System will only turn on occasionally. Any Ideas?

[shootertec]

Need some advice and or help.

I have a computer that for the last few weeks or even months, was acting funny. It would fail to boot on the first attempt. I was able to turn off the main power supply and manual "force" it to try and try again until it finally would come alive.

I assumed it was the HD and ordered one.

I plugged it in today and after one start up it appeared normal and wanted to partion the drive before install win me. The system shut down and now it won't do anything. When I power on, the system turns on, HD and A drive lights flash, spin up, intro beep is heard, but that is it.

To be sure the wasn't the video card or monitor, I hit key stokes on the keyboard to see if I could see or hear the HD spin up or anything, but nothing.

If I let it set awhile, I can sometimes get it to try again and seems to work "once"

IS my CPU fried? I double checked my CPU fans, they work. I removed the fans and vent and air sprayed them clean, reinstalled and still nothing.


Any ideas?

Thanks everyone!!

Also, I just remeber something.

I was losing USB ports too.

My internet is from our cable unit via a USB port, and my digital camera uses one as well. Sometimes after using the camera, I would find my internet was gone. So I would unplug my USB and plug it back in. SOmetimes this worked, sometimes, not. So I would have to switch to a different USB port or restart.

grrrrrrrrrrrr!!

 

[SOcRatEs]

Hello! Welcome to TechSpot!

Shootertec, we'll need more specific system info...
A shot in the dark>>>>PSU power supply unit.

 

[shootertec]

Could it be the power supply? Everything powers up, lights, fans, and the drives spin up.

Another update, after letting the system rest about an hour, I reinstalled the chip and turned it on. It came to life. With the new blank HD, it asked to format the drive. About 60% into the formatting, it failed with an error. -- I didn't write the error down and I forgot ---

After that, when I tried to reboot, the monitor is black no signal, no nothing.

I moved the new drive into my computer and formatted it and it works great, so it's not the drive.

I moved the graphics card into my computer and it works as well.

So it's either the board or the chip right? How do I tell? Or could it still be a power supply issue...wow this is making me tired!?!?

 

[SOcRatEs]

Actually yes to all the above. It could be the psu or the board and chips or just one of them..plus possibly bad ram.

What are the system specs for this machine?

MoBo?
Cpu?
Video?
Psu?
Ram?

Other than testing each componant on another machine it can be quite difficult to trouble shoot. I would start with the psu to see if it works well in another system.

 

[shootertec]

biostar m7sxf
p4 1.7
video card --- geforce something 128
psu ?? 450 watts, guessing
Ram 512 kingston

 

[kirock]

Best guess: bad Ram or bad psu. Leaning toward failing psu. It works but then quickly overheats and shuts down. Your system is getting a little old, so no need to go out and buy a brand name psu. Just pick up a generic crappy for $25-30 at your local PC shop.

 

[Ferret86]

Shootertec, we'll need more specific system info...
A shot in the dark>>>>PSU power supply unit.

Also at a random stab in the dark, I would have said the PSU too.

 

[s3xynanigoat]

Motherboard IMO, look at the capacitors for bulging and leaking rust color stuff.

 

[shootertec]

I just want to be sure I'm on the same page with everyone. A PSU can be failing and yet when powered on (say the 3rd time) it can run the fans, spin the drives up, and make the beeps, yet still be bad?

My wifes computer is p4 3.0ghz or something on that line, and my new computer is a dual core AMD Athlon something. Could I try either of these PSU to test with?

Thanks everyone!!!

 

[SOcRatEs]

Could I try either of these PSU to test with?

Yes..
Though I'd use a bare bones setup:
cpu
psu
ram
video/monitor
keyboard
no drives..
just to get a solid bios screen or at least error beeps.