Computer will not boot

1372 Views 18 Replies 4 Participants Last post by Prophet, Jul 22, 2010

UncleVanya

Discussion Starter · Jul 20, 2010

I've had my desktop computer for about 4 years now. It is an Acer Aspire T120c. Where I live, we were experiencing
a heatwave, and the moniter would freeze up. I booted and it turned on, and I began to watch something on youtube,
and the scrren went fuzzy and I was unable to shut down. I had to pwer it offthrough the tower power button. Once
it turned off, it would no longer turn on and boot up.

The power button lights up, and the CD drive still opens, and a few lights blink on start up as usual.

But, the screen is blank (but monitor works). All of the fans seem to go. The power supply fan runs, the other fan
runs too, at a frantic pace, and does not stop or slow down.

I can't boot from a CD, the keyboard doesn't turn on and neither does the mouse.

As far as starting up goes, there are No beeps or clicks to hint at harddrive failure. The hard drive is spinning. When
I try to start it up nothing comes on but the fan which goes on full blast until I turn it off.

I tried taking my IGB RAM out, and booted, but heard no beeps from the motherboard (in fact, during all this I heard no
beeps at all). I tried eraing the CMOS, but still the same. I'm thinking my motherboard is dead.

Otherwise, if everything seems to be going, what is stopping it from booting up?

Some specs: AMD Athlon XP CPU
System Memory DDR 266/333/400, 2 DIMM Slots, expandable to 2GB
3D quality audio system via onboard audio controller
High-capacity, Enhanced-IDE drive
Motherboard: Acer
Motherboard Model: Model-G74M
CPU-AMD Sempron 2.0 Ghz
Computer Version: R01-A3
320 G Western Digital

Any help would be greatly appreciated (but it seems that my MB is toast; though there is a litle yellow light that
glows on it when powered up).

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1 - 19 of 19 Posts

shotgn

· #2 · Jul 20, 2010

do you have another psu to try? i dont know if your case will support a standard atx psu, but if you can borrow 1 to try you dont need to stick it in there.

Tyree

· #3 · Jul 20, 2010

Same as shotgn. Any OEM PC over two yrs. old is a good candidate for PSU failure and your symptoms point to a power issue.

UncleVanya

Discussion Starter · #4 · Jul 21, 2010 (Edited by Moderator)

Unfortunately, I don't have another psu. Also, I am not sure what you mean by: "if you can borrow 1 to try you dont need to stick it in there." Wouldn't it have to go in the chassi to test it? Though the current one boots up, turns on the power, do you still think it is the source of the problem?

I forgot to reveal that my PSU is an ORION Intel Pentium 4, Model YH-480 watts. I replaced the OEM PSU about 2 years ago with this one. I should have also mentioned that the system crashed after installing OCCT (I thought it would help me discover why the video monitor was ging all fuzzy and freezing, requiring shut-off by power button on tower). From what I recall OCCT firstly said I needed some microsoft software 9x (something or other, can't remember, but I did install it). Then it said I needed a NIVIDIA Geforce (something or other, can't rember). And finally it was saying I didn't have enough memory. I left it on over night, and when I woke up, I had the above problem. I hope someone can help. It probably is an open and shut case from your perspective, but I would just like some validation to whether or not my motherboard is probably fried. Thanks for any help. Oh, and sorry for the double post (I messed up

)

Also forgot to mention that I took the memory bar out and powered the pc back on, and from what I understand, the motherboard should continously beep, but it made no sound (ie. beeps) at all. I think I read somewhere that that meant the motherboard was not working.

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shotgn

· #5 · Jul 21, 2010

to test it you wont need to connect it to the chassis, will save you the headache if it turns out its not the psu. just swap wires is all...

No beeps with no ram in usually indicates motherboard failure...do you have a speaker hooked to the motherboard?

UncleVanya

Discussion Starter · #6 · Jul 21, 2010 (Edited by Moderator)

I will see if a friend will lend me his psu tomorrow to test as you said. And yes I do have speakers attached. I should mention that I just noticed that when I boot up the computer the fans come on (as usual, and after about 10 or 15 seconds I hear a faint click, like something has shut off??

You guys are good. I realize now why you all stress the importance of a PSU. In other words, I remember I had an old Dell comuter that I thought had died 8 years back. I figured the PSU in it was proably toast, but I thought I had nothing to lose by doing as you said and attaching it outside the chassis. Surprise surprise, it worked. It booted up fine. Obviously I will not keep this PSU because it is probably worse than the dead one I've got now. Any suggestions on a new PSU that will be compatible with my PC? Anything else I should upgrade? Thanks for the continued help guys. You're the best.

