This is deeply odd. I turned off one of my PCs--an old homebuilt AMD Athlon
machine--and now it just won't start. I keep pressing the on button and it
won't turn on. Until I turned it off, it was working fine. Now, it just
won't switch on, and I can see no reason for it. When I plug it in, it
buzzes for a couple of seconds, and the drive lights light up. Then,
nothing. When I hit the on switch, nothing happens.

Any of you ever see this before? What does one do? Thanks.

Hiawatha Bray wrote:
are clogged with dust and no longer turning, and the machine is shutting
down rather than burn up.

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I took the cover off, and the fans do spin up. At least, the ones in the
case do. I dunno about the power supply. The thing certainly is full of
dust, though.


"CJT" <abujlehc (AT) prodigy (DOT) net> wrote

Hiawatha Bray wrote:
If you temporarily disconnect the case fans, you should be able to hear
whether the PS fan is still turning. Or you might be able to see it
through the vents in the back of the computer. My guess is it's not
running, and that there's either an interlock or temperature sensor in
there that's shutting down the machine.

PS fans can be replaced, but given the low cost of a PS nowadays, it
might be easier to replace the whole thing (assuming it's an ATX so
that a replacement can readily be found).

Of course, there are other possibilities for why it won't boot; we're
just dealing with probabilities here. The second most likely failure
relates to the capacitor problem detailed here:

http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY...eb03/ncap.html

There's a link in the article to a photo that shows what to look for.

But that doesn't usually result in the symptoms you describe (although
it could).

Beyond that, _any_ component can fail, and there are quite a few on
the critical path.

Hope That Helps.

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I'll check the PS fan tomorrow. Fortunately, I have no critical data on
this machine. One thing's for sure, though. If it's really kaput, I'll
either make do with my two other machines or buy another used PC for my
Linux work. It just doesn't seem too sensible to take an old PC to the
shop. A "new" used one would do just as well and prolly cost less.

Thanks.
"CJT" <abujlehc (AT) prodigy (DOT) net> wrote

On Wed, 30 Mar 2005 04:59:45 GMT, "Hiawatha Bray"
<watha (AT) monitortan (DOT) com> wrote:

Could it be the switch?

Geo

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll try them first chance I get.


"NuTCrAcKeR" <nutcracker (AT) internationalhacker (DOT) org> wrote

"Hiawatha Bray" schrieb
Hi Hiawatha, what do You mean by "buzzes"?
Are these any of the BIOS diagnostic sounds?
Then You'ld need the BIOS manual to identify what those tones mean!
Or make a (google) search on those beep tones.

Horst.