Topic: System won't boot up-Did I break it?

[Hexx]

Hey all
Not sure if anyone can offer advice but..
Friday afternoon I unplugged my computer and hooked up
an old system to make sure it still worked.
Simply powerred it down, unplugged everything and moved it about 10"
Saturday night I went to plug the new system back in,
doesn't work.
There are lights that come on inside the case, and the USB attachments light up
but the "on" button doesn't do anything.
I've tried hitting the reset button a well, and nothing.

Is it possible that something simply became detached?
And if it did- likely how hard would it be to fix?
I'm a little cautious about opening the system case as this one has stuff attached to both
sides inside.
Not sure if anyone has any ideas with the little info I can provide, just not wanting to spend $100
on a tech if all that's needed is having something plugged in.

[Sirgod]

My system will some times do this If a storm shuts off all power. What I do is unplug the pc, wait a few minutes, plug It back in power It on. It's possible, But not likely that you disconnected the little wires going from the Power switch to the MB, but that's very unlikely, unless you used a Front end loader and multiple drops to move your PC 10".

Stephen

[Darth Sidious]

Is it a Dell?

I've run into similar sounding problems with Dell GX270s at work where the pc behaves like this after a thermal faliure.

[The Bar-Abbas Anomaly]

 
It actually sounds a bit like you're power supply is under-powered for the equipment you've got installed and it just can't get it all started on power-up, but that's just a shot-in-the-dark guess.

Either way, open up the case.  C'mon... It's perfectly safe.  Trust me.  Just pop the cover off and make sure all your cards (particularly the video card) are fully pushed down into their slots.

Also, does the power switch do /nothing/?  Even if you hold it in for 5 ~ 6 seconds?

[Dracho]

My bet would be the power supply.  How long had it been running when you turned it off?


Habitat for Humanity brought us a Compaq once with a bad power supply, and another machine just like it to rob the power supply from to replace it in the first machine.  When we put in the replacement, it didn't work.  They pitched a fit that it worked just fine when they left with it, and the machine was actually turned on just before they turned it off to bring it in.

We asked how long the machine had been running since the last time it was turned off, and they replied, "Ugh.. I don't know, probably 3 or 4 years.. why?"

Sometimes, when you power it down, that power supply just gives up the ghost and says, "WHEW!! I'm done!"

I'd check all the connections, then yank the PS out of the old machine, or set them side-by-side and plug the dead machine into the good power supply, and see if it boots.

If that doesn't work, sometimes a stuck platter in a hard drive will cause the system to behave this way.  Unplug the hard drives and see if the BIOS will post.

[Hexx]

Thanks all. unfortunately it's kinda  weird case -glass on one side, everything is hooked up to the side
that comes off.
In any event I took it into the shop ,guy put a new power unit into it and it boots up fine now. 

Unfortunately the CD drive isn't showing up anywhere. 

[The Bar-Abbas Anomaly]

Thanks all. unfortunately it's kinda  weird case -glass on one side, everything is hooked up to the side
that comes off.
In any event I took it into the shop ,guy put a new power unit into it and it boots up fine now. 

Unfortunately the CD drive isn't showing up anywhere. 

Power supply?  THAT'S RIGHT!!!  I CALLED THAT!  THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKIN' ABOUT!!!  Who's the MAN?!?

{To celebrate Barabbas dances a jig and changes his name to 'JabberWookie'...}   


OK, the CD drive isn't showing up because when he put the new power supply in he either A) didn't plug a power connector  into it or more likely B) accidently nudged loose the data cable from the back of the drive or from the mother board.

Now, just pop open the case....