After cleaning, computer wont start...

H

H1HID

Weaksauce
Joined
Jun 28, 2007
Messages
120
So I notice the computer is really dusty inside and NB fan is really loud and variable. I check it out and dust everywhere. So i blow the fans out. I had trouble getting to the NB fan so I had to take out the video card. So I was blowing on it with my mouth to clear out dust and then moved on the try blow out the dust on the NB fan and realize that it wouldnt come up so I used a pencil to pick the dust out of the fan/heatsink mindful not to touch the mobo. Its sparkling clean and plug eveything back in. NOTHING! I unplug power, I re-seat the memory, I try resetting bios and unplugging battery from mobo.

NOW, the stupid thing turns on by itself with no screen or posting beeps. Just every fan running at 100% constantly. I thought maybe I blew some spit in the video card causing it to short. Got the hair drier out and tried to dry things out. No luck. Still turning at when it wants.

Any ideas...is the mobo shot? is the video card shot?

Next compressed air only!

Im such a dumbass
 
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Before any operation be sure to ground yourself properly.

Tiny bits of pencil might have shortened something. I'd blow 2 cans of compressed air into every hole in mobo including card slots, everything.

Just doh.
 
Check for dust balls that got crammed into the PCI slot when you put the card back. Don't try to pick it out though, you'll ruin the slot. Use compressed air and reseat the card several times.

Anytime you work on the the PC there's always a risk of breaking it. I've had it happen to me before. One time I found a small piece of metal on the mobo that may have been in the PC from the factory, but when I moved it to work on it, the metal piece landed on the mobo and fried it. Shit happens.
 
THanks for the recommendations...im gonna give it a go and try and see if I cant get the thing to work at all. Ive been tinkering with computers for about 17 years now and this may be the first one ive toasted. Cant be a winner everytime. :)

BTW its not the CPU, i swapped in a spare (but working) CPU in for this one.

Also, the power on LED on the case is blinking rapidly and the built in MOBO lan ports are flashing.

I have an MSI motherboard that came with something called a D-Bracket 2 with has diagnostic LEDs on it that light up in certain colors/patterns. According to this thing, when the computer randomly turns on it gives me a floppy disk controller initialization hang/error. Doubt it means anything. Is the FDC controller on the NF4 chipset?
 
Check the power connections on all your ide/sata/floppy devices. Make sure they're making proper contact.

Could solve it, I've seen something similiar happen recently.
 
you know it started working but I couldnt isolate any one thing. I unplugged all the powers from the cards and the power supply. Then plugged it back in and it came on. Since I had my single core in there I turned it back off and put in the dual core. After I put the dual core back in the computer wouldnt do anything. I tried unplugging/replugging and no luck. Then randomly I hit the power button and it all booted up and now its good to go.

What a nightmare. Hopefully this will be the last of this. This is all because of a noisy clogged NB fan. At least its all clean and quiet and no new parts are needed.

Thanks for everyones input!
 
Based on what you said, I would suspect the PSU.
Sooner or later it's going to fail again.
 
hmmm...iguess that would suck...ive never even had close to a symptom like this before. I guess you have to have a first time for these things. I'll keep a close eye on it and see how it makes out. thanks again!
 
Spartacus said:
Based on what you said, I would suspect the PSU.
Sooner or later it's going to fail again.
Click to expand...

Spartacus was right!

well this has been quite some time since I posted this so I will give this post as an educational point for those who thought we could never learn anything more about troubleshooting computers.

My power supply eventually failed just 2 days ago and as soon as I replaced it with a nice Corsair HX620 the fan is now in perfect working order. Goes to show you the random events that can signal the impending death of a power supply. This first symptom occured 5 months before it actually happened. Strange huh? Basically my NF4 fan hasnt spun in 5 months and now going like a champ.
 
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