[whitbyterry]

Hey guys - I've never seen this happen to one of my computers so I am looking for thoughts.

I was away on business for 3 weeks so I turned my desktop computer off. I came home and turned it on and nothing happened. There is no noise, nothing.

I have unplugged the power cable and made sure the rocker switch is set to on.

When I push the power button I can see a "green light" on the mother board comes on but there is no noise. If I push the power button, and hold it, the green light on the board goes off.

Any idea what the problem is? Is it likely a dead power supply? Dead mother board?

As far as I know, it was not hit by lightning. I have several other things plugged in to the same power bar (surge protected) and they all work fine.

Since I see the green light, I am thinking that some minimal power must be getting to it but I don't know if it could be some residual power inside the computer that is just enough to turn on the light.

Thoughts?

 

[ecarlino016]

power supply has died.....
you can usually tell if the fans do not turn (any of them).

This is common with power suppies. They can work one day and die the next.

Should be a simple fix.
Good Luck,

EC

 

[whitbyterry]

I disconnected as many of the power plugs as I could see and plugged them back in and it came back to life. Somehow, one of them must have come out on its own as the tower was locked while I was gone and I distinctly remember shutting it down as the last thing I did before I left.

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Danster]

How handy are you with a multimeter? If you unplug one of the molex connectors, and insert he black lead in the hole with a black cable and the red lead in either the yellow or red hole, you should get 5 or 12 volts.

One thing that baffles me, you can press the power button but not much happens? Does the fan turn at all?

When you usually press the button, what happens is the switch triggers a standby current on your mother board and the power supply senses this feedback and in return, turns all power. Does anything like this happen at all?

 

[whitbyterry]

I've never used a multi-meter at all.

When I pressed the power button, nothing was happening other than a green LED was coming on that was on the mother board.

As I posted above, I disconnected an reconnected any plug I could see and that seemed to do the trick. Not sure how one came loose, but it must have.

The computer is running fine again.

 

[Danster]

My bad...I had missed the part you say it came back to life.

Sometimes, heat and cold makes weird things happen....like push out connections with the contraction and expansion caused by the chaning temps. Glad to see it worked.