Seems to be power, but no startup

[jtrory]

Hi,

I've taken a look all over this forum for a problem similar to mine, but I can't seem to find it. Here's the issue:

My computer was working just fine until last night, when my girlfriend started it up and it did not boot up. All the fans came on, and the light on the tower was green, but the monitor stayed black and nothing appeared. She said after about a minute, she started smelling "rubber" and immediately turned the computer off.

When I came home I took a look at it. I turned the computer on, all the fans came on, but the light on the tower is now yellow, and the two disc drives will not open, like they're not powered. However, there is a power light on the drives, so that doesn't make much sense. I turned it off and checked all the connections inside the computer, unplugging each one and then replacing it. There are no connections missing. I did the same for the outside, and checked the surge protector. I also did not smell any rubber, and didn't notice any burn marks anywhere or any external damage to the motherboard or HD.

Here's what I'm assuming: since I do not get any startup screen of any description, the problem lies with the motherboard. What makes no sense to me is that there are green lights on my disc drives, but they will not open. That has be confused. If it were the HD, wouldn't I get a startup screen showing my ASUS motherboard screen and access to BIOS, but then a HD error? If it were the PSU, there would be no lights on my disc drives and motherboard (which there are), and the fans would not come on. What does the yellow light on my tower mean?

Are there any suggestions that can be made, any tests I could perform, that could validate my suspicions, before I pay for a new one motherboard and find out that isn't the problem? Thanks for any help.

[dcc]

The green LED on most computers means that the system is on, a yellow/amber LED usually means that it is in sleep mode. Try unplugging the power cord from the wall receptacle for a minute and plug it back in and see if it resets. If that doesn't work try clearing the CMOS.

[jtrory]

Could the CMOS battery be dead?

[hig2a4life]

I'm having a similar problem with my compaq desktop,which is running windows XP Pro. When I restart the computer it gets to the Compaq screen, but won't get past it. All of the lights on the drives are on, and the tower light is also on and green. I can hear everything running, but it won't even let me get into the BIOS or choose to boot from disc. It just sits there.
Then, if I'm lucky, about 3 hours later it will be at the windows log in screen. Maybe my problem is a deeper problem involving some faulty hardware, but I hope not. When it's actually running, it runs fine, but whenever I restart, I have this problem. Oh, and occasionally, when it's running it doesn't recognize that I have a CD Rom drive attached even though I do. Any suggestions on this would be greatly appreciated.

[dcc]

It could be a problem with the hdd, has it been making more noise than usual?

You can test it by going to my computer, right click on the hdd, click on properties, click on tools, and click on check now.

[cguan_77]

hi jtorory,

try to unplug your data cables from motherboard that connect to your disc drive, check if you can get a display, if you can get a display then it could be that your cables are spoiled..to check whether your drives could open just plug the supply to the disc drives, normally it will open even without the data cables attached..

[cguan_77]

hig2a4life,

check the jumper settings of your hdd and cd-rom

[dcc]

Please provide us with the make and model of you computer or motherboard.

Depending on the age of you computer it could also be bad capacitors.

[gilbarcomv]

Hi...Seems I do have the same problem with my PC>...It is old...Its a Gateway 500...Pentium 3 550 Mhtz; 300 something of memory. But has worked really fine untill couple of days...Every day there was a sound like one of the two hard drives turned off itself...But my machine kept on and working...Tonight I tested both hard drives...One of them is making a little bit more noise than the other.!!

This is the same as the member who said that only COMPAQ appeared on the screen and that's it! Mine does the same....It shows only GATEWAY...And that's all....Hope anyone has a clue what went wrong with my machine...!!
Thanks!! I do appreciate your advice!!
Gilbarco

[cguan_77]

hi gilbarco,

try to remove from the system the hard disk that you suspect is faulty, check if it can get through...hope this helps..

[gilbarcomv]

Thanks cguan_77....I have two HD's...I tried one, alone and the other alone...One at a time and did not work....I have the old HD that came with my Gateway....10 gig....Put it in alone and with the other ones, and did not work.....Curious thing...I changed the video card 3 weeks ago and it was working perfect...As tonight I put both cards, but looks like the old one is the one who displays the "Gateway" logo on screen...the other one do not...Just the green dot on the monitor...But that is all...Do not go farther from there...
Thanks for the quick response...!!!

[elbank]

Had a similar problem. Had to purchase new computer. Am still running diagnostics on computer. Likely motherboard. what did you find in the end?

[RVL752gp]

I have exactly the same problem, all my mobo's lights are on, fans spin, but no screen at all... i noticed that you have a Asus mobo, i have a Asus M2N32Sli Deluxe board, i hope that its not a prob with Asus capacitors.

I need to sort this out Asap.. iv tried resetting the Cmos, other graphics cards, hard drives, PSU, CPU's.. iv tried everything and iv narrowed it down to the Mobo.

... strangly when i was swapping components with a mates pc which has more or less the same specs as mine, i pugged my Hard drive into his Pc and then after wards when we replaced it his pc start up goes on and says "disk drive check done, no any drive found" doesnt sound like such great English to me.. please someone tell me what i can do about that - something to do with sata/raid drivers that arent finding his hard drive anymore.