FacebookTwitter
Hatrack River Forum   
my profile login | search | faq | forum home

  next oldest topic   next newest topic
» Hatrack River Forum » Active Forums » Books, Films, Food and Culture » Computers in general (help me troubleshoot!)

   
Author Topic: Computers in general (help me troubleshoot!)
WheatPuppet
Member
Member # 5142

 - posted      Profile for WheatPuppet   Email WheatPuppet         Edit/Delete Post 
should be stabbed in the neck!

I finally get my computer up and running after downloading XP Service Pack 2, the latest ATI drivers, .NET 1.1, and a menagarie of other bits of software, and now it's kinda not working.

About 45 minutes ago, whilst reading on my bed, my computer randomly shut off. I figured that maybe the sleep settings were kicking in and it had gone into hibernate, so I didn't really pay it much heed.

I finish my chapter and go take a shower. I come back looking to install Rome: Total War, and I find that the computer has not gone into hibernate at all--it has actually shut down. Worse, it won't start up again.

Specifically, I push the power button and it does nothing. I hold the power button, and it does nothing. If I unplug it (or hit the hard-kill switch on the back of my power supply), then plug it back on, and then turn it on, I get a momentary response: all the fans in the computer spin for about a fifth of a second. Holding the power button produces the same effect.

Judging by the symptoms, I can rule out the following things:

1. The power supply -- if it were dead, I probably wouldn't get any response at all. However, I am suspicious of it, since it has the most odor of all the computer components. Perhaps it uninstalled the magic blue smoke when I wasn't looking.
2. The power strip -- It's not the outlet on the power strip, since the same effect comes from the wall.
3. The hard drive, or other peripherals -- if any of these had failed, I would get a beep code or some digital behavior, rather than no response at all.
4. Heat -- all components feel quite cool.
5. Input devices -- All of the devices once connected to the computer have been removed. I know that certain Dell motherboards will freak if a parallel port is hotplugged into them.

Possible culprits:
1. Some sort of cascading RAM failure?
2. BIOS falure?
3. The motherboard (or some component of it) is being grounded. Perhaps by a melted wire?
4. The power button's debouncing circuit has kicked the bucket, so when I push the power button, it's rapidly being pushed again.

Any ideas? I just got this stupid thing working! [Wall Bash]

[ January 02, 2005, 10:52 PM: Message edited by: WheatPuppet ]

Posts: 903 | Registered: May 2003  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
WheatPuppet
Member
Member # 5142

 - posted      Profile for WheatPuppet   Email WheatPuppet         Edit/Delete Post 
A thought I had was that maybe it would be worth it to disassemble the whole deal to look for worn or grounded wires. That and possibly swap out the power supply. [Frown]
Posts: 903 | Registered: May 2003  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
WheatPuppet
Member
Member # 5142

 - posted      Profile for WheatPuppet   Email WheatPuppet         Edit/Delete Post 
Swapped out the motherboard with an older-ish Gateway mobo I had in my closet (yes, I'm that kind of computer geek). I got the exact same response.

Unless anyone has any other ideas, I'm going to go ahead and order a new power supply. [Mad]

Posts: 903 | Registered: May 2003  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Boris
Member
Member # 6935

 - posted      Profile for Boris   Email Boris         Edit/Delete Post 
Power supply seems like the most likely culprit. If it smells like ozone, it's probably bad. What probably happened is an excess of dust caused a voltage regulator or something in there to fry itself and it blew something inside the PSU. But in my experience, the only PSU's I've seen that smelled bad were either used by heavy smokers or dead/dying.
Posts: 3003 | Registered: Oct 2004  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Tstorm
Member
Member # 1871

 - posted      Profile for Tstorm   Email Tstorm         Edit/Delete Post 
Cast my vote for the power-supply. Have you got a spare to plug in and try? One of the first rules of troubleshooting, when replacing components likely to have failed, replace the cheapest one first.
Posts: 1813 | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
solo
Member
Member # 3148

 - posted      Profile for solo   Email solo         Edit/Delete Post 
My Father-in-Law's computer had this exact problem (not sure about the smell, but all other symptoms the same) a couple of months ago. It was the power supply.
Posts: 1336 | Registered: Mar 2002  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Storm Saxon
Member
Member # 3101

 - posted      Profile for Storm Saxon           Edit/Delete Post 
If it was the power supply, you might be looking at replacing other parts and pieces that got flambeed.
Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
ludosti
Member
Member # 1772

 - posted      Profile for ludosti   Email ludosti         Edit/Delete Post 
Sounds like the power supply. I hope that nothing else was damaged when it went out.

I was lucky that I caught mine before it fried anything - I respond really quickly whenever something sounds or smells funky.

Posts: 5879 | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
WheatPuppet
Member
Member # 5142

 - posted      Profile for WheatPuppet   Email WheatPuppet         Edit/Delete Post 
If it did fry everything, then I'd have an excuse to build a brandy-new computer. Unfortunately, I don't have that kind of money. [Frown]

If my experimentation caused things to be cooked, it has now cooked two motherboards, a brand-new video card, 789 megs of ram, a sound card, two network cards, one hard drive, and two optical drives.

... oh yeah, and a partridge in a pear tree. [Wink]

Any reoccomendations on a good but quiet power supply?

Posts: 903 | Registered: May 2003  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Boris
Member
Member # 6935

 - posted      Profile for Boris   Email Boris         Edit/Delete Post 
Try this one

And I wouldn't worry too much about it having destroyed anything. Most modern PSU's have control circuits that keep spikes from blowing through anything. (Which is why your PSU will turn on for a fraction of a second then shut down. It's testing the circuit, finding a problem, and shutting off to prevent damage.) There is a slim chance, but not a big one.

Posts: 3003 | Registered: Oct 2004  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
WheatPuppet
Member
Member # 5142

 - posted      Profile for WheatPuppet   Email WheatPuppet         Edit/Delete Post 
Wow, thanks Boris! Perusing through Newegg shows that that's a particularly nice power supply.

Mad props for Boris for having Newegg-Fu [Hat]

Posts: 903 | Registered: May 2003  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
   

   Close Topic   Feature Topic   Move Topic   Delete Topic next oldest topic   next newest topic
 - Printer-friendly view of this topic
Hop To:


Contact Us | Hatrack River Home Page

Copyright © 2008 Hatrack River Enterprises Inc. All rights reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.


Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classic™ 6.7.2