Posted by whizkidd
My pc was workin normally till yesterday...but now the thing just won't boot! Seems like a power supply error. The lights come on for a second or two then goes off! Any ideas as to why the system would power on and then power off immediately? Surely, if the power supply has gone kaput, it shouldn't power on at all? Or is this some kinda safety mechanism?
Any ideas?
Posted by Johnex
actually, when my power supply died, it booted up and sounded, beeping and lights, then after a while, it totally died. just got a new one and everything was fine
Posted by whizkidd
The difference here is... The system DOES power on everytime... But switches itself off in a few seconds.. The monitor does come on...sometimes shows the windows startup options and then powers off abruptly.. Sometimes the monitor won't switch on at all...
Posted by Johnex
Well yes, that is power supply. Don't panic man, replace it first, then panic if it doesn't work.
Posted by Cycovision
@whiz
Some power supplies do have safety cutouts for surges, sags, overheat, fan not spinning etc. As johnex say's, it's more than likely just the PSU. I'd suggest that you don't keep switching the PC on until you get a new PSU though because if it is faulty, you might damage your motherboard or other components.
Posted by whizkidd
@cyco, some things i have noticed: the system for a while displayed a "CPU voltage error" (don't recall the exact text) just before it gave me an Irq_not_less_or _equal error just before the final BSOD message i received. The system hasn't booted properly since then...so i'm thinking on the lines that the processor is receiving a higher than specified voltage and hence the system shuts down to prevent damage? Is there any such safety mechanism in ACPI?
Posted by Johnex
Get on msn kidd.
Posted by whizkidd
Er..i receive the voltage related error in the BIOS ...not in Windows as it was implied in my previous post..
Posted by shyam335
Try to reset bios and disable cool and quiet if enabled (if u can enter in bios). and aslo look for any swelled capacitors around cpu..
Posted by Cycovision
Yeah, still looking like power supply.
Posted by Johnex
yup
Posted by whizkidd
Hmmm...a friend of mine has suggested cleaning the power supply unit. Its incredibly dusty in there... Will try that. My pc has had a history of throwing up suprises! I'm hopeful the thing would work.. @shyam, whenever the system boots, the first option i see is to load setup defaults.. So did that. The system won't go past the windows options screen. Another thing i noticed, the system stays powered on if the monitor does not switch on..
Posted by EastCoastStar
i agree with the others. power supply issue. i worked on computers at my old job (it wasn't my job, it was computers we put inside trucks)< and a few power supplies went bad and they acted the same way.