PC won't power up

[Tali]

Hi all,

I'm hoping there's someone out there who can point me in the right direction to resolve this problem I have with my PC.

About 2 weeks ago I bought a new graphics card for my PC. I opened the case up and replaced the card but was shocked to find that my PC wouldn't power up and there was a deep buzzing/humming sound coming from the speakers. I tried the graphics card in another PC (in case it was the card that was preventing the power up some how) and it worked fine.

I thought that the mother board had given up, so I ordered a replacement mother board and went round my mates house. He connected the PC up to the power just for one last check, and lo-and-behold it powered up!!

I brought the PC home, reconnected everything and have been using the PC fine for the last fortnight.

Usually, I leave my PC switched on 24/7 but today had to shut it down because I had to have some work done on the house electrics. Now it won't power up and the strange buzzing/humming sound has returned. (Though this now appears to have stopped)

I've tried different things, disconnecting/reconnecting the switch to the mother board, leaving it disconnected from the power for a few hours but it still seems to be as dead as a door nail.

What do you guys think? Is this simply a dodgy power switch (the soft switch on the front of the case) or has the mobo given up somewhere along the line, or is it something that I haven't thought of (PSU??)

If it's the switch, any suggestions for a replacement?

Any help is much appreciated.

BTW, the PC is a Medion 808? (can't remember the last digit with an MD8088 motherboard).




Just been having a mooch around, would this work?
Link to Maplins reset switch

If it's not suitable, I guess I'll have to go for this one with an extension lead...
Link to Maplins MoBo test switches

[basa]

Sounds like something might be loose (as in needs reseating, not floating about free !).

Re-seat all power cables (mobo and drives etc) including main mobo power and all front panel wires, re-seat graphics, sound and LAN cards, especially re-seat memory chips, more especially re-seat IDE cables (both ends).

Check everything is soundly pushed home in its socket.

[Tali]

Would something loose stop it powering up completely? No cooling fans or anything?

I've tried the PSU blosk already, but I'll have a go at everything else too.

I've discounted the dodgy switch idea after a trip to Maplins and installing a (temporary) replacement switch.

The next thing I was gonna was to connect up my other PCs PSU to see if that would help.

Thanks for the tips though - all thoughts and advice gratefuly received.

[basa]

Originally Posted by Tali

Would something loose stop it powering up completely? No cooling fans or anything?

I've tried the PSU blosk already, but I'll have a go at everything else too.

I've discounted the dodgy switch idea after a trip to Maplins and installing a (temporary) replacement switch.

The next thing I was gonna was to connect up my other PCs PSU to see if that would help.

Thanks for the tips though - all thoughts and advice gratefuly received.

Probably only a borked psu would behave this way.

BTW what is *blosk* .. does that mean you've replaced your psu ?

Also .. mad idea .. replace the power cable from wall power socket to psu !

[boroboi]

It would help if you post your PC's complete specs if you know them.

Thats usually a PSU issue im afraid. If you have a more modern GPU along lines of an 8800 then an older PSU might be struggling to cope, especially on a cold start.

Also, try each stick of your RAM by itself just to make sure one of your stick havent died.

[Tali]

Thanks again for the tips. I have no idea what a 'blosk' is!!? May be I meant the 34pin ATX connector?

The PSU in it at the moment is 350w, I tried a 300w PSU and got some life but still not quite right. Went back to the 350w PSU and the LED on the switch is now lighting up but everything else is still dead.

However, after much thought, I have decided to go for a new PC. ASUS P5E mobo, 2GB DDR3 RAM, ATI 3850HD DDR4 graphics card. All the stuffs arrived today, so we will be gluing it all together tomorrow. Wish me luck

[Druchii]

Originally Posted by Tali

Thanks again for the tips. I have no idea what a 'blosk' is!!? May be I meant the 34pin ATX connector?

The PSU in it at the moment is 350w, I tried a 300w PSU and got some life but still not quite right. Went back to the 350w PSU and the LED on the switch is now lighting up but everything else is still dead.

However, after much thought, I have decided to go for a new PC. ASUS P5E mobo, 2GB DDR3 RAM, ATI 3850HD DDR4 graphics card. All the stuffs arrived today, so we will be gluing it all together tomorrow. Wish me luck

Hopefully not literally glueing :O

And you meant "block", when you typed blosk, that's obvious

[budwieser]

Originally Posted by Druchii

Hopefully not literally glueing :O

And you meant "block", when you typed blosk, that's obvious

And hopefully, its not a 34 pin.!

[Druchii]

Originally Posted by budwieser

And hopefully, its not a 34 pin.!

Heh, missed that

[trevortt]

What kind of PSU is it? Is it a cheap one that came with a case? Does it have a make? Open the side panel off the case and look at the side of the PSU.

Note, a cheap psu can and will damage your pc...its always bets to get a performance psu..here;s a few..Tagan, Hiper, Coolermaster, OCZ, Corsair, Antec.

Also, if it is a cheap psu and it says it is 350w then it more than likely is not pulling out that and more likely 300w.

Can you also post your full system specs including your new graphics card. Its hard to determine a problem without this information.

[Tali]

Ha! Far too many typoes on my behalf there.

The PC that wouldn't power up has now been consigned to the scrap heap.

Thanks for all the help.

[mimibytes]

May be too late but did you try connecting a different power cord to the psu. I've had similar problem with new pc and turned out the cable was faulty.

[Tali]

Hi

I did think about the power cord, but not until after I'd bought and built my new PC. It's not the cord, as that is now powering the new machine (luckily).