Why Would My Desktop Pc Refuse To Start Up?

Question

My faithful desktop pc finally did it. I left it switched on sunday night and when i came down monday morning it was switched off and refused to boot up.

I checked everything i could but i could not find any problems. I tried switching it back on but the orange light flashed on then off and nothing happened.

I have since borrowed my brothers pc but when i tried to put my hard drives into his tower it refused to boot up off my hard drive. It booted up fine off my his hard drive though.

I have a few questions cos different people tell me different things. What would cause a pc to just fail like that? Is it just the power supply or the motherboard that's packed up? Should i be able to take a hard drive from 1 pc and put it into another and make it work?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Sounds like your power supply. Realize part of what happens during the Boot Process. One of the first things that happens is when you turn the power on the power supply checks itself for to see if it is operating correctly. There is something called a Power Good signal, and that is the power supply's check to see if the electricity is within the proper parameters/boundaries (i.e. is the current good/stable?) If the power supply does not pass that test within milliseconds the supply automatically shuts down to prevent damage to itself and the computer.



The bad thing is that the last time you started the machine it worked fine at startup but then developed problems, some severe. The other thing is that there often is no warning when a power supply will fail, and when it does there is no guarantee that it will shutdown and not ruin anything else. Whatever is connected to the supply (the motherboard, the ram, any drives, any cards like a network or video card, the cpu) could get fried too. It all depends on how far the problems progressed before it shut down.



I hate to say it but it could have ruined most of your machine inside. Hopefully not, but...



The only things you can do is to first have the power supply tested outside the machine, then if it is bad replace the power supply and hope it did not damage anything else. If it still does the same thing then you need to check each component in your machine in another machine. I would use a machine that you don't care about if you have one. It sounds like the power supply failed and took out at least the hard drive, but you have to check each component one by one. If you don't have a spare compatible machine you can either assume the machine is toast or take it to a reputable tech and let them test it. All you will want to tell them is "my computer won't start"... They will know what to look for.

Answer 2

In regards to what can cause it to happen. Could be a virus or some form of spyware infection.



When you go to power it back on, you said you get an orange light & then it goes out. Assuming that is the Power light on the front of the PC tower, it could be 2 things: Power Supply or Mother Board. Which seems that you may already know that.



With the Hard Drive question. You should be able to move one Hard Drive to another PC. Just keep in mind, that when you switch that Hard Drive to another PC, you will be hooking up to another Motherboard. The reason why it may not be Booting off that Hard Drive, is that it is not recognizing the Motherboard it is now hooked up to. I believe if you reformat the Hard Drive (Reinstall Windows, ect...), that should work. I ran in to this before & after I reformatted the Hard Drive, it worked.

Answer 3

Lots of answers on this one, most are wild guesses at best.

To clarify a few things 1st. Putting your HD in your brothers PC will not boot your drives unless the mainboard is the same. Trying to load the wrong chipset drivers will just result in the dreaded BSOD. Putting the drive as slave and boot from his drives will allow you to check the drive using chkdsk. Just right click your drive (or partions) select properties and in the Tools tab there is an option for Error Checking, this runs check-disk.

You have a lighted switch at the back of the PSU, if this flashes and goes off then the thermal cut-out is shutting down the power, probably because the fuse is broken. I would suggest you just buy a new one. If you want to test the board, CPU and memory then use your brothers PSU in your machine assuming it has the right connections before buying a new PSU.

Answer 4

First thought was - IT DIED!!! But to get serious, sometimes if I forget to turn it off at night, it goes to sleep and won't wake up!! So much for Rip Van Winkle!!! Another problem could be, check your weather for that night, did you have a power sailure? If so, your puter could have got zapped! It happened to my daughter's sister-in-law, and the damn thing blew up! As far as taking a hard drive out and putting it into another one, yes you can, if you know what your are doing! Novices, please don't try this on your own! Listen to Cesar Milan! Woof! BUT! if your hard drive is bad, it doesn't matter whose puter you put it in, it won;t work! If you have a router, that could be bad. Check the cords to make sure they are making connection - experience!! Duh! Find somebody who really knows puters before going and buying a new one. My daughter teaches this stuff, she can wipe everything out, and start all over again, and it will work. Also check for viruses, - but like I have said, let an expert check the puter out. There is actually very little inside the PC which can not be replaced, but you have to know which component is bad! Good luck!

Answer 5

Your power supply needs to be replaced, buy a new one which wont cost more that £10. DON'T try to bring it to a technician because power supply is a dangerous thing to repair and its safer and cheaper and less time consuming, JUST replace it.

Nothing to do with your motherboard at ALL, your pc is not getting any or enough power to start up the BIOS, so 100% its the power supply.

Of course you can take out your harddrive and put it in to another pc, just make sure what is the MASTER (main) hdd and the SLAVE (yours) one.

Every PC technician will tell you the same thing what I've written here.



Good luck

Answer 6

it's a hardware problem and most likely your mother board is fried. Sounds like your computer is dying of old age, it happens they don't last for ever. You seem to want to recover the data from the hard drive and Yes you can install it on another computer ....as a matter of fact I had to do the same thing myself about a year ago.

Answer 7

it is because of the virus in the system do a check with the norton antivirus with the latest updations. if this is not working try to remove the cover off ie side panel off and make sure that the processor fan is running and the smps fan which is located at the back of the CPU ie ur desktop is running check the cables and plugs properly inside and outside the system

Answer 8

sounds like it was a short out, if so, most likely it could be ur motherboard thats fried, but if it is from a power surge, it should b under warranty so don't fret. the other thing is that the power supply could have taken the hit, so it could just be that shorted out, easy $100 fix.

Answer 9

what you have done in using your HDD in your brothers pc is a good thing because somehow you have detected the problem.....



sometimes we can't really avoid our hard disk drive from crashing,,,it is either there's a problem on your other hardwares or maybe it is really your hard disk drive that crashes....



one of the problem of hard disk drives that can't really be fixed is what they call head-crash,,,,there is no way that you can fix it,,,,rather buy a brand new one and be sure to have the original for your own sake.......



sorry for that....

Answer 10

try this process to isolate the problem:



1. remove video card and try to power on..

2. remove the memory and try to power on..



if you hear a beep.. the board is stll working.. or else, maybe the power supply has problem..

Answer 11

if you know nothing about computers give up. find someone that does. if you mess with it, you will only make it worse. your brothers computer will not see your harddrive if it has a different chipset.

Answer 12

Might be corrupt Bios.



You will need an expert.

Answer 13

sounds to me like your computer is a female one.lol