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computer wont start at all

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drewthomas14

Member
Joined
Aug 21, 2002
Location
Fort Wayne, IN
i came home for labor day weekend from college and was surfing the web on my computer last night. it shut off and the power kept flicker. it sounded like it was trying to start then it'd cut out and just keep repeating. the motherboard lights were flashing. it was late so i just unplugged the computer and went to bed.

this morning i plugged it back in and it just kept cycling like that. power cutting on and off and mobo lights flashing. i thought it might be the power button so i unplugged that and looked at the connection. everything appeared to be fine. i proceeded to reset the bios and the power stopped cycling and it almost started. i tried unplugging the power button sw from the mobo and jumping it, but it just gets power for about 2seconds(fans spin around maybe once) and wont do that again until i unplugg the power supply and plug it back it. then it will do it once, etc.

i have no idea what is going on. the led on the mother board is now solid red, no more flashing red and green, so that's normal. also the LAN port is flashing so that's getting power. but it just doesn't start up.
 
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So the computer unexpectedly shut off while you were using it? Sounds like the motherboard may have been damaged from a power surge. Do you have another system or another motherboard you could test the parts with?
 
well it was like 3am so it's kind of blurry, but im pretty sure that the power just cut out and it kept flickering. the leds were flashing the power was just cutting in and out, so i just unplugged it.

i do not currently have another system to test parts. i thought for sure it was the power button acting up or the reset button stuck or something, i ended up spending two hours just fiddling with the power button because the wires got ripped out when i knocked the front panel down off the desk. all i really had to do to test it was switch the reset switch or short the pins ,which i didnt think of until after, so now i have a really ghetto wired power button and still have a dead computer, and 2hrs wasted.

the hard drive wouldn't have anything to do with it would it? im pretty sure it's been on the out for a while now. i've been out of the computer game for a long time but im guess it's the power supply or the motherboard.
 
Even if the hard drive was dead, the computer would still boot and give you a display and go to the BIOS screen and everything, and if it was the power supply you probably wouldn't be getting any response from the motherboard at all (no lights or anything), which leads me to believe that it's the motherboard.
 
it was the psu. i took my computer to a friends house and plugged his cheap noname psu into my mobo and it powered right up. and my drewfab power button actually works, i cant believe it does since the pins came off.

the thing that sucks is, my psu is a 550w sparkle server psu, so it's decently expensive. i can't remember how much it cost as it's been years since i've botten anything computer related, but i remember i had to buy a 24->20pin converter for the main cable. im trying to find a way to test if the converter is the real problem but i dont have a 24pin mobo to test it on. i know you can plug it in and have the extra 4 pins just over lap but on mine and my friends mobo there are capacitors in the way so that is not an option.
 
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