post and has powered up ok although no bios, not even keyboard keys apart from at initial switch on. Now, when the HDD is plugged in there are two lights on the front stay lit:

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j300/maximusimo/lights.jpg

and when the HDD is unplugged just the green power light stays on.

 

[muthabored]

Do the intake & heatsink fans spin? Is the processor properly seated? I'd suggest disconnecting everything from the motherboard that isn't required for the PC to boot up (CD/DVD drive, extra sticks of RAM if there are any but leave at least one, hard drive, floppy drive, PC cards - if there are any -etc.) and see if the PC will at least post. Also, try taking the CMOS battery off of the motherboard and wait for a couple of minutes before re-inserting it. If none of this works then your issue may be with the motherboard

 

[cjelec]

It sounds like a main-board failure.

I take it that you do not hear any beeping when you switch it on?

 

[captaincrunch00]

You can take the processor out as well as all of the RAM and test it again. It should immediately beep, but if you dont hear anything (and you havent so far) it is probably the motherboard.

It really sounds like it already, just a hardware failure.

 

[G0AOZ]

As others have suggested, it could be a motherboard failure. However, just because some devices appear to be running, lit up, etc., it doesn't necessarily follow that the PSU is ok. There are several dc rails provided by the PSU - if just one of them sags or drops out, you may well get symptoms similar to yours...

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[maximusimo]

Had tried another, new, motherboard in it but no power whatsoever so have decided it was faulty and am waiting on another new one to be delivered on Monday. Tried another PSU and no difference

 

[G0AOZ]

... Had tried another, new, motherboard in it but no power whatsoever."

Well, if you've tried a different motherboard with the original PSU and it didn't fly, then that suggests maybe a fault has caused both the original motherboard and the original PSU to expire...

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[maximusimo]

Sorry for the delay, thanks all for your replies, the motherboard was replaced as was the RAM and went fine. Strange both had an effect on the problem.