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:rolleyes: my gate way gp6-400 is doing some wierd stuff. it has a intel p2 500mhz processor.the frt. hhd & power lites come on & stay on when i plug it in. the floppy won't lite up, & i know for a fact the hhd won't spinup either. no beeps indicated.has external speakers only. also the caps lock & nums lock on the keyboard flsh on & immediatly go out. i bought a power supply tester, & checked it & it passed. i've tried everything in the book like i do when i repair other pcs. i'm wondering if it could be in the bios power settings, but i can't get to it cause the monitor does'nt boot up to system ckecks. it goes to power save. i bought a power supply & it comes in today & i'll try it first before i commit the m/b. its a atx 1 socket. checked the m/b for burnt caps etc. none found i bought cheap from ebay & worked fine. it had a p2 & replaced w/ a p3. pulled everything out down to the m/b. i'm about balled figureing this one out. i repair pc's on the side for friends only. its like a hobby & i love doing it :lol: i have 2 pcs & 2 laptops that work great. i used a kill disk when i changed out an existing hhd. i insalled a 10gig maxtor. tried other hhd i have lying around ,still no such luck. maybe i'll have some luck w/ the new p/s when i get it. iwent to a 300 amp. it had a 200amp in it. the ribbons look ok but don't have any to test it. i hope someone out there can help w/ this problem.

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As later discovered, a borderline power supply is a common root cause when a machine has LED power indication but never reaches POST or spins drives. The symptoms in this thread point to marginal power delivery rather than an OS, drive, or monitor fault. The checklist below gives practical, repeatable checks for the same symptom set and explains why a visually “working” PSU or a cheap tester can still be the culprit.

  • Verify audible POST: connect the small internal motherboard speaker (external PC speakers won’t show beep codes). No beep at all on a speaker often means the board isn’t getting stable power far enough to start POST.
  • Minimal hardware boot: bench the board with only PSU, CPU, one known-good RAM stick, and video (onboard or a tested card). Remove all drives, cards and front-panel connectors except power. If it POSTs, add parts back one at a time.
  • Check DC rails under load with a meter: measure +12V, +5V and +3.3V while a drive or fan is connected; ATX rails should be within ~±5% of nominal. Borderline voltages that shift under load indicate a weak supply even if an LED tester “passes.”
  • CMOS and seatings: reset CMOS (remove battery or use jumper), reseat CPU, heatsink and RAM, and confirm the 20/24‑pin ATX and CPU power connectors are fully seated. Inspect the board and PSU for swollen caps or brown residue.

A note on testers and safety: many inline testers only check presence of rails and LEDs; they rarely stress the supply. The most reliable check is a known-good replacement PSU or measuring voltages under load. Always unplug and ground before touching components, avoid the paperclip-only tests if unsure, and never work on a live PSU case. Following these steps explains why ’s eventual PSU swap fixed the problem and gives a repeatable method for others seeing the same behaviour.

Member Avatar for compnutt

:D well if anyone wants to know i found my problem on my own this may help others for this problem. the power supply was'nt putting out exactly 3.3 volts & it was weak. everything is up & running. when you see the p/s fan is not spinning at a nomal rate at idle replace it. :cool:

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