Wife's PC is not starting up....n she's freaking out!!

[rgill]

Hey gals n guys. I'm new to this forum. Have a problem. My wife's PC won't start up. There is power to the MOBO as there is a green light on it when the mains are plugged in. However, when i press the power switch 'on', the processor fan turns for about half a second before stopping again. Nothing else happens including nothing coming up on the monitor.
Have looked around the inside for any loose cables etc...but everything seems to be fine. Would anyone have any suggestions on what i could do?
Could a weak MOBO battery be a cause of this?

Wife is freaking out a little cause of her work stuff on it and would REALLY appreciate some help.

Thanks in advance.

 

[vegasgmc]

Sounds like a motherboard or processor failure. What are the system specs?

 

[Merc14]

...and how old is the setup?

 

[rgill]

Hi guys...thank you for your replies. Ok, system specs:
P4 1.3 or 1.4ghz (can't remember now), Intel D850GB MOBO, 384MB RAM, 40 and 250 GB HDD, GX-G2M2/64MB is the sticker on the video card(geforce2??), Media Forte SF256 Sound Card.
My wife bought the PC before we even met in September 2001 so it is getting a little old but well fine for the work my wife does on it.
Thanks for all help.

 

[Son of Sam]

...sorry. i cant figure out how to delete an already made post

 

[Merc14]

This could be any one of several problems. Do you hear any beeps when she turns the PC on? If so, then how many and what kind (like 1 long two short, or 3 short as examples). These are maintenance messages the motherboard can transmit to the tech identifying CPU problems or memory problems etc.

As an aside, you should be able to remove the hard drive and download its contents to another PC as long as it is still operable.

 

[scooter6139]

kind of a dumb question here, but have you cleaned the system out? made sure there isn't a lot of dust and stuff collecting anywhere on the board?

also, is the psu still going even after the cpu fan had stopped?

 

[rgill]

There are no beeps...no sounds whatsoever when i turn it on. Just a green light on the MOBO...hence i believe the PSU is ok. Opened up the casing and blow off as much of the dust as i could with a small hair dryer (hope i didn't screw things up even more). The inside looks pretty dust free now but still doesn't work. :blackeye:

 

[toffeapple]

Have you tried reseating the RAM??????

 

[Merc14]

I am not so sure that your PSU is good. One thing you can do is get a PSU tester and check it to make sure all the voltages coming across are good. If the PSU proves to be solid then I would suggest you remove her Hard Drive and transfer the data she wants to save to your hard drive or a CD. Then replace her hard drive in her system and start troubleshooting.

As far as removing the drive, you don't want to remove yours, just add hers as a second, non-bootable hard drive, to your system. Then save any data to a CD or your hard drive. By doing this you alleviate any concerns she has about lost data if your troubleshooting goes awry.

After you save off her data, remove all drives and PCI cards from her mobo (just 1 stick of RAM [refer to mobo manual for placement of just a single stick], the CPU and the video card) and reset the CMOS/BIOS by removing the battery and playing with the jumpers (download the mobo manual, it wull have instructions for this procedure) and see if you can get it to POST.