computer flickers but will not turn on

[toygua]

do you mean that the hard drive died? so it would not be wise to try to make an external hard drive from the dead computer?

[stev]

I've had a deja-vu day. A few hours after I had posted the info about the emachines, the DW's at the house sizzled in the PSU and fried the MOBO.

So, I had more than a black screen. The only things that turned on were the computer fans, nothing else. I must say though the emachines wasn't a bad computer for running Need For Speed Underground, Ages of Empires, DSL and e-mail.

[Rix01]

[quote="toygua"]alright guys, i have been away for a while. So here is what's going on. After reading numorous reports of how the emachines t2682 died in 2-3 years and it is not clear which parts need to be replaced, I started to look for a cheap computer. I saw a best buy newspaper for a compaq sr5010nx windows xp 120 gb etc... for 199. So I bought that computer without monitor and now i am currently using it. I used the old monitor since it has a self check saying it works. This is a crt monitor.

So now i want to get back my pictures albums from my old hard drive. i do not think i am capable of adding a hard drive into another computer. I have an extra xp computer by hp that is about 3-4 years old that i can try to put the new harddrive in, but i use norton ghost on that computer once in a while. So would the norton ghost affect the harddrive that would be added into the hp computer? And is it relatively simple to add the hard drive as a slave, that is almost all i know about adding extra harddrive, the word slave drive.

Another option that i may want to try out is one of those hard drive enclosures that can be used with usb 2.0. Which option should i do, I am willing to try either method but i guess simpler is better. Hopefully someone can walk me through one of the ways.

[toygua]

i was trying to make sure about what type of hard drive enclosure to buy. I found that the 80 gb harddrive was DMA/ATA-100 (Ultra), what does this mean? Is it still a IDE drive and will enclosures saying IDE compatible work with this hard drive?

[Major_A]

Is it still a IDE drive and will enclosures saying IDE compatible work with this hard drive?

Yes. ATA means IDE.

[jose72]

your power box was slowly starting to fail and eventually it burned out. they are very easy to change, you can do it yourself.

if you need help you can ask anytime.

[poyox]

check your processer cooling fan. had the same problem a few weeks ago. the themal paste is probably thinning, and if it gets too thin, windows will not start due to a "thermal event" (overheating) on the board.

[toygua]

Ahhh!!!! lol, i just have had another computer that will not boot again. This time it is an older computer than the emachines one; about 2 years older than the emachines computer which is around 3 years old.

Yesterday morning, The computer had worked as it should have like the last 5 years and then when I had to leave the computer, I pressed the power button to turn the computer into its hibernating mode, which i have done a lot of times before.

But yesterday night, when I came back home, I pressed the power button once and I realized that the computer will not power up. I originally thought that I hadn't pressed the button correctly so I pressed it again but still no success. So this time after being somewhat familiar what what is inside a computer, I opened the case and I tried to power up again. Well what happens during the power up is, there is a viewable fan on the motherboard, It starts to spin for about 1 second and then it stops spinning.

The computer light at the front of the computer case also goes on for about 1 second and then its gone.

Oh and this happens only when i unplug the power cord and then reconnect it. If i leave the power cord connected, then after the first time that the fan starts to spin for a second, The second time that I press the power button, nothing will happen. I need to unplug the power cord and reinsert it to get the fan to spin for 1 second and then everything does not move.

There is a light on the back of the computer case behind the power source, and I think that light is always on before when ever the computer was plugged into an outlet. That light is still on but nothing else seems to be working.

this computer is an hp pavillion xt938.

I have never opened up the case to put in anything, i have been using it with its factory installed devices.

Anyone know what might have happened here? Kinda bad having two computers breaking down within half of a year lol.

Well thank you for everything once again!!!!

[Darkstar]

Sounds like the power supply.

[Major_A]

The power supply is dead or the motherboard has bad capacitors. I only say bad capacitors as a likely culprit because around the time you bought that PC motherboard manufacturers were using cheap capacitors.
http://www.badcaps.net/pages.php?vid=5
If you don't see any of this the the power supply probably just needs to be replaced.

[toygua]

noob question, but what are the capacitors used for?

[kenc51]

noob question, but what are the capacitors used for?

They hold power, you can use them in-series to clean voltages aswell. They have alot of uses in a circuit, it depends on where they are. The most common use is to stablise/clean current and also to help step-down voltages from say 12v to 1.3v.

Basically they are an essential part of your PC

[toygua]

The power supply is dead or the motherboard has bad capacitors. I only say bad capacitors as a likely culprit because around the time you bought that PC motherboard manufacturers were using cheap capacitors.
http://www.badcaps.net/pages.php?vid=5
If you don't see any of this the the power supply probably just needs to be replaced.

ok based on the link from this quote, i am pretty sure that the capacitors are not damaged because they do not seem to be bulging or be bursting out the stuff that turns powder white.

So is this a power source failure? and what kind of power source should i replace it with? are there any requirements for power source to replace in my machine?

[Major_A]

If you don't see any bad capcitors it should just be the power supply. It depends on what type of case the power supply is in. It could either be an ATX or mATX power supply. Look on the sticker that's on the power supply now and see if it says.

[toygua]

is there a difference between the atx and matx?

and if its atx, it can only be replaced by atx or does it matter if a matx is used to replace it?

[Major_A]

mATX is physically smaller than ATX.

[toygua]

i just tried to remove the old power supply from my hp system and there is literally no room to take it out, Ill try to get a picture but it is horrible!! The dvd and cd rw drive are literally next to the psu. And it looks a lot smaller than the psu from my broken emachines computer. Should i try to remove the drives before taking out the psu? or will it be a waste of time? its a 5 year old computer with 128 mb ram so Its not the best thing in the world.

And does it matter if i replace a matx psu with atx psu and leave the psu outside of the computer?

[Darkstar]

If you cant get the PS out, then yes remove the drives, some of the HP, Compaq systems you can remove the entire cage that houses the drives which is nice and easy.

[smack323]

i wouldnt even bother with the HP-- unless.. you want to upgrade the power supply in your newer computer and put power supply you have now in the HP just for practice..

[toygua]

If you cant get the PS out, then yes remove the drives, some of the HP, Compaq systems you can remove the entire cage that houses the drives which is nice and easy.

Yes i do see a cage but the screws that are holding it in are like, neither philips head or the straight one, not sure what its called. The screws have a depression in the center of the screw so i dont know how to get it out.