Computer won't turn on. New hard drive problem?

[eNx]

Input devices will not respond! New hard drive problem?

Hey everyone, I joined this forum to see if you could solve my problem.

I got a new hard drive a while ago and i installed it when my old hard drive was still installed. I didn't know much about jumper settings then so i just left both my my hard drives with the master setting. I reformatted my computer soon after with XP home on the new hard drive. However, XP pro was still on my old hard drive but my computer worked fine until 3 days ago. The green motherboard light was on and when i pressed the power button the fan would spin. The computer would not turn on though. I then waited for a few hours and tried again, to my suprise it turned on perfectly.

Now, 3 days later, the motherboard light is still on, but the fan will not even spin when I press the power button! What do you think is preventing my computer from turning on?
Thanks alot.

 

[eNx]

Fan

Now, when i press the power button, the fan actually starts working! Actually, it's twitching..

 

[DonNagual]

Double check all your PSU connections, especially those to the motherboard, as well as your connections from the fans to the motherboard.

And just to rule out something really simple, take out your ram and re-seat it.

 

[eNx]

Thanks don. I'm not really good with computers. Could you tell me what connections to check? Also, is reseating the RAM just taking them out and putting them back in? I've already tried that . Thanks alot.

 

[eNx]

Good news and bad news! The computer has finally turned on! However, everything connected to it isn't (monitor, keyboard, mouse ect..). I saw the keyboard lights flash a couple of times while starting up. Oh boy, life is cruel.

 

[SOcRatEs]

Hello! Welcome to TechSpot

What kind of beep sounds (if any) are you getting?
PSU conectors, start with the external one.
Then on the inside, look at the PSU.
There will be several wire bundles (yellow, red & black),
follow these to each componant and make sure
they are seated well to the devices, the large one
is the main power source to the MoBo & plugs directly into it.
Check to make certain everything in side is seated properly.
Clearin cmos can help too.

You may want to (other solutions failing) do a
bare bones setup:
Unplug the power cables and data cables,
(inside the box), from everything
accept:
The motherboard
video card (if it uses one)
Leave the monitor hooked up
key board too.
just to get you into the bios.
Just some ideas to try..
G'Luck

 

[eNx]

Hmm.. my monitor, mouse, and keyboard still won't respond after i disconnected everything from the motherboard (except the cords farthest away from you connected to the optical drives). Do you think it is my video card (geforce 4 ti4400)? Or maybe my motherboard is fried.. I had this system for 4 years already. Thanks for your reply socrates.

 

[SOcRatEs]

Hmmm?

That narrows it down abit.
I would check the cpu next.
Make sure it's seated and there is
adequate thermal grease.
The fans are running and cdroms open and close?
if so it's not likely the psu, I'm thinkin MoBo.
but don't jump to conclusions just yet.

 

[noof]

I had a similar problem with my computer, it was also around 4 years old... Packard Bell by any chance?

Well anyway, once I turned the computer on the cd rom light flashed and the orange LED lit up(Sorry don't know the technical name). The orange LED remained on for a minute or so then went off. The monitor was always on standby and I got no external beeps. After around half an hour to an hour of my computer stuck like this I could get the computer going by turning it off and on quickly.

Over time the time period became longer and longer, and eventually it just wouldn't turn over at all.

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

 

[CesarWilk]

Hey

Set the jumper of the old drive to slave, or remove it, most HDS acts like slaves when are unjumpered

Use SATA if you can, they dont use jumpers :grinthumb

 

[eNx]

I set my old hard drive to slave and i'm waiting for it to turn on . Cross my fingers . Thanks for the replies.

 

[Givememiricles]

Ol' Computer is bonkers

Well its not that old, but, its behaving close to what noof is describing. The moniter is on standbye, and even though its off it does'nt seem that the computer is really booting up (I don't hear the hard drive working). I will try the suggestion posted to reseat the ram sticks but I don't know what to do further...(questine: Is the bios on the ram?)

 

[SOcRatEs]

Hello! Welcome to TechSpot

Well its not that old, but, its behaving close to what noof is describing. The moniter is on standbye, and even though its off it does'nt seem that the computer is really booting up (I don't hear the hard drive working). I will try the suggestion posted to reseat the ram sticks but I don't know what to do further...(questine: Is the bios on the ram?)

No, it's on an "Eprom chip" permenant on the MoBo. also known as cmos.
Usually near the battery which is where the jumper is to reset(clear) the bios/cmos.
You may want to start another thread in the same section as this one to get others to help..but this is ok too, as several ppl seem to have similar problem.
G'Luck

 

[Givememiricles]

Thanks for the welcome

Thanks for your support. I believe I will read a little more before posting again.

 

[eNx]

OK! The computer finally decided to turn on after 1 day and I set the old drive to the slave setting. The computer also beeped three long times (two seconds?) during the start up. I read that this is a 64k RAM error and i have no idea what that is. Also my input devices are still not responding (monitor is not getting a signal, mouse is not lighting up, keyboard is not lighting up). Thanks for the replies again!


One more thing! Can you clearly tell the difference in the short and long beeps during the POST? Thanks.