Hey all, thanks in advance for the great community opinions that yall give

I'm in dire need of some advice/help at the moment.

My friends computer (that I am trying to fix), is an older sckt 775 system just ran into problems today. After turning it on one day it just wouldn't turn on, or died after boot (during windows load) and then turned off. As my friend persisted in pressing, jamming, and holding the power switch on his case it eventually stopped going as far as the previous attempt (in terms of how far along the comp had turned on) and stopped turning on at all, which is what is going on now.

Now initially I had thought the switch on the case had become loose, however I tried jump starting the comp by shorting the power switch pins on the board but its not turning on. The green LED on the mobo is ON, which means the powersupply is connected and working but after that, nothing. No fans start spinning, nothing.

Any ideas what could be wrong? Since the light is on, on the mobo, that should mean the board and ps are working right? What else could it possibly be?

Any ideas, please,
thanks in advance!!!

The power supply took a crap.

I built a new system today, after 5 secs it turned off. Wont turn on unless I pull the power from the wall and try again, then the fans spin 1/2 a second.

I tested the PSU with a power tester and the -5 volt rail is toast. I pulled the same model spare that I had brand new, tested it right out of the box and the same thing.

Off to the store to buy a better brand tomorrow. What a let down. I'm glad I bought a $10 PSU tester. Its came in real handy since I build lots of PCs.

Power supply might just be dead, but be sure to check connections with things like video cards.

I was working on a friend's newly-built PC, and sometimes it would turn on and sometimes it wouldn't. And when it did I didn't get a signal on the monitor. I put in a new PSU and sure enough it worked just fine. I'm thinking it's more a matter of the PSU being dead, but since it would sometimes power up with the old one and yet not give a video signal, it could have had something to do with how that was hooked up.

But most likely its a dead PSU.

One simple check to try. Sometimes the board can get stuck in a confused state even when the front power switch is turned off and back on. To completely clear that sort of thing you need a complete power down. That means either turn off the switch on the back of the PSU, or unplug from the wall, and leave it unpowered for at least 30 seconds. Reconnect and try the front panel switch again.

Several have suggested PSU failed, and that's a good possibility. Just because the mobo has a light on does not guarantee that ALL of the PSU is working correctly - only one part is known to be working.

My light was on after my PSU failed as it is most of the time I've seen failed PSU's. Usually the -5 volt rail is the culprit, and everything else is fine but you need all of the rails to pass the check to turn on.

Hey all I really appreciate all the input, surely enough it should be the power supply. Hehe, now its time to part everything I guess...

The problem is I don't have another PS to test everything to see if its all still working. Should I be worried? Should all my parts still be working?

Thanks!!!

Some shop will test it for your for free or a small fee. Everything else is fine.

hey guys, i just got a new psu online and put it in and to my surprise, same thing!!! ahh im freaking out now x.x

still theres the green light on the mobo but it doesn't start up! any ideas as to what could be wrong?

Try without the video card.
Try with ine stick of ram.
Reset cmos when you change something.

hey bro, yea just tried all that... is there a chance the mobo is dead? darn i wish there was a way to know. or can it be another bad psu? sigh

i dont see any burn marks on the mobo or anything..

Does it have onboard video at all?
What video card do you have?
Can you try a different video card?

yea it has onboard video, i tried it without the graphics card and still nothing.

it has a x300se

my case may be a little screwed up, i accidentally cut the power switch cable and i had to rewire it, however for each attempt i tried using a screwdriver and tapping it on the power pins to get it to start but nothing. is that the correct way to do it?

Did you pull the graphic card clear out.
Are you sure the ram aint bad?

well theres 4 sticks, shouldnt the computer at least start even without ram though?

yea ive tried it with one stick of ram each..

theres this weird thing on the board i've never seen before... under the 2x2 4pin power that goes to the board, theres this "auxiliary" 1x4 pin. does it need to be plugged in? regardless i tried with and without it, still doesn't work, boo :*(

perhaps my power switch is broken...

how do you turn on a comp without using its case front panel connectors?
perhaps i am missing something

thanks guys, would be appreciated

I never tried it but you might have to keep the pins shorted.

No it wont start with no ram.

Do you have speaker in? Do you hear any beeps?

Maybe download a manual for your motherboard and read it.

If you change the ram at all you need to reset the cmos everytime.

Maybe the psu went out and took the rest of the machine with it.

no beeps and i have the motherboard manual. nothing but the freaky green light :\ if the mobo is dead though why is there still that light? to restart cmos all i have to do is remove the battery and put it back in right?

There is a jumper on the board that works better.

The battery is hit and miss

I've had to leave the battery out over night before on systems with no jumper.


The light dont mean nothing. It means the light is getting power.

btw i've gotten lazy setting up the entire system so the entire time i've been testing this all i have is the power cord plugged into the psu and pressing the power button. it should still turn on if it was working right? (i would see the fans spinning)

so yea, what could the psu technically take out? is my cpu, ram, video card still good?

really appreciate the help roadrunner