Booting prob is it motherboard ?

I have had this computer running fine for awhile now and suddenly it will not start. When i plug the power cord in a red light will come on the motherboard but i cannot get it to fire up. I have unplugged everything step by step to see what it is but nothing changed. I cant tell if its the psu or the motherboard. Also my psu doesnt seem to have any switches of anykind on it just a plug in.

The PC specs are in the sig.

i've personally never heard of the psu but i would unplug it from the motherboard and jump the green and any black wire to see if the psu itself will even turn on. check the 12v and 5v and 3v voltages and if they are above what they say then the psu should be fine. try powering another computer and/or try another psu for the motherboard.

is the light on the motherboard normally red?

Yes I was thinking of jumping the psu by tricking it with the wires but I just dont know how to do it when the psu does not have its own on and off switch in the back??? I could just buy a new psu and mobo but I would like to avoid spending for both if possible.

How would I get the psu to come on when it does not have its own switch?

A Fortron is a solid old name is PSU's, but they die just like everything else. It is possible you had a power surge, but it's more likely that something gave out. As Spawn-Inc noted above, your bets move is to swap it out and try the PSU on another board or a different PSU on your mobo. My guess, and it's only a guess, is it's the PSU. They are more prone to failure than mobos.

Good luck with it!

R7

Added note: I guess we were both typing at the same time. I don't mess with anything electrical outside of a light switch, so I can't help you with the PSU. If you don't have a friend with a PSU, go buy one. If it does the trick keep it. If it doesn't, then take it back for a refund. It beats getting fried!

if you have a free power bar somewhere plug the psu into that and use the power bar switch as the psu switch.

if not then simply jump the wire before hand and then plug it into the wall.

rseven said:

Added note: I guess we were both typing at the same time. I don't mess with anything electrical outside of a light switch, so I can't help you with the PSU. If you don't have a friend with a PSU, go buy one. If it does the trick keep it. If it doesn't, then take it back for a refund. It beats getting fried!

Click to expand...

bah... i play with 240v (at the house panel) all the time even mess with 600v 3 phase sometimes if i'm lucky. (install AC's and what not)

One thing many folks overlook is the power switch. I have fixed about a dozen over the last few years that the button just wears out. To check, plug the reset switch on the pinouts for the power switch and try it using reset button.

The PSU can be turned on by connecting motherboard pins 3 & 4 (black & green). I use a paper clip, metal core of a twist-tie, small piece of copper wire - just whatever happens to be handy - to connect them by pushing the ends of the "wire" into the socket side of the plug (you don't want anything but fans connected to the PSU when you test it).

shadowdr said:

One thing many folks overlook is the power switch. I have fixed about a dozen over the last few years that the button just wears out. To check, plug the reset switch on the pinouts for the power switch and try it using reset button.

Click to expand...

+1

The case power switch does wear out on normal machines.
I've never had one fail but the unofficial motto of OC*SETI is No Off Switch! ...

Ok I used the paper clip method on the Psu with only fans plugged in and used the surge protector switch as its on button like metioned above. The fans fired right on up, the Psu seems to work just fine, also i tried the switching of the reset button with the power button that did not work.

Seems my motherboard is actually the one that bit the dust.

Hah so I bought a motherboard to fix the computer and discovered it was the PSU. So now I have this extra motherboard laying around.. I also have a single core athlon 939 too, maybe ill have to make another computer now.

Looks as if you were meant to have another rig. It's always good to have a spare.
Cheers!

R7