misslinda

I just bought a computer from a coworker of mine who had built it himself.

At first I had it running perfectly fine and then when i shut it down to move it to my desk, it would not turn back on.

I tried to troubleshoot it and eventually gave up last night. Today I tried plugging it into different outlets in the surge protector and it worked.

I had it up for about 20 minutes, as I'm still installing my normal software on it. When it went to restart to install ZoneAlarm, it simply shut down. Now I have no power again, no matter which outlet its plugged into.

My coworker assured me that it was in fine working order when he gave it to me, and he has no reason to lie. I'm trying to think what the issue could be. I isolated cards last night and I know its not the power supply because at times, it would run the fans momentarily and then stop.

Now, if i switch the power supply to on and press the power button, I get nada.

any clue?

i'm not a computer expert, but i'm learning....
I don't know much about the innards of the computer except for:
Antec 900 "BigBoy" case
Intel DW965WH motherboard
GeForce 7900 video card
Soundblaster Audigy audio card
Intel dual core processor (I don't recall the specific one)

any help will be greatly appreciated!

wrench97

Did you try it without the power strip?

misslinda

yes, still nothing :/

wrench97

Check inside for loose wires going to the front panel power switch or the motherboard power cable

misslinda

I did that on the motherboard end. Because of the case design of the Antec 900, I can't get into the front header because of how the pieces are riveted together...

everything connected to the motherboard looks ok though - no loose wires, everything is where it should be

i even tried pulling out some hard drives (there are 3 in there) thinking there was too much power being needed, but that wasn't it.

wrench97

Then at that point I would normally try a different power supply, just a thought check the back of the power supply where the cord plugs in if there is a switch usually red that says 115 / 230 make sure it's set to 115 for North America or 230 for the UK and that if there is a power switch it is on.

misslinda

that was the very first thing i checked yesterday....

i can't seem to find any power supplies like this one.... it looks like the power is plugged directly into it.... ie: power supply has a cord that goes to the motherboard, a cord that goes to the hard drives, a cord that goes to the video card, a cord that goes to a fan...

there are four slots in the back of the power supply... its hard to describe

wrench97

That's normal for the inside wiring the two I mentioned would be on the back, most newer supplies do not have the power selector switch and some do not have the power on/off switch.
Do you have access to a digital volt meter?
Test your power supply with a multi meter

Can you see the brand and model on the label on the supply?

misslinda

Ok
so i realized it was a 500w power supply
I went to fry's and bought a 650w power supply

put it in.. computer booted perfectly!

then 5 minutes later, shut off - overheating

there are 4 fans in the case to begin with... plus the fans on the ps and the processor...

any clue what i can do? perhaps 650 is too much power? or maybe its been shutting down due to overheating the whole time? because with the 500w power supply, it won't even turn on.

misslinda

ok, so i tried removing the video card... that didn't work

and now... i press power and it doesn't come on full - just a quick flash of light and fans whirring, then it stops...

i'm so stumped!

wrench97

Check that the fan is tight on the cpu if it's an Intel set up it will have 4 legs that attach to the motherboard sometimes 1 or 2 will pop up loose when the pc is moved.