Computer will power on but not boot

[surger1]

Good Morning Everyone

New to these forums but I signed up because I need your wisdom and guidance.

Woke up this morning went to check the news on my computer. I hit the power button so the first screen where it shows you that energy saving logo thing shows up and then.... nothing it just sat there. So i turned it on and off again and the samething. I tried to enter the bios menu by pressing the buttons it said I could but they didn't respond.

I'm a programmer so naturally I'm completely lost when it comes to hardware issues. I have friends who will be able to help but before I admit to them I have no ideas I was wondering if you guys could point me in the right direction of possible causes and solutions

Thank you
Shane Brandon

[oldandinthe way]

Sounds like to early to be software. I assume your system is not providing any beeps or codes to help. It also might help folks to know what your system is - maker, model etc.

So its hardware troubleshooting time. First guess is it may be your power supply, but really there are lots of choices.

Time to strip down your system, removing those parts which are not essential to boot first. Modems, network cards, dvd writers etc.

One at a time to see if they are causing the failure. Of course if your problem is a weak power supply, your system may boot if there is little enough load.

Use care and make sure the system is dosconnected from power sources while you work on it.

Being a programmer is no excuse for hardware cluelessness. Good programmers understand logic and reason and apply it to problems no matter what the form. Be a good programmer.

[Xylob the Destroyer]

Have you made any hardware changes recently?
New burner, new video card, etc?
Prior poster is on the money with where to start regarding trouble shooting.

[manono]

I had a similar problem about 10 days ago after upgrading. Powered on, fans started spinning, but nothing. No beeps and no picture. I disconnected or pulled out everything but the power supply, the motherboard, and the CPU. Tried again and it started beeping like crazy. Put the RAM in and no beeps again. I traced it to one of the 2 sticks of RAM being bad. Brand new and pretty good RAM, too.

Xylob the Destroyer was right-on in seconding oldandinthe way's advice.

[surger1]

I haven't added any new hardware. Nothing has changed with it as far as I know. It's run like a dream for 2 years one of the better computers I have owned. I don't have the model cause I'm not at home, I'm at work but I wanted to gather some ideas for when I get home and tackle this thing

So if the power supply is wonky it would still be able to turn on, beep and get to the first screen?

[cd090580]

No,
If your psu only supplies 11 V instead of 12, nothing will start. Same for 5V or 3,3V

[akrako1]

check your bios and verify your hard drives have been detected. Non-booting is typically a warning sign of an imminent hard disk failure. Try unplugging your hard drive and see if the boot proceeds any further (and maybe will give you an OS not found message?). Try booting from a disc/cd

[oldandinthe way]

Yes it could. The hard drive starts its motor later than the motherboard begins to execute its rom-based code. The first screen is rom-based code. When the motor starts the world could stop.

Enabling various peripherals by firmware actions can increase the power drain, so that either a failed peripheral device - HDD, network card etc can screw you up if it is bad or the power supply is bad.

Power supplies typically fail by providing no power or by failing under load. Rarely do they just provide 11v rather than 12v.

If I had the opportunity to change only one part is a system failing like yours, without any testing, it would be the power supply. And if it were my system I'd pull a spare supply off the shelf and change it before I did anything else. But you are not likely to have one on your shelf so it is more cost effective to eliminate other possibilities.

I have repaired thousands of PCs over the years. Been right on first guess frequently, but usually have to go through the fault isolation procedures I have suggested.

[bevills1]

First thing I'd check is the memory as suggested by manono. I've seen other threads about that being a boot problem 1 of which the user's system would start with 1 of the 2 sticks of RAM but not both sticks which indicated 1 of the 2 sticks bad in that instance.

[akrako1]

good thought bevills1... Disable 'quick booting' in your bios, and your bios will do the full memory check upon startup.

[oldandinthe way]

The OP can't get to the Bios - see his first post.

[akrako1]

Woops. My bad... Could be a bios issue then... Have you tried resetting the bios? Typically there is a reset switch or jumper or a battery you can remove.

[INFRATOM]

you must get a post beep if speaker is connected, disconnect everything start checking the motherboard, then add RAM and HD connections to be sure. My blind guess is motherboard because if it has power and has to post.

[buttzilla]

Even with bad ram or no ram you should be able to enter the bios. So i think something else is the problem here. Leaky motherboard capacitors? A very comon problem in the last few years. Had one here at work with similar symptoms like yours. You can see the capacitors bulging. they start to split on top we replaced mobo and alls fine. Also had one that power light came on and blinked. Happened after stormwe replaced power supply and it works fine now.

[surger1]

So thanks for your help guys but it turned out to be a case of pull the cord out and plug it back in and for some reason it works....

[buttzilla]

You reset your power supply's circuit breaker by doing that. You might still have a unseen problem. Something had to cause it to trip. Maybe a power surge. If you don't have a surge protector you should get one.

[TBoneit]

We had a mobo with the bulging capacitors that finally stopped booting. We replaced all the bulging ones and what do you know. It is working again.

Got another one of the same make and model, same vintage, same problem. We won't fix it unil we need it.

Just replaced a power supply this morning for a customer one line was supplying low voltage. Most likely some weird storm damage from the bad Storm(s) yesterday. Trees down power lines down etc. 11 O Clock news showed over 60,000 still with no power. NYC area.

We of course remove the AC from the computers here at work when closing. At home I use the AC disconnect on the back of the computer right now when I'm done with it. Note to self: Get a Big UPS and power strip

[oldandinthe way]

Now would be a good time for a full backup of your system, and for checking that you have a bootable restore disk that operates.

[brookecabianca]

I am having the same problem. The other day my computer just froze. Now, when I start the computer, the fans come on and the green LED light also comes on, but it doesn't beep. Nor does it seem like the hard drive whirls. The monitor doesn't even come out of stand-by mode.

Dell Dimension 3100

I've tried unplugging everything and reseating the memory to no avail. Any suggestions?