Yet more computer help

[Phil B]

I usually fix peoples computers but this time mine has me stumped!

I left my computer on and left the room for a few minutes. On returning, the screen had ‘frozen up’ and I was unable to use any keyboard options and hitting the reset switch did nothing. Unable to go anywhere, I resorted to unplugging power and hoping this would reset.

And there is where I’m stuck. As soon as the power lead is plugged in, power is restored without me pressing the power button on. All things appear ok – hdd is spinning, all fans turning but that’s it – I cant even get any boot up messages or into bios. Plenty power but keyboard not registering and monitor saying no signal input. Its like its in power saving mode.

Can anyone offer suggestions.

Machine is Mesh Athlon 1700+ with an asus a7a266 motherboard 1gb ram

 

[haardman]

Unplug the power cable and hold the power switch on to use up any stored power.

Then open it up and check how dusty it is in there. If it's bad then very carefully give it a vacuum, taking care not to touch anything.
(dust causes a lot of problems with memory and the cpu heatsync).

If it's not dusty in there then try taking the memory out and re-inserting it. (make sure you discharge any static in your fingers before touching the RAM).

Failing that take the onboard battery out for 5 minutes and then re-insert (this will cause the computer to forget all it's hardware settings, but most of them will redetect. You'll need to re-enter the date.

 

[Horsham Gull]

turn it off and on of course

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Not got a dodgy copy of Windows XP by any chance?

My dodgy copy did that after about 20 days because i hadn't registered the copy. Ended up having to buy the poxy thing for a king's ransom.

Else, try switching it off and on again innit

 

[Phil B]

Unplug the power cable and hold the power switch on to use up any stored power.

Then open it up and check how dusty it is in there. If it's bad then very carefully give it a vacuum, taking care not to touch anything.
(dust causes a lot of problems with memory and the cpu heatsync).

If it's not dusty in there then try taking the memory out and re-inserting it. (make sure you discharge any static in your fingers before touching the RAM).

Failing that take the onboard battery out for 5 minutes and then re-insert (this will cause the computer to forget all it's hardware settings, but most of them will redetect. You'll need to re-enter the date.

Thanks for the advice - machine now is off until i hit power button.

did ram and remove battery. no change. But if disk was dead - surely i would get error msg on boot - or to bios at least. As im getting nothing lighting up on keyboard - could it be the m/board??

 

[dougdeep]

Well I reckon it's f***ed.

 

[haardman]

As you say, disk failure would not stop it booting.

Try another PSU if you have one, failing that (if you're up to it) remove and re-insert the CPU.

If that doesn't work then it could be the motherboard - it's just very rare.

 

[Goodfella]

Def sounds like a motherboard failure.