Legit Reviews

ok i thru together a computer on saturday. installed XP and every thing seemed to be working fine. I shut it down as normal.
last night i was going to install some more programs and nothing. I turn it on and it does just that, nothing. I made sure it was plugged in. I double checked the on/off on the power supply like 15 times. We didnt have a power surge or anything because other things in my house are still running. There doesnt seem to be any power getting to the mother board. no fans spinning no lights on or anything. Its a brand new 430w thermaltake PSU i would hope that it didnt go dead but you never know. I dont have anyway to test the PSU - i guess i will need to pull a working PSU to see if that is a problem. Any idea beside a bad PSU?

Are you sure the outlet is live? Does it need to be reset?

Do the paperclip trick to jump start it outside of the PC.

With the PSU off unplug all the connections, and use a paperclip (or similar) to connect the green wire on the 24pin ATX to any of the black (ground) wires. Turn on the PSU and if the fan starts up the PSU should be working. Don't leave it on for more than a few seconds though as PSUs dont like to be run with no load.

Dan

the outlet is live. my monitor is getting power.. i thought about it needing to be reset. but i dont see a reset button on the PSU.
here is the psu i have
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817153023

I have never tried the paperclip trick. So i just loop a paper clip from the green to black wires while this is not plugged into anything else?

i think he meant that the outlet might need to be reset as in a GFI outlet with the reset button, but thats moot if the monitor has power from the same outlet.

That's the right thing to be sticking the paper clip in yes, just make sure that all the other power cables in the PC are unplugged and the PSU is off when you are sticking the paperclip in.

Dan

If we never hear from him again, we know what happened.

I'd just about bet it's the psu, they're like car batteries. One minute they're fine, the next *poof*

Jack

unfaithfulsfan wrote:I'd just about bet it's the psu, they're like car batteries. One minute they're fine, the next *poof*

Jack

lol

POOF? Jack dont go all technical on us.....

i hate it when my electronics POOF!! well it has a 5 year warranty so if it is the problem i should be able to have it replaced. I'll test it when i get home tonight.

about this paper clip test. doesnt the PC tell the PSU to turn on? i know i can turn it "on" but the PC usally wont power on until i hit the power button?

The PC tells the PSU to turn on using that green wire, so by shorting it, you are tricking the PSU into thinking that it is connected to a PC and should start up.

Dan

stupid PSU, falling for our evil tricks...

so after I turn it on is that the part when I zap myself if I am holding the paper clip?

Well I just jammed in a DMM to the green wire and what i thought was ground and my PC froze >_>

I turned it off and made sure I had the right bits on the 24pin ATX and the voltage read 2.5v, i powered up the PC again and it dropped to 0.01v.

So you aren't going to do any zapping from those two wires!

Dan

i didnt think so..

you might want to check that the front panel PWR wire didnt come loose also that would prevent it from booting.

Here is what i am working with, i have a switch hooked up to the mother board to turn it on,



I tried the paperclip and the fans started spinning... so i wanted to be sure it wasnt my switch.. i grabed a old mother board, pluged in the PSU and the on/off switch, hit it and it fired up.
I also tried to jump the connection on the motherboard with the paper clip and that didnt work either.
so it seemes to me that something happened to the motherboard after i shut it down last.
but before i go buying another motherboard i'll see if i can find a different PSU to test it

One thing to check is to try to plug the PC into the actual outlet that the monitor is currently plugged in to that you know is good. If the PC powers up look at your wall switches. It is possible (and not uncommon) to have ONE plug in an dual outlet wired to a wall switch while the other plug is always hot. Sounds silly but I once had this "friend" (not called DR!) that spent a not insignificant amount of time troubleshooting just this kind of an issue. When this "friend" went to the wall switch to get some light when cracking the case suddenly the evil PC sprang to life.

EDIT - You posted while i was typing (I hate post lag!). So, in my best Emily Lattella voice "Never Mind"

thats what i was hoping it was DaddyRabbit, but they are on a powerstrip in the same outlet. (this is before i saw my monitor was getting juice)

What Motherboard is that? ECS?

Darkstar wrote: lol

POOF? Jack dont go all technical on us.....

I had one go *POOF* just last week (little wisp of smoke and everything) which required a lot of explaining to my ever-understanding boss, who wasn't familiar with the *POOF* contingency either . "Well, it worked fine for me at the customer's house!" "Well, it DIDN'T work fine for me at the shop! I swapped PSUs and it booted right up. So you tell me! <tough guy> (the "tough guy" part was silent, of course !)