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MAJOR Computer Problems

bolly

bolly

Lunatic Member
Banned
Just gott a call from the wife while I'm at work, computer won't turn on, flashing green light. Tried to restart the computer, no change. Had her unplug it from the outlet, the light still flashed green and continued to flash green when she plugged it back in. Light still flashing green, won't turn on... :tears:
 
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ok, she was unplugging the wrong cord... anyways, she unplugged the correct one, computer light went out, plugged it back in, light came on, then nothing. Tried restarting the computer, it wouldn't shut down. :sigh:
 
Uhh, Greg, me olde son, sure looks like you're gonna be in the market for a new computer right shortly...
 
The power switch on the new computers aren't like a wall switch (on/off) - the switch
sends a signal to a relay to turn the system on/off.

Sometimes the relay can get "confused"... try holding the power button in for five seconds
then release and try powering on as normal.

Scott
 
best thing we do at work is open up the box and unplug the hard drive, take all the cards out except the video card if it's on a separate card. remove the memory. turn the computer on and you should have some basic bios settings come up on the monitor. if this happens you put the memory in and restart the computer. repeat this with the hard drive, cd-rom drive, etc. each one at a time. if something is bad then you will notice what is causing the problem. maybe you will need to re-install the operating system if it doesn't come up after plugging the hard drive back in.
 
Could be one of a number of things. Start with the easiest first. Sometimes the BIOS system that starts up your operating system will not continue if it can't detect a proper monitor signal. If you have a detatchable monitor cable and you have a spare - or better yet, a whole spare monitor - you should swap them out and retry it. Sometimes even bending, turning and wiggling both ends of the monitor cable will get it to work temporarily. Then at least you know it's the cable and you can buy a new one.

The next thing to try would be to take the cover off, and pull all I/O cards except the monitor card. MAKE SURE YOU ARE TOUCHING A GROUND PLANE WHILE TOUCHING ANY ELECTRONICS IN YOUR COMPUTER, or any static could fry whatever chip you may be touching. Or, use some sort of anti-static device if you have one, such as a matt or grounded wrist strap.

If it starts up consistantly with all the cards out, start putting cards back in one at a time until you find the one that messes it up. But if it's still screwed up, pull and re-seat the monitor card then retry it. Failing all of this, you may want to see a tech. Alternatively, you could swap the monitor card out with a new one at a relatively low expense and see if that works. If not, you may have a bad drive. Which of course would really suck because you just lost all locally stored data. You can swap it out with a new one and see if that works, then just re-install the O.S. or just take it in to a repair guy. If it's not the drive at this point, you will want to take it in anyhow. It could be the I/O service bus, the monitor card

You can also try letting it set for a few hours, or even overnight, and re-starting it. If it consistantly only works that way, you have a heat-related issue. But of course that takes a long time, where a good computer tech can apply heat and cold to troubleshoot it a lot quicker.

All of this will probably make you say "screw that! I'm taking the d*&^ thing in right now!" Which may not be a bad idea anyhow.

- jw
 
I missed your second post. Yes, the part about holding the power button in for 5 seconds is important as well. Most current machines will NOT shut off unless you hold the power button down a few seconds. THEN unplug it for a couple minutes. Even with the power off, the I/O system still has power applied and won't reset itself until the whole machine is unplugged. That's the first thing I'd try, even before messing with the monitor cable.

I also missed slow_jazz's response. Yeah, unplugging the HD and removing the memory are good steps to take as well.
 
thanks guys, for the info!! :)

She left it unplugged for a couple hours, I get home plug it in and she fires right up!! :banana:

A guy at work seems to think it could be a powersupply problem, fingers X'ed!!
 
Yes, add power supply to the list. I've been told that a lot of the cheaper supplies out there are quite marginal, and it doesn't take too long before they start to occasionally dip below the minimum required output.

If you continue to have intermittant problems, I suggest you take it into a shop. It's still possible to resolve yourself but the source could still be anything, and with the right diagnostic tools a tech can find it much, much sooner than the elimination method you would have to use. And, they wouldn't have to pick up a lot of extra parts just to try things: They'll have extra supplies, monitors, cables, cards, etc. all right there in the shop.
 
bolly said:
thanks guys, for the info!! :)

She left it unplugged for a couple hours, I get home plug it in and she fires right up!! :banana:

A guy at work seems to think it could be a powersupply problem, fingers X'ed!!
Click to expand...

That would be my guess too. I had it happen on an HP PC. Wasn't an expensive fix. Depends on how old the box is and if the power supply is still available. Good luck. :thmbsp:
 
one of the items you may want to go back and check is the memory sticks. If the socket is dirty, this will and can cause this problem. I have an MSI mother board that will do this from time to time. I pull off the cover, rock the memory, plug it back in and all is well. You can use a pencil eraser to clean the memory with no ill effects. Hope this is of some assistance. Oh, Gigabyte mother boards are far superior to MSI.
 
If its a laptop, take the battery out and unplug it for several minutes or more. I have seen that work on laptops many times.
 
Check your fans for dust build-up, especially the one on the processor. The heatsink & fan on the processor normally attract dust & lint, & you can easily clean them with a small brush, or compressed air. :smoke:
 
Sounds like a power supply problem to me too. Dells are notorios for that same symptom, except the LED blinks orange. I've been lucky a few times by leaving it unplugged for awhile. Sometime press and hold the power button for about 10-15 seconds while it's unplugged. I was told this re-enumerated the caps in the p/s, ie bleeds them out. Either way, it's usually a short term fix. I dread going into work on monday when I know they're shutting down power over the weekend. Thery're fine when they're on, just don't like the on/off cycles. :scratch2:
 
If it is an older PC, open it up and check to see if all the fans are moving at a good speed. Also listen for fan noise. If you hear a grinding noise, the fan bearings are starting to go. On exposed fans, stop the fan and see if the grinding noise goes away. If yes, the fan needs to go. For PS fans, simple stick a cable tie in the fan to stop it. Older fans tend to slowly seize up and lose their cooling efficiency. My last job had me changing PS and CPU fans almost daily on the older PCs.

Quick fix is to remove the fan and lube it with WD40, but that is a stop gap fix. Better to replace the fans once they start slowing down.
 
As a computer techie, I figure I'm allowed to now speak.

Advice:

1. Don't have the computer techie eat you alive. As a rule of thumb, it often costs more to fix a computer than to buy a new one and move over your hard drive.

2. Before anything else, check to see if your monitor gets a signal when the PC is turned on; i.e, the "no signal found" message goes away. If not, that's a bad sign.

3. If the computer makes beeping noises, record them. PCs use a morse-like set of error message codes.

4. If nothing happens other than a single beep, try switching out the power supply. PSUs can be had for $10 online, or just use a spare if you have one. (I usually have three on hand.)

5. If a new PSU does nothing, odds are your motherboard is croaked. Today, motherboards usually have built-in video, audio, and IDE controllers; much like an integrated amplifier, if the pre-amp goes on one channel, the whole thing is useless. I can sell you a new motherboard and CPU at a very reasonable price, or if you'd rather not deal with the mess, you can move your old hard drive to a new computer - odds are, it will be able to read it, and even if you are using a filesystem that does not allow you to do so, there are assorted free tools that will let you get around it .

Contact me at my E-mail if you'd like - I have oodles of parts I need to sell or trade away, and seeing as how I've broken my leg, I'm not going anywhere fast.
 
thanks for the help fellas, currently I'm getting a newly rebuilt, faster comp Tech is gonna try and save as much as he can, but, he says he can't save my Outlook Mail, or saved IE links. :sigh:

for a couple hundred I'll be back to square one. :tears:
 
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