My computer wont start up

[Coorae]

My computer was working fine 2 days ago.
yesterday, it wouldnt start up at first, then I turned it off and back on and it worked and everthing worked. I did this 3 seperate times that day.
Today, it wont start up at all. I press power, and it makes the normal sounds for the first 3 seconds, until it normally beeps (to signal startup of bois?). no beeps, no thinking sound or light. just the CPU fan running, and the cdrom reading light going on and off every few seconds no matter if there is a CD in or not. The monitor just shows what it normally shows when the computer isnt on. The keyboard wont respond, the capslock light or other wont go on. sometimes after I turn off the computer all the keyboard lights stay on now.
The harddrive is 8 months old. The motherboard and CPU and fan are a month old (I bought for civ), and have been working fine. the power supply is like 2 years old.

I ckecked all the cables.
I tried unplugging the CD rom drive. I tried changing which power supply is going to the harddrive. I tried another keyboard.

the only thing I ca think of is try a different harddrive, or buy a new power supply.

has this happened to anyone?

 

[CrackedCrystal]

Originally posted by Coorae
the cdrom reading light going on and off every few seconds no matter if there is a CD in or not.

This may be a failed CD-ROM. Does it flash are regular intervals? For instance three flashes follwed by a two second pause, then three flashes agian? That is how optical drives signal failures. It is a little unusual that it would stop your computer from booting but you never know.

If opening your computer case will not void any warentees, I would try unhooking the CD-ROM and trying to boot.

EDIT: DOH! I just saw you tried that. Back to the drawing board!

 

[Turner]

Might be a power issue. . . but I'm thinking bios myself. Did you just change the bios? Have you made any changes to it? I'd try the other hard drive, just so you could say that you tried it, but I don't think that's what the problem is.

I was going to point you to This thread, but it deals with a different issue, the computer rebooting on it's own.

 

[CrackedCrystal]

Another thing you could try is unplug everything from the motherboard (all CD-ROMs, floppies, soundcards, hard drives). Leave only the video card, CPU and RAM insterted. That is the bare minimum you need to get a computer past the POST. You could go without video card but then you could not see anything

That would make sure it is not any off-board part that is causing the failure.

EDIT: oh, leave the keyboard in as well, some BIOSes don't like to continue without a keyboard.

 

[Jeratain]

It sounds like a faulty power supply. If you are using a Pentium 4 processor with your motherboard, make sure that there are two power cables plugged into your motherboard.

I suggest going to your local computer hardware store and purchasing a power supply for a P4 case and installing it. See if that fixes your problem. If not, simply return the power supply (make sure to check your store's return policy).

 

[Coorae]

CrackedCrystal: ya I think it is doing that

I tried taking out all the cards and drives, besides the harddrive, and it does the same thing.

my processor is a AMD 2000 and I havent changed any of the bois stuff since I installed it a month ago.

then I guess ill go get another power supply when I get my car fixed, which also broke today, with the money at the place I left my wallet today becuase I forgot it.

 

[CrackedCrystal]

Originally posted by Coorae
then I guess ill go get another power supply when I get my car fixed, which also broke today

I feel for you. Car repairs are aweful. The last car repair I had to do was replace the fuel pump... $450

And that same day, I was planning on taking the club's airplane up for a spin with my friend. I had to cancel my flight because of that stupid fuel pump

 

[Coorae]

that sucks. my car might need a new transmission, good thing I dont have to be anywhere, and my parents will probably pay for it because I couldnt pay for it, only things like a power supply for my computer. how much is a new power supply anyways? you can get them without buying a new case right?

 

[CrackedCrystal]

Yes you can. The price varies greatly between $30 and $150. I would not suggest getting the cheepo models. Often times they makers will put "fake" wattage level on the box. I quoted fake because they aren't really fake. They just can only provide that amount in short bursts.

Like if you have a car that should only go 150mph under normal use, but can go 200mph for one minute, it would not be lying that its a 200mph car, but it would be very deceptive.

I am partial to Antec PSUs (especially the TruePower series). I have one and I like it. I have one of their higher end models, it has a tempurature sensor build in to regulate fan speed, so when the case is cooler, the fans run slower thus keeping noise down.

I would not go lower than 400W regardless of model you buy.

Here is a list of Antec units:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProdu...=58&manufactory=1516&DEPA=1&sortby=14&order=1