I Just Can't Turn It On! - DPChallenge Forums

09/23/2007 12:29:33 AM · #1

Okay, the title made ya look. LOL

Problem - disconnected my desktop puter today while I was painting the office. Reconnected everything and puter will not power up. Little LED is flashing telling me its getting power, everything else in the room is working fine, but push the power button as much as I like, it still will not start up. WTF?

Anyone know what's going on here? Suggestions? Ideas that don't involve a bottle of coca-cola or electricians??? Its a Dell PC... if that matters at all. I'm NOT a puter noobie, I know my machines well and this has thouroughly stumped me! :/

Laptop sucks and all my good stuff is on the PC. Dammit, its like my arms are cut off.

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM II

09/23/2007 12:31:25 AM · #2

In all seriousness, last time someone told me this it turned out their monitor wasn't plugged in. Might start there.

PhotoDave

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

09/23/2007 12:31:40 AM · #3

Cindi,

Is it beeping at all when you try to boot it up?

Is there just one LED on the front or are there 2?

09/23/2007 12:33:38 AM · #4

Monitor is on.... seriously machine will not power up... no sounds whatsoever coming from it, no harddrive spinning, no beeping. :/

Sony 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 E-mount

09/23/2007 12:34:18 AM · #5

Add: Only one LED on front, and its ON the power button, blinks yellow about once a second.

jmsetzler

Sony Alpha a6000

09/23/2007 12:36:00 AM · #6

Originally posted by idnic:

Add: Only one LED on front, and its ON the power button, blinks yellow about once a second.

That normally indicates that the laptop is asleep or in hibernation. You might try holding the power button down for about 5-8 seconds and see if anything happens...

kyebosh

Canon EOS-20D

Canon EF 80-200mm f/2.8L

09/23/2007 12:36:30 AM · #7

I've recently had a problem starting up my desktop. I believe the power supply is going bad. Anyways, there's a switch on the back that changes the voltage from 110v to 220v and if I put it on 220, hit the power button, and then switch it over to 110v after 5 seconds or so it'll boot normally. It won't turn on at all if I push the button while that switch is on 110v. Probably isn't the same problem as you're having, but it's worth a shot I guess.

09/23/2007 12:39:10 AM · #8

Originally posted by jmsetzler:

Originally posted by idnic:
Add: Only one LED on front, and its ON the power button, blinks yellow about once a second.

That normally indicates that the laptop is asleep or in hibernation. You might try holding the power button down for about 5-8 seconds and see if anything happens...

Its not the laptop, tis the PC (I'm using the laptop now to cry for help). Have pressed and held the power button MANY times now. Held it up to 30 seconds just to be sure.

Also tried -
Resetting the circut breaker for this area of the house
Swapped the PC's power cord with a different one
Checked the monitor with the laptop to be sure it was working properly
Uhmmm..... basically everything I could think of

09/23/2007 12:41:10 AM · #9

If the power light is blinking, the board is getting its 5 volts so presumably the power supply is not bad.

Call dell, the sequence the light flashes in can probably let them look up the error. Or you can comb through their site and look it up.

Odds are you knocked a board loose inside.

edit: as you aren't a noob, open it. Press all the ram chips down and make sure they are firmly seated. Same for all cards and for the cpu.

Message edited by author 2007-09-23 00:42:31.

09/23/2007 12:43:36 AM · #10

Originally posted by kyebosh:

:( Didn't work.

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM II

09/23/2007 12:45:36 AM · #11

Originally posted by routerguy666:

Okay, gonna have a look, if that doesn't work, I'm calling Dell. Ugh. My next machine is a mac!

PhotoDave

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

09/23/2007 12:56:25 AM · #12

Well for one the Mac and PC are pretty much the same now on the inside :)

Also I agree it could be as simple as a loose card or even the molex power cable going to the hard drive can actually come loose also. does the CPU fan spin up when you turn it on or is all you get it the power LED on the front and nothing else fires up?

if you can tell us if you can see a sequence in the LED flashing and the model of your Dell, mite be able to look it up...

Lastly it very well could be the PSU gone bad but FYI in case you dont know you have to get a PSU from Dell as a reg off the shelf one will fry the motherboard as there wired differently...

-dave

SDW

Tamron AF 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 XR Di LD Aspherical IF for Canon

09/23/2007 12:57:01 AM · #13

I know this is a long shot but have seen it happen before.

1.Do you have your computer plugged into a surge protector? If so, unplug and plug directly into the wall outlet.

2. If #1 does not work plug the computer into another wall outlet. It could be an outlet problem especially since you were re-painting the room. some paint could of ran down and onto the wall outlet causing a problem.

