broken computer! |
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13-12-2012, 19:39
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#1 |
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Join Date: Jun 2009
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broken computer!
Help!
Have a compaq computer, about 4 years old. Went to turn it today, light comes on, fans run.... everything else totally dead! Monitor says no signal........ hard drive light comes on for about one second but does not keep spinning as it would if windows was loading up. no power to usb sockets....... what could be wrong? |
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13-12-2012, 19:44
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#2 |
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Join Date: Apr 2011
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Duff power supply followed by a duff motherboard would be my guess
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13-12-2012, 19:45
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#3 |
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Location: Norwich, Norfolk, UK
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Is it a desktop/tower computer?
If so, see if there are any LED's on the back. If so, they might indicate an error code which you can look up in the manual. Dell desktops have this feature but I don't know if all makes do. |
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13-12-2012, 19:50
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#4 |
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yeah its a desktop / tower computer, so I'll have a look at the back to see what colour the power light on the back is.
The power light on the front stays green. it has been working fine up until now!!!! I had recently reinstalled windows and it was working very well. |
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13-12-2012, 19:53
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#5 |
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The PSU would be the first thing I would check, it's not uncommon for these to go wrong.
Any competent person who knows how to use a voltage tester should be able to tell if that's the problem. |
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13-12-2012, 21:46
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#6 |
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ok so thought I might as well mess around with it a bit...... took the back off, couldnt see anything wrong,.... removed a piece of ram.... pressed the button, and it booted straight up as normal .......... so faulty ram I though?
but then I put it back in ... still worked fine? gave it a quick spray with compressed air to get rid of any dust... put the case back together.... left it a few minutes ........ booted up fine. any ideas whats going on? |
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13-12-2012, 22:14
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#7 | |
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Quote:
The first thing I do when a computer stop working is to check all connectors, cards and ram. If that fails I check the power supply. |
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13-12-2012, 22:19
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#8 |
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Thanks.
Im just a bit concerned that its going to be an intermittent fault...... and that whatever I've just done has just provided a temporary fix. |
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13-12-2012, 23:40
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#9 |
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Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 8,496
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It's fairly common for a machine to suddenly decide to start working again after you've opened it up and had a fiddle. Unfortunately, it makes it difficult to diagnose or even know if there is an actual problem. Only time will tell. Meanwhile, take it as an opportunity to ensure everything important is adequately backed up.
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