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Posted: 3/12/2006 4:52:09 PM EDT
[#1]
make sure there isn't a toggle switch on the back of the PS that got bumped.
the ATX powersupplies are cheap and easy to change out. |
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Posted: 3/12/2006 4:53:16 PM EDT
[#2]
Power supply is very easy to change. Open the case, unscrew a couple screws unplug and replugin new.
Nothing to it. |
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Posted: 3/12/2006 4:55:06 PM EDT
[#3]
If it is not the switch in the back, check the battery on your motherboard before replacing your power supply.
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Posted: 3/12/2006 4:55:17 PM EDT
[#4]
Make sure you ground yourself before working on your computer first.
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Posted: 3/12/2006 4:55:34 PM EDT
[#5]
Good suggestion...........I tried that and still dead. vmax84 |
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Posted: 3/12/2006 4:57:30 PM EDT
[#6]
i thought the battery simply controlled the date? vmax84 |
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Posted: 3/12/2006 5:00:50 PM EDT
[#7]
the battery has nothing to do with it.
try changeing the power supply. make sure you buy it from a place that will take it back, cause if it aint the power supply, your motherboard is toast. |
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Posted: 3/12/2006 5:05:21 PM EDT
[#8]
Was kinda wierd how it quit.................I leave the computer on almost all the time. Was on during the course of the day when I was walking by it. Went outside for a couple hours to work on one of the cars and came back inside. Walked by the computer again and noticed all the lights were out, nobody home. The monitor, printer, etc., were all on, however.
vmax84 |
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Posted: 3/12/2006 5:08:35 PM EDT
[#9]
Bingo! Changing the PS = open the case, remove 4 screws from the back and un-plug 3 to 4 plugs It's ABSURDLY easy, the plugs are molex connectors (big plastic things that only go in 'the right way')... It's moron-proof... |
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Posted: 3/12/2006 5:12:27 PM EDT
[#10]
Power supplies, like anything else, just plain wear out... They wear out faster if the fan starts to go (loud buzzing noise from the back of the PC), due to heat... The cheap mass-produced systems (Dell, eMachines, HP, or anything you buy at an appliance store) are worse than normal... |
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Posted: 3/12/2006 5:12:27 PM EDT
[#11]
This sounds really stupid, but will the new power supply come with the connectors? Also, where to purchase a power supply at? Thanks again. vmax84 |
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Posted: 3/12/2006 5:17:09 PM EDT
[#12]
Power supply or motherboard.
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Posted: 3/12/2006 5:17:45 PM EDT
[#13]
They come fully assembled... You get it at your local computer store - bring your old one in so they can get you the right size & type replacement... For reference, a typical PC power supply:  |
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Posted: 3/12/2006 5:20:04 PM EDT
[#14]
Buy a power supply at any computer place. These will no doubt be overpriced. Or try the original manufacture web site. Or ebay. Or google for it. Comparison shop for price as they will no doubt vary widely.
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Posted: 3/12/2006 5:22:09 PM EDT
[#15]
First, remove the power cable from the supply and swap it out with one going to your monitor or printer. Bad cables are rare but it does happen and only takes a minute to check.
The computer is always powered up in a sense but when its “off” there’s only a trickle of power coming through. The front power switch connects to a couple pins on the motherboard. When those two pins are shorted the computer should power up. Make sure the switch is plugged in. If it is then take a screwdriver and short the two pins together and see if it powers up. (You only need to connect the pins for a half second or so to get it to power up. It will then stay on until something connects the pins again, and it will power down.) If that don’t work, then it could be a power supply. See if you can get a power supply tester from somewhere and plug that up to see. If the power supply is good and you can’t get it to power up then it’s possible some device is shorting out the motherboard. Disconnect everything (cards, drives, etc.) from both the computer and the power supply. Then try to power up with just the motherboard, memory, and processor. If that doesn’t work then it looks like a bad motherboard. But remove the memory and processor, just to make sure it’s not them. If that doesn’t work then it’s probably the motherboard. Oh, sometimes power supplies trip an internal breaker and it takes them a few minutes to reset. So take some time between each operation. |
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Posted: 3/12/2006 5:24:54 PM EDT
[#16]
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Posted: 3/12/2006 5:27:54 PM EDT
[#17]
There is a site on the web that tells you how to test a power supply. Just short, with a paper clip or piece of wire,if I remember corectly, pin 14 the green wire on the main header plug to one of the black ground wires next to it on the connector. This will work on an atx and newer supply. If it turns on it is probably your mobo (motherboard). This web site has the instructions in a .pdf format.
http://www.interlab-net.com/docs/lightworks/support/lw&hw/using_ATX_Power_supply_pinout.pdf#search='testing%20an%20ATX%20power%20supply' |
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Posted: 3/12/2006 5:29:02 PM EDT
[#18]
Or CPU. Or Memory. Or a fried modem. (A power surge through the phone line will turn one into a door stop) Or other expansion card. Or...............................? I have had service calls for dead systems that turned out to be a whole lot of things beside PS and MB. |
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Posted: 3/12/2006 5:31:01 PM EDT
[#19]
Thanks for all the replies and help.