09/23/2007 01:03:30 AM · #14

LED is flashing once every 2 or 3 seconds, no fan, nothing, just the LED. I double checked all power connections, and everything else plugged into the same wall/surge protector are working (speakers, monitor, external HDs, etc.). I'm trying to dig up my Dell password so I can see if this puppy is still warrantied. :/

Edit, LED flahses Yellow (not green like when its working normally).

Message edited by author 2007-09-23 01:06:06.

paddles

Pentax K10D

Pentax FA 50mm f/1.4 AF

09/23/2007 01:04:02 AM · #15

Besides routerguy's suggestion of reseating the RAM/cards/CPU, you might also want to check the power plugs on the motherboard. Unless your computer is quite old, there should be two - a long one and a small square one. Might even want to disconnect them and then plug them back in firmly.

Do the fans in the computer start up when you turn it on? That is, the ones in the power supply, over the CPU, and probably one or two in the case.

The other thing you might want to try is starting it up with minimal hardware, if messing around with the hardware isn't going to affect your warranty. Disconnect/remove everything except:
- CPU and fan
- RAM
- Hard disk
- Keyboard and mouse
- Graphics card and monitor
- Power supply (of course :)
- Case fans
- Speakers (if you are using the sound connectors on your motherboard)

See if it starts up. If everything is ok, gradually bring back your other devices:
- Optical drives (CD/DVD)
- Floppy drive
- Other internal cards (e.g. wireless network)
- Other devices

Also, if you can borrow a monitor from somewhere it might be worth trying that instead of your regular monitor, just in case the computer is totally fine but the monitor is dead.

SDW

Tamron AF 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 XR Di LD Aspherical IF for Canon

09/23/2007 01:10:59 AM · #16

Originally posted by idnic:

So you have physically plugged the computer into another outlet? Or have you changed out cords but plugged the computer into the same outlet? One outlet on a surge protector or wall socket can go bad and all others work fine. Just checking.... hope you get thing running.

09/23/2007 01:11:27 AM · #17

Mwahahahaaa purchased Nov. 13, 2006. :) Gonna have a LONG chat with Dell about a SHORT repair if I can't get this thing up NOW!

I checked that all of the boards-n'stuff were seated, wiggled and tugged and found none loose. Swapped the power cord earlier, but swapped it again. Still being stupid. Silencio.

09/23/2007 01:12:18 AM · #18

Originally posted by swhiddon:

Have tried another outlet (just a minute ago) still silence. Again... everything else in the room working fine. :/

09/23/2007 01:14:14 AM · #19

Hit it. Hard.

09/23/2007 01:16:39 AM · #20

Originally posted by routerguy666:

Hit it. Hard.

LOL did that about 4 hours ago....~2 hours after the push the on button every minute for an hour campaign failed. :)

paddles

Pentax K10D

Pentax FA 50mm f/1.4 AF

09/23/2007 01:18:18 AM · #21

Hmmm, you're too quick!

Do you have another power supply around (or that you could borrow) that you could try using? You don't necessarily have to pull it out of the case - could just have it on the table next to the computer, remove all the existing power connectors in the case and connect everything up to the new power supply, plug the new power supply into the mains and see what happens. (Think of it as a sort of open heart surgery or a Humpty Dumpty, if you're a fan of Grey's Anatomy). Of course, make sure that the power supply you're borrowing is big enough, if it's an old 250W one then it probably won't do any good.

While you're at it, take a bit of a sniff for any burning smells coming from your motherboard or your old power supply.

09/23/2007 01:18:33 AM · #22

Hooooooooly crap..... so I'm sitting here looking in awe at my Dell account & realizing that I've bought 3 machines in under 2 years from them and I hate all 3.... all the while I'm randomly reaching over & hitting the power button on the PC.......

....It started! That must have been press #937! Good lord.

09/23/2007 01:19:27 AM · #23

Now what.... I can never turn it off again? Ugh.

Dantzr

Pentax K-x

09/23/2007 01:22:00 AM · #24

Cindi... I know this is gonna go against everything taught to anyone over the age of 5 and younger than 45.. but...

Back in the days of the old TVs and radios with vacuum tubes (if you don't know, it will take too long to explain) if we ever got to a point similar to this... this is what we would do... take a deep breath and then give it a good whack. In the TV repair shop I worked in, we used to call it the Philmore Slap, but basically it is nothing but a hard...not intense... open handed slap to the machine.

I know it sounds strange but... try it. Actually a slap or two might do it. And yes...I am totally serious!!!

EDIT: to show that I type too much and too slow. Everything changed while I was moving my two fingers.

Message edited by author 2007-09-23 01:23:50.