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schmoe

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Bah computer went into an endless loop without ever posting. Looks like I get to buy a new psu. I just finished building my computer desk too.
 
Bah computer went into an endless loop without ever posting. Looks like I get to buy a new psu. I just finished building my computer desk too.

Check Motherboard for faulty Capacitors. They usually have bulging tops, sometimes they are split and leaking electrolytes.


Be careful about opening pages from this site, i got a thing called a trojan

Huh?
 
I gave up on it last night. I am hoping it is an easy fix. It may be time to upgrade the computer. It is going on 5 years old now.
 
I gave up on it last night. I am hoping it is an easy fix. It may be time to upgrade the computer. It is going on 5 years old now.

I hear you, they age so quickly now and prices for new have decreased so much. FWIW, the last three computers I bought (a laptop for the wife, a desktop for the household, and a netbook for my boy to use at college) came from www.newegg.com and we've been satisfied and you can find really good deals.
 
I gave up on it last night. I am hoping it is an easy fix. It may be time to upgrade the computer. It is going on 5 years old now.

I work on them all the time. Depending on the power it had when it was new, 5 years might make it a dinosaur, or still useable for lots of things.

When you say it doesn't post, do you mean it doesn't get past the BIOS screen before it reboots? Or does it start loading Windows?

Powers up but nothing on the screen?
 
I hear you, they age so quickly now and prices for new have decreased so much. FWIW, the last three computers I bought (a laptop for the wife, a desktop for the household, and a netbook for my boy to use at college) came from www.newegg.com and we've been satisfied and you can find really good deals.

I have spent a lot of money on newegg. I have built computers for myself and for family members over the years. I would love to build a new computer but most likely get to just try and fix this one.
 
I work on them all the time. Depending on the power it had when it was new, 5 years might make it a dinosaur, or still useable for lots of things.

When you say it doesn't post, do you mean it doesn't get past the BIOS screen before it reboots? Or does it start loading Windows?

Powers up but nothing on the screen?

Powers up for about 5 seconds, never beeps or makes into into BIOS. Then it loses power, and restarts after a couple seconds.
 
It sounds like either MOBO or PSU. If you had a spare PSU to try that could save some headache.

But it could also be RAM or CPU, since either of those could have partially failed, allowing the board to start a boot sequence, but not get far enough along to generate screen output. Not as likely as a PSU gone bad, though.

Try removing everything that is not needed: HDDs, video card, DVD ROM, etc. If it's very weak, removing some of the load might allow it to boot. If it does (up until it warns about the video card anyway) then you know to replace the PSU.

If it still won't boot at all, then you are back to testing with a replacement.
 
Homercidal said:
It sounds like either MOBO or PSU. If you had a spare PSU to try that could save some headache.

But it could also be RAM or CPU, since either of those could have partially failed, allowing the board to start a boot sequence, but not get far enough along to generate screen output. Not as likely as a PSU gone bad, though.

Try removing everything that is not needed: HDDs, video card, DVD ROM, etc. If it's very weak, removing some of the load might allow it to boot. If it does (up until it warns about the video card anyway) then you know to replace the PSU.

If it still won't boot at all, then you are back to testing with a replacement.

That is my plan. I already unhooked all drives and it didn't help. I have an old computer in the garage but don't remember the number of pins for power. Will have to check on it when I get home.
 
check the heat sink on the cpu.Clean out the fans.Check to make sure the heat sink didnt come loose

sometimes when the fan doesn't work, the unit will not boot (failsafe)...not even get to POST screen...

clean that CPU fan, and also check the button battery on the MB - they do fail and they are cheap to replace...

Let us know about the replacement PSU results..
 
Well I cleaned everything. Unhooked everything but the CPU and re-seated everything. Thing booted up like nothing ever happened. Definitely ran out of air cleaning out the heat sink/fans. Apparently my cleaning habits ended once I moved into the house.

The fans were moving the whole time so I have no idea what was up with it. Oh well it works again. Now I just need to get the desk finished.

desk.jpg
 
So this all started after moving it? I have an old computer that would do the exact same thing every time I moved it any long distances. Never really figured out what exactly caused it, but disconnecting and reseating everything besides the ram, cpu, and heat sinks seemed fixed it every time. I think I had a failing component that didn't like the vibrations of moving it, and it had to be reseated to make it happy again.
When it would happen, I would try things one at a time, and in different orders than the previous times, but it only seemed to work after everything was reseated.
 
I've seen them at work that just won't do anything, and after unplugging and pressing the power button to purge the voltage on the MOBO, they fire right up no problem.

Coincidence: My bosses husband just walked in complaining about his computer. He took it to a place nearby and they wanted $35 to troubleshoot and diagnose. He's done some welding for me, so I offered to look at it for free. Plus he's my bosses husband...

He's loaded Windows again and it's still acting up.
 
Now that I think about it, I didn't purge the voltage to the mobo until after I had already taken everything out. I have no idea what was causing the issue, but it is cleaned out and happily running again.

I have managed to become the computer person for my wife's family. They buy the cheapest computers they can find and then want me to "speed them up by defragging". Some of them are still using AOL.
 
Is it a Dell?

Compaq. With that crap whenever the computer is turned on, the monitor turns on with a bunch of black lines across the screen and doesn't do anything. Hard drive doesn't spin.

I checked every last ribbon cable on the stupid thing and didn't find anything. I hate working on laptops. Everything is tiny and those ribbons are a PITA
 
If it started right after moving maybe its as simple as the heatsync pulled off the CPU... although my moms did the same thing and it was the CPU that went out.
 
schmoe said:
It really is amazing. Someone finds out that you have done something once, and now you are the expert.

I hear ya on this. I graduated itt-tech and now all my friends and people I work with expect me to fix there crap...
 
What's wrong with the laptop?

Compaq. With that crap whenever the computer is turned on, the monitor turns on with a bunch of black lines across the screen and doesn't do anything. Hard drive doesn't spin.

I checked every last ribbon cable on the stupid thing and didn't find anything. I hate working on laptops. Everything is tiny and those ribbons are a PITA

This.
 
Good luck. Those things are a PITA all around.

Sounds like the Video Card might be shot since it won't boot. If it was just a cable, it should still boot even with crappy signal to the display.
 
Good luck. Those things are a PITA all around.

Sounds like the Video Card might be shot since it won't boot. If it was just a cable, it should still boot even with crappy signal to the display.

Yeah that is what I was thinking. Like I said, I already bought her a replacement so I am not too concerned about it. I ripped the entire laptop apart last night, rebuilt it, and only ended up with one extra screw left over and no broken plastic. I was happy until I turned it back on and still wasn't working.
 
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