 Gives me a good place to start. vmax84 |
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Posted: 3/12/2006 5:34:32 PM EDT
[#20]
The answer is a cat did it... |
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Posted: 3/12/2006 5:36:05 PM EDT
[#21]
wow someone else other than me has to fix these things everyday 
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Posted: 3/12/2006 6:43:06 PM EDT
[#22]
You could verify PS failure by checking for your D.C. outputs with a multimeter on D.C. scale on the disconnected connector that goes to the motherboard. Look for 3.3VDC, 5vdc and 12vdc outputs. No voltages there, dead power supply.
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Posted: 3/12/2006 6:46:24 PM EDT
[#23]
and a dead battery on a motherboard WILL cause the system not to boot
and yeah that's just ALL sorts of fun tracking down let me tell you |
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Posted: 3/12/2006 6:58:41 PM EDT
[#24]
OK I'm always willing to learn something new. How? |
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Posted: 3/12/2006 6:59:32 PM EDT
[#25]
Depends on the system. I just repaired a Compaq that acted as though it had a bad power supply, nothing would power up. I did a little research and found that on that system, a dead battery would mimic a dead power supply. I replaced the battery and everything powered up. |
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Posted: 3/12/2006 7:02:13 PM EDT
[#26]
But my machine was already up and running...........it just shut off on its own. vmax84 |
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Posted: 3/12/2006 7:04:31 PM EDT
[#27]
I wouldnt put anything past those people |
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Posted: 3/12/2006 7:08:13 PM EDT
[#28]
How true! But I was much happier putting in a battery out of one of my red dots than getting a power supply, putting it in and going "WTF".
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Posted: 3/12/2006 7:13:24 PM EDT
[#29]
I am in no way suggesting that it is not the power supply. All I suggested was that you test the battery before buying a power supply. You have to open the case anyway so what trouble will it be to check the battery with a volt meter. |
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Posted: 3/12/2006 7:16:06 PM EDT
[#30]
Learn sure - here goes Been about 5 or so years but when ACPI was just coming on the scene to desktop/workstation systems a dead battery on the motherboard resulted in a short since the power good(green wire from the power supply)line and the motherboard have to "sense" each other for the motheboard to turn on the system that short on the board would keep the system from booting either replacing the battery with a good one or simply removing the battery from the board will allow such a system to boot normally I'm not sure if this is still the case (I'd assume with an EFI based system it wouldn't but traditional PCs I wouldn't doubt it) but it sure enough is a fact on boards from 5 or so years ago Intel OR840s are VERY notorious for this (execellent motherboard and I wish Intel would release something that would compete for their new chips) Barry |
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Posted: 3/12/2006 7:24:18 PM EDT
[#31]
What I'm questioning is the blanket statement that you made here
100% of the time regardless of the motherboard. |
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Posted: 3/12/2006 7:27:47 PM EDT
[#32]
ok I'll pop a dead battery into the current crop of Dells at the office tuesday and report back I know for a fact that every P3 based system i've run accross will behave this way P4s I'm not sure - batteries haven't started going out on them yet |
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Posted: 3/12/2006 8:22:52 PM EDT
[#33]
I'm an engineer for a MAJOR computer manufacturer.
In situations like this, what we call NO-POST/NO-VIDEO, where the tower does not seem to get any power; it is most likely the power-supply, as the two most likely units to fail are the hard-drives and the power-supply. (This is why servers have redundant HDD's and PS's). Bad PCI cards, RAM, CPU, etc will still allow the unit to power on, but not complete POST (power on self test) or even start it for that matter. American Mega trends set the standard for beep-codes: www.webopedia.com/quick_ref/BIOSBeepCodes.asp Take a machine that is working, yank all the RAM out of it, turn it on... and it will beep. Again, it's just a guess here, but I'm willing to bet a dollar it's just the power-supply... assuming no power surge that could also damage the board/CPU/RAM, etc. Again, it's purely a guess based on experience and a power supply is $30... so it's not that hard to figure out. Just my $.02 here... |
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Posted: 3/12/2006 8:51:23 PM EDT
[#34]
[slight hijack] Are computers supposed to beep on start up? Mine beeps a few times at random when it starts up from the first time I switched it on, but it works OK. Is this normal or is something broken  [slight hijack] |
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Posted: 3/12/2006 8:57:18 PM EDT
[#35]
It depends, part of the POST process could actually sound the beep, to test the on-board speaker.
Most BIOS's have a 'silent/quick boot' option that can abate this. There could also be a warning indicator, such as chassis intrusion alarm, etc... it's hard to tell w/out being there. |
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Posted: 3/13/2006 5:01:42 AM EDT
[#36]
Thanks for the reply Since the beeping was happening from the start and there's nothing wrong with my computer, I'll assume that it is just set up to do so. (probably will be my last post for a while because that beep was my last warning before a computer melt down  )
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