Member Avatar for peewee73

Hay everyone ! Hello my name is pete and im kinda a self fixit kinda guy im working on my mother in laws hp pavillion 700 . She called this afternoon and had a dead computer, so i went down there figuring just really dirty maybe got warm and shut down?! When i arrived and tried it ,nothing , so i took it apart cleaned it put it back together and still nothing. She said she went to get on it the monitor was blank (she always leaves it on) so she hit the reset on the surge protector and reset it and nothing. Im wondering if maybe the powersource surged out ? BUT! When i took it out and put power to it the light on the powersource itself came on it was yellow it stayed on probably twenty seconds and went off ?! Any ideas would be greatly appreciated ( and might make me a few browny points with the mother in law ,fellas you know what i mean lol). thank you

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Dani AI

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Quick expert checklist and safe next steps based on s plan and 's initial hints.

Before buying a replacement: do a careful visual and basic electrical check. With the system unplugged look for bulging/leaking capacitors, scorched PCB marks, loose standoffs or screws that could short the board. Remove all nonessential devices (ideally leave only motherboard + CPU + one RAM stick + PSU) and try a bare-metal power-on to see if anything changes. Reset CMOS by removing the coin cell for a minute and reseating RAM and cards.

How to verify the PSU without guessing: use a dedicated PSU tester or a multimeter to check rails. If you force the PSU on (short PS_ON to ground on the main connector) do so only if comfortable and keep fingers away from live metal. Expected DC rail ranges (ATX): 12V ~ 11.4–12.6V, 5V ~ 4.75–5.25V, 3.3V ~ 3.14–3.47V. Many PSUs will shut down quickly if they detect a short or an out-of-spec rail — brief spin then stop usually means protection tripped. If available, swap in a known-good PSU to confirm.

If replacing the supply: match the form factor and necessary connectors (20/24-pin main, P4/4-pin CPU 12V, Molex/SATA for drives). Choose a reputable brand and keep the receipt — cheap units often fail quickly. Safety notes: do not open a PSU (dangerous capacitors), unplug mains before swapping, ground yourself, and recheck front-panel connector seating.

If a verified-good PSU still fails to power the board, suspect the motherboard (bad VRMs, blown caps, board-level shorts). If uncertain with mains testing or solder-level faults, professional servicing is recommended.

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Member Avatar for bobwahler

I'm not really clear on what you've done and I don't know what you mean by powersource. So, from scratch;
1. verify power at the surge protector; if not certain, plug a lamp or something into it.
2. when you turn computer on, does the power or drive light come on? No light suggests a bad power supply.
3. if power light comes on, do you hear the hard drive spinning up? You should.
4. And the monitor, does its power light come on?
5. if yes, most light 2 colors (typically yellow and green; though I've seen orange and red also. One tells you it is getting a video signal from the computer, the other says it is powered up (on), but isn't seeing a signal from the computer; normal if computer is in stand-by, otherwise usually indicates a problem somewhere between the computer/card video connector and the monitors input stage.

This is extremely cursory, but if you need further help, please indicate the results of each of these steps.

Member Avatar for peewee73

Power supply> im sorry ! with the results and steps you have given me makes me more certain that it is probably the power supply! I will pick one up tomorrow and install it and will send a reply on the results. I sure appreciate your assistance thank you very much!

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