[Solved] PC no longer boots, although used to sporadically

[mynameisneo]

Hi

 

I had a tower PC in storage for a while. It got used very rarely when it got taken out. At first it worked but then it seemed to power on but no signal came to the monitor - whether I plugged the monitor into the onboard VGA slot or the VGA and DVI slots on the graphics card. Sometimes it would work and sometimes it wouldn't - so I guessed maybe an issue regarding the video somehow.

 

The other day I got the PC out and decided to try to fix the problem. This is what I can tell you:

 

PC starts and the fan in the PSU and above the processor start whirring. The keyboard does nothing - even if you press caps/num lock it doesn't light up. The lights on the case light up. There's no signal to the monitor. I'm not sure if the hard drive does anything. No beeps. Oh,also, pressing the button for the DVD drive makes it open, but then automatically close partway through opening. I though that was odd.

 

All I want from this PC is to salvage the hard drive, really... but I have no facility to take it out and put it in something else, so I need to get the PC to turn on to use a pen drive to transfer everything off,.

 

What do you think is the source of the problem?

 

Thanks

[Plastic Nev]

Hi and welcome to free PC help.

Considering there are no beeps, no signal to the monitor, strange behaviour from the CD drive bay, and keyboard does nothing, I suspect the power supply is faulty.

A bit difficult to be sure though when nothing much seems to happen, however if you have a multimeter you can test the power supply, or if no meter, a repair shop may not charge anything to test it for you.

 

Nev.

[KenB]

Hi and welcome to ExTS

 

I have to agree with Nev - I suspect the PSU also.

 

However ... take a look here - click here - this will walk you through the test procedure.

Let us know how you get on.

[mynameisneo]

I pulled out all the PSU cables and put them back - and it works! So easy! Thanks!

 

Thanks again :)

[Plastic Nev]

Hi, probably just a poor connection made good by disconnecting and then reconnecting as you have done. Well done and thanks for letting us know. I will mark this as solved.

 

Nev.