Troubleshooting help please

W

Western

Weaksauce
Joined
May 10, 2007
Messages
87
Over the past few weeks PC would be off for no reason, but started up when powered up agian.

Same thing today but now doesnt seem to boot up. When I push the power button the Red light , the one that usually flickers during boot up, stays on solid, no boot up or anything, I noticed that only 1 CD-Rom lights momentarily but not the CRW like it used to. What do you think?????
This is a 3 yr old Gateway, past problems, factory replaced power pack. 2 yrs ago, and 5 months ago replaced CPU fan with better cooling fins. WD hard drive.
I dont have a boot disc and hope its not my HD, I have no currant backup

Any thoughts from you guys? Ideas??

Thanks
 
I'd guess power or motherboard right off the bat, but I'm going to lean closer towards power.

What are the full system specs?

Is there onboard video?

Can you try booting with only the bare amount of hardware plugged in? ( motherboard, video, and RAM )
 
My guess is power, too. Do you have another PSU you could try?
 
My guess is power or mobo. Your first priority should be saving your data. Pull the hard drive and put it in someone else's machine and have them burn your data to CD or DVD. Then, never ever go without a backup again.
 
Thanks for the replys, I tried disconnecting all but the Video C, HD and fans, I at least got the red light to go off. still no boot to screen. I hear the HD start, (high speed sound) like normal
This was a (get this) Gateway gamer. Nvidia 5950 Ultra, 1032 ram, win xp, cpu fan runs only under load or high use graphics when it heats up
Is there a way to test the CPU?? If I can figure it out would be the cheapest thing or find a "reputable" Spelling, repair shop.

I thought I was backingup the system but all I have done is backup my Quickbooks...grrrr
Any other ways to test the Power??

Thanks agian
 
Try it without any drives plugged in. The only thing the PSU should be plugged into (besides the wall) is the motherboard if possible, though you may need a power connector for the vidcard. This will see if the PSU is just being stressed to much. If you can, try another vidcard.
 
Thanks agian, I tried disconnecting every thing I could think of, no noticable differance.
Two things I noticed though,
1 The IDE ribbon from MB to both Cd drived has about an 1/8 " section missing on 1 wire just above MB connection???
2 I removed the CPU fan to get info off CPU, when I removed the fan the CPU stuck to the fan side heat sink??? I dont see how it could come loose like that, I had to raise the little lever to lock it back in place?? 3.2 ghz P4
 
1) Thats most likely nothing to worry about.

2) Its typical for P4's to stick to their stock heatsinks due to the thermal pads. You should be able to gently pry it off without much force. Clean off that thermal pad/paste with some 90% isopropyl alcohol and a coffee filter. you may need a credit card edge to scrape all the stuff off. pickup some thermal compound (like arctic silver 5) to use in place of the original paste/pad.

What system are you using now? you should be able to plug your HDD into another system to backup the data off of it.
 
Thanks...Follow up

I was using my daughters PC to post but up and running now (fingers crossed).

You guy's where right on the money as far as power. I had a 350w, the 4 prong connector located to the rear middle of the MB, had shorted or otherwise burnt two poles. I replaced the power supply with a new 430w, gently cleaned the burnt MB connection , replaced the Surge protector w/ 1250joule. and up she went like a roaring lion, running great right now, Hats off to you guy's.......

This spring we had alot of power outages, blown transformers ect tra in North Texas, not sure if one "snuck" through, but thats why I got the new SP

Any tricks to backing up a PC?? My version of XP home Edition doesnt have it, but I do have Nero program, says I need 16 CDs to do the full monty?? sound right

Thanks agian, you guy's ROCK
 
What's the new PSU? just curious.

As for backups, I use an external HDD (spare drive thrown into an external enclosure). My parents use one of the retail Seagate Externals, and it comes with some backup software that they like. So check that out. Or, if you're like me and have spare drives layin around, pickup an external enclosure (USB2.0) for about $15. Then just routinely backup your important files.

Oh, I also store an image of my drive on a small partition of one of my storage drives. So, if the main drive fails, I can boot using another drive.
 
The PSU is a Antec true power trio 430w.

I looked at external HDs on newegg and will be going that route. I liked the reviews for Seagate and W Digital, so now just "price checking".
 
If you have a Fry's near you, they usually have External HDDs on sale.
 
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