PC won't power up...where do I start?

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diddlyidi

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Feeling like a bit of a challenge I decided to buy a PC off Ebay for spares or repairs .
It arrived today.I went to plug it in and nothing at all happened.
I have opened it up and established that it is a ECS K7S5A motherboard and that it has an 300watt ATX power supply.
Is it most likely to be the power supply that needs to be replaced?
Any help /suggestions would be most welcome
 
1.) Make sure that the power to the motherboard is pluged in.

2.) Make sure the power switch is connected to the motherboard.

3.) Try a different PSU in it to confirm.

4.) In the process of that, try out the supposed "dud" in another computer. :) I'll wait for your reply.
 
Obi-Wan Jerkobi said:
1.) Make sure that the power to the motherboard is pluged in.

2.) Make sure the power switch is connected to the motherboard.

3.) Try a different PSU in it to confirm.

4.) In the process of that, try out the supposed "dud" in another computer. :) I'll wait for your reply.
Click to expand...

Hi and thanks for your advice

1.Power to motherboard is connected
2.Power switch is connected to motherboard
3.Just about to try another PSU.Will it have to be an ATX one?
4.If above does not work will try "dud" in another machine
 
I have put a new ATX power supply in and machine now fires up,although I now have a black screen on monitor.Does this sound like the motherboard is dead?
 
Try reseating the video card. Is there any way to see if it is a problem with a video card? Do you have a spare one? The motherboard supports AGP 4x so just about any modern AGP video card will work.

*EDIT: Just replying to the motherboard question...if the motherboard was dead, it wouldn't have fired up at all.
 
Obi-Wan Jerkobi said:
Try reseating the video card. Is there any way to see if it is a problem with a video card? Do you have a spare one? The motherboard supports AGP 4x so just about any modern AGP video card will work.

*EDIT: Just replying to the motherboard question...if the motherboard was dead, it wouldn't have fired up at all.
Click to expand...
I have tried another graphics card but still nothing.Completely stumped:confused:
 
My question

I have computer AMD AM2 3200+, RAM 1536 Mb, VGA 128 Mb, ATX 380 Watts. My question, Why my computer like abrupt to restart?
 
Yeah monitor is working fine.When i switch the pc on now everthing seems to power up, keyboard lights up, heatsink fan spins , all lights on the front of the PC come on.I am wondering whether the CPU is damaged.
I have bought one on eBay so will let you know when I have tried it.
Thanks for your help
 
I'm just making sure you know, but your board supports socket A processors (Anthlons and Durons) it might also be spelled as Socket 462.
 
Reseat your RAM and VPU then try shorting out the CMOS jumper to reset your BIOS.

If that doesn't work, see if your VPU will work in another PC.

I'd be pretty surprised if you weren't getting display due to a faulty CPU :suspiciou.
 
Just another question do I have to apply thermal grease/paste to cpu before sitting heatsink on top of it.Thanks
 
Yes. Clean the old thermal compound off and then just put a small dot (between the size of a grain of rice and the size of a pea) of thermal compound in the center of your CPU's heat-spreader and put the heatsink on.
 
Ooops I don't think that I am very good at this
I just tried another socket/462 motherboard with cpu in... used one stick of memory,attached monitor powered up to HD turned the pc on and monitor said the same thing going to sleep.Smelt something burning and tried to turn pc back off again but was unable to do this so had to switch it off at the socket.
Is it most probably CPU which has fried, beginning to think of changing my new hobby :blush:
 
...Did you put the thermal compound on?

:) Don't let something like that discourage you. If you are working with this stuff for the first time, you are going to make mistakes and it's the best way to learn in my opinion.
 
All I can say is...at least it wasn't a QX9650!:) Thermal Compound is a must, unless you are a cooling mad scientist, using a fire extinguisher as a cpu cooler. I have messed up like that in the past too! I have went through like 10 pc's where I forgot to put thermal compound on.
 
Thermal compound was applied, but I had sat the fan the wrong way around.Just reseated it switched on again and computer just says "going to sleep" and then black screen.
This is still the old cpu I am using.
Thanks for all your replies and help so far
 
id put money on it being a mobo fault

iva had two socket A computers go down in the past 6 months
i tried everything to get them to work again

they would turn on but nothin would show up on my working screens

i bought new gfx cards .. new ram etc etc

still nothin

then a mate was throwing out his working socket A motherboard

so i rescued taht .. and threw that in the mix .. low and behold it booted .. tho now the issue is to reinstall or trick windows into thinking its been signed to that motherboard all along

the motherboards were made by PC Chips ... the systems were built 6 months appart .. they failed 6 months appart
wiith the same fault .....

my conclusion is that to never buy PC Chips again

i hope you get your system working again buddy

good luck
 
resu said:
the motherboards were made by PC Chips ... the systems were built 6 months appart .. they failed 6 months appart
wiith the same fault .....

my conclusion is that to never buy PC Chips again
Click to expand...

Its funny you mention PC Chips cos the other mobo i have tried is a PC Chips M810L v1.6 and then hasn't resolved the problem.
I have another mobo to try and guess what that is also a PC Chips M810 v7.1A.I will let you know how I go on with that one.BTW they were sold to me as working motherboards so we will have to see.
Thanks for your advice
 
I have now tried 2 different mobos with new power supply.Pc starts powers up everything seems fine.Then when I attempt to boot from windows XP CD windows starts to load and then after about 5-10mins pc just switches itself off, any help with this next problem would be welcomed.
 
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