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computer shuts off during boot

W

wookiewoof

n00b
Joined
Feb 6, 2005
Messages
22
Last week, my computer unexpectedly shut off while I was using it. I thought it may be overheating..it had dust built up in it. I took off side panel and before turning back on I had to turn off power supply and turn it back on for the computer to come on. It worked fine after that.

This weekend, I used a can of compressed air to clean out the dust that was built up in computer, blowing out the dust from the cpu heatsink and the video heatsink, everywhere.

I let computer sit for little, and when I turned it on, the computer beeped short continuous beeps and gave me an error message of bios checksum error and then it told me "detecting floppy media" Bad drive or something similar to that, however, I don't have a floppy drive connected.

I later re-seat the 2 ram modules and then when I turn it on, it posts right with the one short beep and then attempts to boot, but never gets to the point that the operating system is loaded, it just shuts right off. It sometimes comes on for 1 sec when I press the power button, but goes right off. The power supply fan continuous to turn and the green led is still lit on the motherboard

I then have to turn off the power supply and then back on before I can attempt to turn it back on.

I have read where this may be a ram problem, and I have had to replace the ram before in this machine

I would appreciate any help with this. thanks
 
sometimes comes on for 1 sec when I press the power button, but goes right off. The power supply fan continuous to turn and the green led is still lit on the motherboard
Click to expand...

so, the screen goes blank but the psu stays on? I'd suspect a psu problem or ram problem. can you boot into bios/memtest?
 
At first I wasn't able to get into the bios even after clearing by using the jumper and removing the battery.


But after reseating the memory, I was able to get into the bios and put the settings back where I had them.

The computer usually gets to the point at the xp screen where it is loading user settings and then shuts off.

And yes, the screen goes blank the computer fans, etc go off, but I can still hear the psu fan running and the green light is still on mobo.

I am going to find my memtest boot disk and see if I can boot into it
 
Sounds like you should be able to boot to memtest given how far it goes before dieing on you. I'd run that first and if that comes up clean, try swapping the PSU to see if that does it. Sounds like it could be one or the other.

Just how dusty was it on the inside?
 
believe it or not, check your power button. Mine was effed up and it would do that to me now and then. At one point if I tapped the top of my case hard enough, it would turn on without even having to press the power button.
 
sounds like he has a groudning error if the fans spin while posting but only occasionally turns on.
 
I had a problem like this. Check to see what voltage your RAM is supposed to operate at. I bought some OCZ memory that operates at 2.1 as opposed to the normal 1.8. My motherboard default set the RAM voltage to 1.8, so my memory wasn't getting enough juice. It would start up, and act like it was on, but it would either shut down or sit in a constant state kinda like you are explaining. Worth a shot anyway.
 
Try this:

Remove the motherboard from the case and seat it on an antistatic bag and put different ram in there. The error msg you got was a MB error and you already said that you got into the bios and reset it. It's not the HD and so it's either the memory or the MB or PSU. Try swapping out another PSU to see if that's the culprit.
 
it could also be a cpu overheat issue. make sure your cpu fan is hooked up and seated correctly.
 
also, if you didn't have another psu sitting around, if you had a multi/voltmeter, you could read the volts supplied by your psu on one of the molex connectors on start up.

or, for one of the other possibilities, if you switched your multimeter over to read ohms, you could check the resistance offered by your power button, to see if it was shorting out on you.
 
whoa.. lots of responses..thanks for help!!!

I haven't got around to doing anything else with it yet, will maybe tackle it tomorrow.

I built the computer and it has been working "fine" for the last 3 years.

There was really no more dust than normal in it, I clean it out "regularly" and have a filter on the inlet fan on the side panel, I also put a filter over an "air" hole under the front panel.

I use abit EQ, don't know how accurate it is, but the temps and voltages always seemed to be "normal"

The power button did cross my mind as a problem because the case is sorta poorly built, and when this problem arose when I would press the power button, the computer would come on for less than a sec, and then shut right off.

Either way, I gonna unhook everything but video and one DVD drive and try to boot to memtest.. I am scared of damaging other components with the computer just shutting of the way it is.

Thanks again for the help!
 
Okay.. I took the psu of and left four 80mm fans connected to the psu. I jumpered the green wire to the black wire and when turned on psu, psu fans came on as well as the 80mm fans an ran for about a min and then shut off. Turning the psu on of off did nothing. Pulling out the jumper and then putting it back in would cause all the 80mm fans to come on for sec or less. Psu fans kept running.

Is it possible i need to put a greater load on the psu to test it, to keep it running?

Or is this a sign psu is dead or dying?


p.s. PSU is enermax noisetaker EG495P-VE smfa
 
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