Computer will not boot up...

[shoozleboy]

Ok, I have a buddys computer sitting on my workbench that has a wierd problem. Since it's been years since I have had to troubleshoot any computer problems this bad, my brain is fried and I need some advice.

Here goes:

It's a P4 2.4ghz Dell with 512ram and a 40gb HD, DVD Burner, and DVD player. Nothing fancy on the motherboard - just the built in sound, ethernet, and USB stuff... He does use a 32mb video card - nothing fancy, I forget the name of it at the moment.

Anyhow - when you power it up, the power indicators go on for the case, hard drive, and dvd drives and you can hear the fans churning up as well. After about 2 seconds of this, everything shuts down and the power light on the case goes from green to amber. Anything you do to restart does not allow the computer to even attempt to boot up. You have to unplug the power cord for a few minutes and reconnect just to get the same sequence of events to happen again. I have been able to get into the BIOS settings on occasions (1 in every 10 tries), but when I exit the BIOS and it attempts a boot up of the OS (Windows XP Home), it gets about 2 seconds in to it and WHAM! Amber light again.

Buddy called Dell, the unit is out of warranty (only 2 years old) and they told him (after 3 hours of being on the phone with tech support) that the motherboard is bad. It's a microATX board. We find a decent Asus board on Newegg.com and I do the transplant for him.

It boots up into the BIOS for me just fine and the settings looked ok. When it tried to boot into windows, it got as far as the logo screen and then WHAMO! Back to the amber light again. Now, it's the same thing as I described above - a few seconds of green lights, then shuts down to the amber power indicator.

I unhooked the HD and DVD drives to see if one of them may have been faulty, and I can get into the BIOS on occasion, as before. But unhooking them made no difference in the boot attempt - so I have ruled them out as a culprit.... The only add in cards he has are the 32mb video (which I'm assuming works since I can see the BIOS on the screen when it allows it to boot that far) and a 56k internal modem (which he no longer uses as he just got DSL about a month ago.)

I am beyond my wits end with this box and if he wasn't such a good friend, I would have given it back to him days ago....

Has anyone had any similar experience and if so, what am I looking for? I don't want him to keep shelling out money for different parts until we find the cause... it's like throwing good money after bad..

Oh, and I don't know if the newer boards still have this, but I get no beeps from the board like you used to get years ago that would tell you there was an error during boot up... you know, like so many beeps meant that the video was bad or the memory was bad... I hear nothing from the board.

Thanks in advance for any help - sorry for the long post...

[BJ_M]

1. i would have changed the power supply first

2. sounds like bad memory or cpu -- if it is shorted out , it is possable to damage the new MB (though rare) .

[tekkieman]

The old Dell should have had three diagnostic LEDs in the back that might have helped. The new motherboard should have either internal speaker jumper or external connector for a speaker to give you the BIOS beeps. A lot of cases don't have the speakers anymore, so you might need to find one to hook up for this test. If you're still using the Dell case, I'd believe power supply first, as almost all Dell power supplies are underrated.

[shoozleboy]

Thanks BJM.... I was thinking the PS was a problem - he's running 3 drives, a MB, and a modem and video cards from a 230 watt PS... it's the original unit that Dell put in it when he bought it 2 years ago.

I remember when I upgraded my video card last year, I took out my 230 watt supply and put in a nice 400watt supply - I was already running 2 hard drives and 2 dvd drives on my system and the video card's instruction manual called for a minimum 300 watt.

I told him last week that it may be a PS or memory or worse case, a CPU replacement... He mentioned to me that he had this problem before with this system about a year ago, but it fixed itself... (obviously it didn't fix itself, the problem just took a vacation and has now returned.)

[shoozleboy]

The old Dell should have had three diagnostic LEDs in the back that might have helped. The new motherboard should have either internal speaker jumper or external connector for a speaker to give you the BIOS beeps. A lot of cases don't have the speakers anymore, so you might need to find one to hook up for this test. If you're still using the Dell case, I'd believe power supply first, as almost all Dell power supplies are underrated.

Thanks... that's two votes for the PS.... looks like I need to start searching online for a new PS to start off with.

The old board had no leds that were lit..... I noticed that before I did the transplant.... I'll have to check on the speaker connectors on the new MB - I do have some old cases here that I can grab a speaker out of - thanks for the advice.

[bazooka]

I had a situation like that once and the cpu was ruined.

[BobV]

Try getting together with Tyers "Computer shut down...."

[tekkieman]

Try getting together with Tyers "Computer shut down...."

It took a second, but once I got it....

[shoozleboy]

I had a situation like that once and the cpu was ruined.

Yes, but he had these same symptoms over a year ago and the problem went 'away'..... now, it just won't 'go away'....

Would a CPU cause a non-boot, then suddenly start working again, only to begin causing the same problems months later?

[bazooka]

I had a situation like that once and the cpu was ruined.

Yes, but he had these same symptoms over a year ago and the problem went 'away'..... now, it just won't 'go away'....

Would a CPU cause a non-boot, then suddenly start working again, only to begin causing the same problems months later?

I don't know about it suddenly working again, but I just thought I would throw the cpu possibility out there.

It sounds more like the power supply.

[shoozleboy]

Thanks Zook, I appreciate the feedback.... I'm trying to find another bud of mine to see if he has an extra PS that I could use to try on this system... I only have the one in my own PC and being that it is a custom size (thanks Gateway! ), it won't mount in his and the cables won't reach when sitting it outside the case...

[BJ_M]

is it one of those micro atx power supplies ? smaller than a normal atx supply -- (ntx i think called?)

a lot of those had problems -- often with the fan (and being underpowered)

[shoozleboy]

I don't know - I'll have to look at it more closely to see if it is...

[aanaravs]

I was experiencing the same problem with my Inspiron XPS laptop. I called Dell and after about 2.5 hours on the phone, we figured out that it was the memory that was causing the problem. If you still have the Dell restore discs that came with the computer, there is a diagnostic tool that can help you locate the problem.

[smearbrick1]

Power supply gets my vote also. If there were no memory errors on boot and no blue screens as windows windows was starting indicating memory address issues, then I would rule out memory all together.

[shoozleboy]

I was experiencing the same problem with my Inspiron XPS laptop. I called Dell and after about 2.5 hours on the phone, we figured out that it was the memory that was causing the problem. If you still have the Dell restore discs that came with the computer, there is a diagnostic tool that can help you locate the problem.

The diagnostic tools would be great - now if I can only get the pc to boot up to use them....

Thanks for the info, though...

[shoozleboy]

Well, I used another PS to get the thing to boot and now I get the dreaded ambulance siren sound..... If I remember correctly, this is a processor failure? The memory works in another system, so I assume that's not the problem. He told me the Dell rep had him remove the processor when he initially called them..... but he didn't think of the fact that he was standing in his socks on a carpeted floor when he removed it... That would explain the dead processor.... :P

My bud has decided and has already ordered a barebones system that should be here by friday. I'll take the drives from his old one and transplant them.

Looks like I'll have some spare parts out of this one.... couple of boards, memory, video card, and a microATX case...