PC has no power at all.

[Sparko]

Hi,
I came home from work 2 days ago to find my daughters PC wouldnt turn on. Tried checking the simple things, power cables, extension cables no joy. Decided to take the case of and noticed the little green light on the motherboard that is usually on was not on. (unless i used to imagine it?)

presumed the PSU was broken so went and got another for £30. Tried putting this in with no joy either? all the cable weher i the right place?

Now this is as far as my skills go... Disconnected the power cables and all others from the back of the PC and then took the internals out. graphics card, one memory card, harddrives and cds, floppy. When i had just the bare essentials plugged in i pressed the reset button whilst looking in the shell.. the cpu fan moved for a fraction of a second then nothing? no lights, no noises, pressing the power button did nothing...

At abit of a loose end what to do now? cant print of a system information sheet to take to shop? no sure how to swap a motherboard? any advise would be really appreciated.

Cheers :)

[fren]

Okay, try this first. Reset your cmos settings by pulling the cmos battery out for 10 mins then put it back again to its holder.

I think your power supply is not giving enough power to your motherboard or your motherboard is failing.

No green light on the motherboard means no 5 volts standby power. So check the voltage on the 20 pin and 4 pin socket connection on the motherboard. If it powers with voltage, the problem is from the motherboard. Check all components on it especially the capacitors (bulging capacitors).

[lasher511]

Sounds to me like something has happend to you motherboard. Usually its a problem with buldging capacitors etc on the motherboard or another small part a very common problem with the intel motherboards from a couple of years ago. The quickest way to fix this is to take it into your local computer store and get them to have a look at it. Usually they will pick up something like this straight away and give you your options.

My dad had the same problem the other week and thats what they told him(despite the fact i had already told him this on several occasions and offered to replace the motherboard) he managed to get the motherboard replaced for about $90 dollars and the computer was fine. (big surprise).

[JANINE]

i am going to agree here with the two posters above. It sounds as though your motherboard has died unfortunately.

however you can check the voltages from a power supply by purchasing a power supply tester. they are small and about twice the size of a matchbox. you can plug in the adapter that goes into the motherboard into one side of these. turn the adaptor on at it should give you voltages ranging between 3 volts and 12 volts dependant on the wires.

If its not the motherboard it will be the power supply and this could mean that the 5 volt rail inside is naff. you cannot service these things yourself. all you can do is test to see if the voltage is actually there

[lasher511]

Or you could just buy a power supply tester for the same price and it will do all the work for you.

[Sparko]

Hi guys,

Thanks very much for your responses. I will check these things this weekend and see what i get back. If i still have troubles i will take it to a shop and see what they say..

cheers again

[fren]

It's okay, Sparko. You're welcome.

Try all the remedies we have just mentioned here. Good Luck

[Carebare47]

have you tryed using another power supply, and how old is your computer?my computer did this once, but it was about 6 years ago. The idiot at the computer shop had plugged in the power connectors to the motherboard the wong way round (it ad 2, it was an AT power supply, i think), but unless your computer is 7 years old and your daughter has re-built it recently, i dont think that would be the problem.

Good luck.