Desktop won't power on...

[Cooked Rice]

So I go to turn on my desktop computer today, and it fails to power up. I checked the power supply and such and found out it was not the PSU. The light on the motherboard lights up when i press the power button, but nothing happens. I turn off the power supply, turn it back on. Hit the "on" button and the lights on the tower blink for a second, the CPU fan does a 1/4 of a turn, and the motherboard light comes back on and stays lit until i turn off the PSU again.... I removed all the components including the ram, and just had the motherboard, CPU, and CPU fan hooked up and tried turning it on again. Still... nothing. It's my motherboard i'm guessing? or do i need the RAM in when I test it as well?

It's a older computer I put together myself. AMD Athlon 2400XP CPU, Gigabyte mobo. If I can save it by just getting a new Socket A mobo off ebay for $25 that'd be nice cause the computer never gave my any problems till now.

Gutted of the PSU, memory, videocard, hard drives:




picked up a HD enclosure for my IDE hard drives right after for $35 at memory express so I could still get to my data:

[Thaco]

try blowing out the CPU fan, if that doesn't work, try changing the Heatsink and fan, every time I've experienced this it's because the motherboard doesn't sense the cpu fan spinning up fast enough and shuts it off to prevent damage to the cpu.


also, try clearing the cmos (pull the battery for a couple minutes)

[Cooked Rice]

i'll give that a try thanks

[Xtrema]

Make sure you buy a PSU test and test your PS before trying a new board. It could be the PSU and you don't wanna fry a new board.

[adam c]

yes u need the ram to start ur comp or else it will just beep at u

[Thaco]

Originally posted by adam c
yes u need the ram to start ur comp or else it will just beep at u

yeah, but right now he's not even getting that far, so that's irrelevant.

[Sasuke_Kensai]

FYI, I've had a computer with a mobo that had a light that would always be on even when the computer was off. When I was testing said computer, that light was on (seemed like it had power) but the computer would not power on.

I then tried my current power supply and it powered up fine. So it's possible the power supply is supplying some power but not enough?

[Thaco]

Originally posted by Sasuke_Kensai
FYI, I've had a computer with a mobo that had a light that would always be on even when the computer was off. When I was testing said computer, that light was on (seemed like it had power) but the computer would not power on.

I then tried my current power supply and it powered up fine. So it's possible the power supply is supplying some power but not enough?

that light is zero indication that the PSU is good.

[Boat]

try holding the on button for a bit longer.. that works for me lol

[arian_ma]

Maybe the wire that connects the button to your motherboard (IE tells your motherboard when you have pushed the button) has come loose. That happened to me once and my comp would not start at all.

[Mazstyle]

It's your power supply.

The EXACT same thing happened to me, with a very similar gigabyte mobo. If you pull your PSU voltages you will see their off by several volts.

EDIT: I have a spare PSU kicking around if you need it.

[hampstor]

have you checked your power switch? Disconnect the powerswitch from the motherboard and use a screwdriver or other metal object to connect the 2 pins for the power switch - if it turns on then you simply have a bad ATX switch.

I noticed you have what looks like a Vantec Aerocool cpu fan - have you moved your computer around lately? Those coolers didn't always have the best fitment on the cpu. I have seen in situations where when a system was moved around, the heatsink shifted and cracked the core on those Socket A cpus.

Has anyone been tampering with it? Make sure the power supply is set to 120v and not 220/240...

Does the system beep at you at all?

[Dj_Stylz]

I think its your power supply aswell. Pull it out and take it to Memory Express they will test it for you for free.

[Cooked Rice]

Thanks for all the replies. I'll bring the PSU to ME tomorrow and let them check it. I'll also see if I can try and find another CPU fan i could try, because the CPU fan I have is wierd one where the fan is driven with magnets from the outer corners rather than a DC motor in the middle

Originally posted by hampstor

I noticed you have what looks like a Vantec Aerocool cpu fan - have you moved your computer around lately? Those coolers didn't always have the best fitment on the cpu. I have seen in situations where when a system was moved around, the heatsink shifted and cracked the core on those Socket A cpus.

I tried this right after I saw your reply, because I DID in fact have issues with the heatsink fitting properly. I had to trim a corner off because it wouldn't clear a capacitator on the mobo. The CPU looks fine, I cleaned the die off with alcohol and there was not physical damage or anything.

[Cooked Rice]

Turns out the power supply wasn't supplying the 3V circuit. Got a PSU, and the PC is running again Thanks guys!