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shotgn

· #7 · Jul 21, 2010

since you are using onboard video and your system is dated...its a tough call, not much life left in it.
You can put a 550w corsair and take it with you for the next one or just use a 400w version if you plan to use it for another year or so
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139004 550w
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139008 400w

UncleVanya

Discussion Starter · #8 · Jul 21, 2010

I think I will go with the corsair (like you said, I can take it with me). Do you think it will fit properly in my chassis. Also, I noticed that link to the corsair showed a PSU with sata cables. MY machine is old school, IDE. Could be a problem. Could I use adapter cables (does seem like a lot of wiring, though). What say you?

Because I have never built my own pc (though have thought of it), this may seem like a silly question. Does the Windows operating system come with the motherboard, or do you buy it separately (they're so damn expensive). Thanks again, shotgn, from Toronto (where we've been having New Mexican weather for the past month...very HOTTTTT: 45C with the humidex). Uhuugg

shotgn

· #9 · Jul 21, 2010 (Edited by Moderator)

yeah bad heat wave here too, monsoon season now so add 70% humidity ug.....that was my mistake, it is ide., for the power to the drives it should be molex connections....check to see if i am correct, and 20 pin to motherboard power as well as 4pin cpu power

To answer your other question, you have to buy windows separately, win7 home premium runs around $100.
I do believe your drives are powered by the 4 pin molex which are on the corsair psu, IDE is just the interface, ribbon cable that transfers data from the hd to the motherboard.

You should be fine with it

UncleVanya

Discussion Starter · #10 · Jul 21, 2010 (Edited by Moderator)

20 pin motherboard power and 4 pin cpu power is correct. I went to the Molex web page but couldn't find anything along the line of sata to ide adapters (mostly stuf for USB connections, multi media connectors, display ports, etc So I don't know.

Also, a kindly reminder about the question above : motherboards and OS.

Whoops I sent my re-question to soon.

Oh well, unfortunately in Canada we pay way more for electronics (pretty much everything) than you in the States. I wanted to buy an additional XP disk a few years back and they were $250, here at future shop (not including the 15% sales tax). I passed on it. The cost to build your own system (at least here) can be a very costly proposition. I guess that's why so many people buy the OEMs.

shotgn

· #11 · Jul 21, 2010 (Edited by Moderator)

As said, you probably missed it. You should be just fine with that psu. Just to satisfy my curiosity. Can you take a couple of pictures of where the psu mounts? as well as the back where the power cord plugs into. I cant seem to locate any when i do a search for your system.

shotgn said:
To answer your other question, you have to buy windows separately, win7 home premium runs around $100.
I do believe your drives are powered by the 4 pin molex which are on the corsair psu, IDE is just the interface, ribbon cable that transfers data from the hd to the motherboard.

You should be fine with it

here is one from newegg.ca
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116752 win7

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139004 550w

Prophet

· #12 · Jul 21, 2010

you can sometimes get mobo os bundle from newegg.com but your not going to save a whole lotta $. if your building a pc you can save about 100 bucks by buying the oem system builders version of windows. your hard drives use the 4 pin molex connectors sometimes listed as Peripheral connectors.

UncleVanya

Discussion Starter · #13 · Jul 21, 2010

Actually the ide cables come from the PSU and plug directly into the hard drives and cd rom (at least that is how mine is configured, and has the 4 pin and 20 pin plugs.

shotgn

· #14 · Jul 21, 2010 (Edited by Moderator)

I dont know why the links are not working, just look for seasonic S12II

Take pictures and post em here

UncleVanya

Discussion Starter · #15 · Jul 21, 2010

My camera is at a friends. I will try to get it tomorrow and I will post the pics.

shotgn

· #16 · Jul 21, 2010

sounds good

UncleVanya

Discussion Starter · #17 · Jul 21, 2010

Uggh, I just tried to leave a mesage--didn't work (I don't thin) Anyway shotgn, the accomplishment I had last night has turned into the same scenario, I previously had. I booted this morning, and a again, power to the fans and whatnot, but no start up on the computer. I'm thinking that this may not be a catastrophe, but I maybe just have to repeat the installationt. I know now that the other PSU was not working, since this old clunker was able to start my dead pc. I'm also thinking that you are on the right path when you suggest to replace the PSU (which I am in agrreement, too) Let's just take it from the successful reboot, and go on from their (with suggestions). I am off shortly to work (very tired) and hope to see/hear from you later Thank-u (I am still determined to get my camera for those shots to send u later). Gotta go, wish I could be more cogent at this time, but too many plates swirling on the stick. Cheers

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shotgn

· #18 · Jul 22, 2010

Have you tried a new psu yet? and got those pics?

Prophet

· #19 · Jul 22, 2010

4 pin plug goes from psu to hard drive ,cdrom, some video cards etc are molex connectors sometimes listed as peripheral connections in psu product specifications. ide cables go from motherboard to harddrive or cdrom. So even if you buy a power supply that has sata power connections if the specifications show x amount of perripherals or molex connectors you can power your older hard drives.

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