Posted by whizkidd
My computer has stopped working all of a sudden. The monitor won't light up..the cd drive won't open..i have checked the ram modules and cleaned them up. There's no sound from the cpu..
Help!
Posted by Cycovision
Dead power supply unit? Are there any sounds or lights at all when you switch on?
Posted by whizkidd
The lights do turn on... Even my usb card reader lights up..but the monitor is unresponsive..
Posted by sailaab
I was about to ask but Cyco beat me to those.. was there a power surge / outage or such in Palghar ? Or you have a UPS.. man!! No sound as in NO sound? Not even POST?
Posted by whizkidd
Yupp..me got no ups...and yes, there was a powers outage here last night..should i expect the worst? All my data gone?
Posted by sailaab
Dont rush to conclusions yaar.. First be relaxd.. Next, if yourself good at R&D do it or wait till morning.. Mostly HDDs just dont go Kaput! like that.. Maybe its just the Monitor cable or display drivers.. If you indeed can.. Try if u have, a spare HDD (IF u dun wanna risk main data disk).. So cant u even hear the BIOS beeps or the brief flash of LEDs on keyboard (it indicates Power On Self Test, whether POST is happening rite)
Posted by Cycovision
Well, assuming it's not your monitor (I have to get the simple things out of the way first!)...
Next step is to remove any additional cards if possible such as graphics card and / or soundcard (if your computer also has onboard graphics and sound), modem etc. Also unplug any USB, parallel or serial devices. If it still doesn't power up, then it's looking like the motherboard and / or CPU has given up
Posted by Debu
@whiz: All your data is probably intact, IMO, Your SMPS has probably blown off. The SMPS, provides your Monitor power (Your monitor has 2 cables coming out of it, one goes into the display card, the other goes into the SMPS), If your monitor does take power from your SMPS, then the monitor is itself gone.
Your Motherboard/Processor are obviously still intact as your USB is powering up.
In order for us to detrmint the exact error, please provide the following information:
1) The number of beeps the PC makes at booting.
2) Is Your Monitor connected to the SMPS (PC) or directly to the Power?
3) After 30 seconds of starting your PC, is your Keyboard responding? (try
pressing the NUM/CAPS keys to determine that.)
4) After 30 Seconds of starting your PC, does your CD ROM Open/Close?
5) Within 2 Mins of starting your PC, do you hear the windows start up tone?
These will help us determinte the nature of your problem, and help us solve it.
Posted by mrao
Lol.. Its ironic that someone who works tech support for microsoft and moving to dell dimension support next week is facing this issue ;)
Posted by whizkidd
mrao
thanks guys, i'll be opening up the pc again in the morning and will let you folks know the results. Prelimiary investigations reveal that there is no sign of the POST...
Posted by jontyf
We had this about two weeks ago. Same symptons, I was literally sh*tting myself. But it turned out we only had to change a fuse. Maybe you have covered that, I dunno.
jontyf
Posted by 02
samething happened to me too, my HP laptop just starts to restart itself once u turn it on.. it didnt make it to the windows logo screen yet, i put in the recovery cd, and it says it cud not detech the hardrive... ????? and one time it says i need a FDisk.. does anyone know what that or help? Thx.
Posted by Cycovision
@Whizz
No POST = CPU or motherboard usually
@O2
Sounds like your hard drive is begining to fail. FDisk is a program used to partition hard drives ready for formatting and installation of an operating system.
Posted by whizkidd
Cyco, why is the usb card reader still lit up? So is my mouse?
Posted by whizkidd
Update: opened the pc up.. The motherboard indicator and the cpu fan works fine.. But there is no sound from the hdd. Also, no response from the cd drive.
Posted by Cycovision
Disconnect the hard drive and CD rom drive at the motherboard end and see if you get POST.
Power can still be supplied to USB devices even with a dicky motherboard, it depends on what componet(s) have failed.
Posted by faultymonkey
dont mean to sound dumb, but try taking out all the power connectors and cleaning them (pc's hate dust) oh and there are more than one connector so try all of them. one powers the cpu and the others do some other stuff.
if that doesnt work, it sounds like one of the fuses in you power supply has broked. (I assume that the usb reader and hdd are connected by seperate power chords.)
my guess is that the fuse on one of the power supply wires (probly one of the motherboard ones) has blown.
as for the monitor, do you get any sign from the monitor (does it say something like "no signal: sleep mode", if so then your monitor shouldnt be broken.
Posted by whizkidd
Issue RESOLVED!!
I got ome of my geeky friends and together went on a troubleshooting spree.
First we checked the SMPS and found it to be working fine.
Removed the hdd and tried on another pc. My data is intact!
Then we spotted a lil trouble.
The "reset" button on the cabinet was in a depressed state!
We used rudimentary methods (as in mildly hitting the cabinet with a screwdriver
) and lo! the reset button popped out!
We then restarted the pc and heared the RAM beep!
Then we oticed that the RAM dimm WAS loose.
Cleaned the module again and insreted the RAM, switched the pc on.
And it worked!
Right now posting from the pc
Thanks to everyone for their inputs!
Thanks cyco!
Posted by mrao
Happy to hear that, whiz. I guess youd be addressing similar issues in your new process.
Posted by Cycovision
I love a happy ending
Posted by fatreg
you do make me chuckle cyco.
fatreg