What killed this computer? (1 Viewer)

Keith Dickinson

Well-known member

Opus Editor

• May 28, 2009

• #1

My son's machine switched itself off this afternoon whilst he was playing one of his games. It now refuses to switch back on, there is power getting to it as the blue light around the on/off switch lights up, but there is nothing happening otherwise. No fans spinning, no hard drive noise, nothing.
Has anybody got an ideas about what may be the matter?
It's running XP Pro, 2.3Ghz Dual Core processor, 1Gb of RAM, a moderately high spec Geforce graphics card and is less than 6 months old, the machines specifications would seem to be ample for the game he was playing, Call of Duty 4.

 

IanF

Moderator

• May 28, 2009

• #2

Sounds a bit like a problem I had a year or so ago. The power supply had developed a fault. Having it replaced cured the problem.

 

Keith Dickinson

Well-known member

Opus Editor

• May 28, 2009

• #3

Thanks Ian, that offers a bit of hope that it isn't the whole machine that has turned up it's toes.

 

Kentbloke

Ah, yes, well

• May 28, 2009

• #4

Sounds like a power supply (PSU) failure Keith, however...

My 6 month old pc died in a similar way on Sunday. After consulting with the suppliers (had to wait till Tuesday) they concluded it was the PSU had died. A new one arrived yesterday (thumbs up for PC Specialists Ltd) and I fitted it but with no difference, alas. So they picked it up this morning (more thumbs up!) as they think it a faulty mother board? Mine's still under warranty luckily

 

Jane Turner

Well-known member

• May 28, 2009

• #5

I had a PC that used to do that - its was a static problem. The trick was to hold the on button in for 20 seconds with everything unplugged. Mind it was 8 years ago

 

H

h14nha

Well-known member

• May 28, 2009

• #6

Jane Turner said:

I had a PC that used to do that - its was a static problem. The trick was to hold the on button in for 20 seconds with everything unplugged. Mind it was 8 years ago

Click to expand...

Thats wot i do when my laptop freezes, I hold the on/off button in for 10 seconds and it switches off, then I can re-start it normally.
Good luck
Ian

 

H

Howard_Hopkinso

Malware Removal

• May 28, 2009

• #7

Unplug the power cord and the 20/24 pin connection form the motherboard. Unplug all power connectors, except for one to your hard drive or cd drive. Use a piece of wire (with something insulating you from it of course), a paper clip is ideal for this and short the green wire to any black wire on the main 20/24 pin connector(see the pic below), then plug the power cord back in. The psu should come on and it's fan should spin up, if not, it's a bad or damaged PSU.

If the psu fires up in the above test, then there's a possibility your motherboard has failed.

 

Vectis Birder

Itchy feet

• May 29, 2009

• #8

Keith Dickinson said:

My son's machine switched itself off this afternoon whilst he was playing one of his games. It now refuses to switch back on, there is power getting to it as the blue light around the on/off switch lights up, but there is nothing happening otherwise. No fans spinning, no hard drive noise, nothing.

Click to expand...

I had the same problem with my laptop before I left home in April. The AC adaptor had developed a loose connection and the battery got so depleted that the computer's lights would come on but nobody was at home.