Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions PC is DEAD. Please help

I've got a barebones kit PC that is 2 1/2 years old. running XP home (w/SP2). I turned it on last night and it was slow, so I turned it off to do a restart.

After everything shut down, I hit the power button and.....nothing. Not a whimper. Stone cold dead. I check all of the wires/plugs and everything is plugged in. I am typing this on my MAC, which is hooked up on my netwrok in the same room and it is working fine.

SInce I don't even get a hum or a fan noise when I hit the power button, I am guessing the (probably cheap) power supply went.

I would certainly appreciate any input. I can find my way around a PC, but I won't be instructing any classes soon.

Ray

Sounds like a power supply. Fortunately, those are (relatively) easy to replace--it's not like you need new drivers or anything. But get a decent one--if it costs $20, it's probably a POS.

I second or third the PS, theory.. 2 years is usually all you will get out of a cheap PS.. If you grab another, As KC said buy a good one.. Depending on your system you might need an adaptor for the MB, but they are cheap and easy to find at a comp parts store..

It might be the power supply. But I don't think the power switch is hard-wired to the power supply. It could also be the power switch.

Also, plug it in to a known good receptacle. It could be your power bar.

Here's a trouble-shooting flowchart that may be able to help you.

Thanks for the suggestions. I just got back from CompUSA and the tech there pretty much gave me a headache. I was thinking power supply as well and he came up with 11 other things it could be.

He suggested I bring it in for a $129 diagnosis, which escalates with parts and labor once the problem is found. I'd normally be OK with that, but the whole kit only cost around $350 3 years ago.

I'm thinking I will just get a new PC, but all of my info is locked up in the hard drive, which I beleive is IDE. Looks like the new PCs deal with SATA - is there any way to use both a SATA and IDE hard drive with the PC?

Would I be better off getting an external enclosure and attaching it to a PC via USB (I have one at work) and transfer the data I need to CDs?

Any thoughts on Dell equipment? We have an employee discount program with them?

Not sure about your problem, but it does sound similar to mine a year ago. One day the power button did nothing. Actually, I think the fan on the motherboard would spin slightly, but that was it...

A $35 dollar power supply fixed it and I'm using it right now.

I replaced a ps unit on the computer I have. Same thing, press the power button and nothing. I went to TigerDirect bought a ps and it's been up and running ever since. I think I would give that a try.

Worst case you can plug a cheap card into one of the slots to add an IDE or EIDE interface to a new computer.

$129 diagnosis. sheesh. talk about easy money :P

You can test the power supply by taking it out, unplug the mother board connector and with the power supply plugged in short the green wire to one of the black wires. If the power supply still works fine it should fire right up as long as you keep those two wires shorted.

If somehow something else in the computer went haywire and is showing the PS a short or something it will also sense this and not turn on.

I had the PS in my desktop die a few months ago, it worked fine then i shutdown the computer and went to turn it back on and it was dead.

It's just god telling you it's time to buy an Mac that will dual-boot Windows (Vista or XP) and MacOS.