Power, yes. Boot, no. Help!

[tjavery]

I have a 9 mo. old home-built computer that isn't booting up. When I hit the power button: the fans turn on, the on-board MB light comes on, the DVD/CD reader light comes on briefly, and the little activity LED on the front of the box blinks a few times and stops. And that's all I get. No blue screen of death.

Nothing comes up on the screen. The monitor just gives me the yellow "I'm asleep" light. The HD isn't being accessed at all (no clicking), but it does spin. No response to keyboard hits or mouse movement.

I've tried booting up without the HD. Still get the same response - nada. It does not boot up in BIOS.

Funny thing is that this happened to me before a few weeks ago. My machine was up and running and then just suddenly died as if I pulled the power cable out. I tried unsuccessfully to boot up (just as mentioned above), before it finally booted up as if nothing wrong had happened.

I ran scandisk and complete virus scan and no problems/infections were found. The computer ran just fine after that, well, until just now. I've tried two dozen times to boot up just now and nothing is happening.

SPECS:
MB: INTEL G965 775
CPU: INTEL E6400
RAM: 2x 1 GB GSkil
HD: Seagate 250 GB SATA
PSU: Thermaltake TR2-430W
OS: Windows XP SP2

The system is set up to run stock speeds, i.e. no OC'ing.

THANKS!

 

[cozumel]

Does it boot with just cpu/hsf, 1 stick RAM (trying in different slots) and graphics card with everything else including keyboard/mouse disconnected?

 

[tjavery]

I didn't try that, but earlier I did try to boot with the HD disconnected. I still got nothin'.

I just went back to my computer to try what you'd suggested, and thought I'd give it one more try just for fun (it's been over an hour and a half since my last efforts to boot up).

IT BOOTED!!! Nothing seems out of the ordinary now. In fact, I'm posting this message from it.

Now, I guess my question is, now what? Since I've got the thing up and running, what can I do? Are there any system diagnostic tests that I should run?

Thanks!

 

[robisbell]

I'd say the PSU is failing from the sounds of it.

 

[cozumel]

You could try running memtest, and put the PSU through its paces while testing with a multimeter. But you may not find the problem while the rig is working as it may be an intermittent problem. When it happens again you need to be ready to check the CPU, RAM, PSU and mobo with everything disconnected and eliminate each component one by one.

 

[tjavery]

I guess that's better than a bad board or processor Anyway to test the PSU? What should I do the next time this happens?

 

[tjavery]

Originally posted by: cozumel
You could try running memtest, and put the PSU through its paces while testing with a multimeter. But you may not find the problem while the rig is working as it may be an intermittent problem. When it happens again you need to be ready to check the CPU, RAM, PSU and mobo with everything disconnected and eliminate each component one by one.

Thanks! I'll give it a try.