I'm not having a good day...

[Twiz]

First of all may I say I'm having laptop trouble and I've made a thread (that i ended then started again) in this forum topic if anyone can help me with that problem.

But I now have another problem. I was playing Call of Duty 4, suddenly my PC completely turns off, wont turn back on. I open it up, find a screw between the PCIE graphics card and the motherboard (it must've fallen off from somewhere). I'm thinking that shorted it out, though it might be completly unrelated. I've tried removing both memory sticks and trying them on their own, I've tried another power supply (though admittedly I'm not sure if it worked in the first place), I've tried resetting the CMOS and removing all the PCI/PCIE cards. Basically if I switch off the power supply and switch it back on then push the on button, the case and heatsink fan spin for a quarter of a second then stop spinning. When I have the graphics card connected my monitors make a CRT starting up sort of sound and then fade away again immediately. Something is happening, I just don't know what...


thanks for any help anyone can offer :)

[piemastermike]

is the power on?

[skoo]

Does it get as far as the beep from the BIOS? If it doesn't get to the beep, its likely to be a motherboard/power issue. Could also extend to CPU but is unlikely to be RAM.

[Digga]

when the powers running through it but it's turned off, does the LED on the motherboard that shows it's got power going through it light up or not? it could be a power issue but it could equally be something else. the only time i have experienced this problem is when i put the processor heatsink+fan on the wrongway round on my old old pc (i was a noob) so the overheating shut it down instantly, so it could be a heat issue, a power issue, lots of things :/

[Twiz]

no beep, just a quick spin from the heatsink fan then nothing. There isn't a light on the motherboard

[MargateMan]

Sounds like a dead motherboard, if it were the power, the fans wouldn't start at all... It's not too expensive to replace it, and you shouldn't lose anything

[Mr_Moo]

No beep either means the motherboard is fucked, or that it's not getting enough power in the first place to POST or go much further.
1) Swap the PSU out for another similarly rated one
2) Replace the Motherboard (And hope like hell that's the only part of your compi that got shafted

no beep, just a quick spin from the heatsink fan then nothing. There isn't a light on the motherboard That doesn't guarantee that the PSU isn't buggered, just that the low-drain rails seem to be OK (the ones that supply fan power mostly). The higher drain rails (used for pretty much everything else) could be buggered.

[Timmeh]

Sounds like a knackered CPU to me.

[Twiz]

the cpu is pretty much brand new :( do they generally cop out so easily? I'm hoping its the PSU that would be fantastic and if its the motherboard thats still not so bad...but the processor being broken would cost me alot. Sadly I dont have any other AM2 boards to test this processor with, I'm not sure if I even have another power supply right now to test with, but I'll look around.

[woody_tng]

Most likely things have already been posted. I would doubt PSU as there is a little activity then nothing. I would expect the fan to keep spinning if nothing else. Could be a dead CPU. Most likley to be the motherboard. Other problems are possible but unlikely.

[LukeCarry]

Sounds like a dead motherboard, if it were the power, the fans wouldn't start at all... It's not too expensive to replace it, and you shouldn't lose anything

Providing you get a motherboard with the same chipset, otherwise windowws will not boot as it writes itself for the chipset when you install. if you get a board with a different chipset windows will demand you format :(

but if you get another drive and use your old one as a data drive you will lose nothing either way

[The Grim Reaper]

no beep, just a quick spin from the heatsink fan then nothing. There isn't a light on the motherboard

I had an identical issue, all fans spin up, then it shuts off after a second. Pressing the power button would do nothing, you had to turn it off at the wall for 5 seconds, then turn it on and power it up again for the same result.
It was the PSU and a new one fixed it fine.

[flapjackboy]

Providing you get a motherboard with the same chipset, otherwise windowws will not boot as it writes itself for the chipset when you install. if you get a board with a different chipset windows will demand you format :(

but if you get another drive and use your old one as a data drive you will lose nothing either way

Ummm... No. Windows may require you to reactivate the install, but it will not require a reformat.

Clicky (http://www.compphix.com/reactivationchanges.html)

[Steak]

Ummm... No. Windows may require you to reactivate the install, but it will not require a reformat.

Clicky (http://www.compphix.com/reactivationchanges.html)

Neither is strictly true. Changing motherboard will (on XP at least) completely bugger up the drivers most of the time. It just requires a repair of the installation to fix though. Plenty of websites on it:

http://www.motherboard.windowsreinstall.com/winxp.htm
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1755&page=5
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/moving_xp.html

Once you've done that, you'll need to re-activate unless you've got a volume-license edition.

[Insanity is fun]

no beep, just a quick spin from the heatsink fan then nothing. There isn't a light on the motherboardExact same problem with my one!

I'm going to build a new one at some point.................

[Bosnod]

Sounds like a PSU problem to me, try another that you know works instead of the one your currently using. It could be the motherboard, but I'd say it's a dodgy PSU.