Question

Blinking green light behind power supply

Asked by: scmathur

I disconnected my PC to rearrange my computer room. After reconnecting, computer will not power up. There is a green light behind the power supply and it blinks. Even when I unplug the power cord the light keeps blinking for a while (at a lower rate) and eventually shuts off. I have tried different power cords with the same results. Is the power supply fried? It should not be as I have seen similar questions posted on other forums (with no solution of course). I am sure experts from this forum should be able to help me. Thanks.

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Asked On
2008-09-06 at 18:50:02ID23709503
Tags

HP

,

Pavillion Desktop PC

,

A000

,

system numbe PE501A-ABA

Topics

Power Supplies / UPS

,

Personal Computers

Participating Experts
3
Points
500
Comments
13

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Answers

 

by: coral47Posted on 2008-09-06 at 22:21:02ID: 22410245

The first thing I would check is if the 120/240v switch on the PSU got nudged, and needs to be put back in position.
The second thing would be to unplug the PSU from the motherboard (make sure it is unplugged from the wall first), then with a piece of wire (paperclip works) to jump the Green wire to a Black wire, plug back into the wall, and see if the PSU works.

 

by: nobusPosted on 2008-09-07 at 01:22:46ID: 22410550

>>   Is the power supply fried?    <<   the best way to check is by replacing it.
iYou can also test with the minimum setup - disconnect also all peripherals and network cables :
motherboard + cpu + 1 ram stick, video card, power supply
on boot, do you have a display?
if NO it is one of the connected, swap ram, Power supply, video card - leaving only motherboard and cpu
if Yes, add devices till the problem shows

you can also check the motherboard for bad capacitors as shown here :   www.badcaps.net

 

by: scmathurPosted on 2008-09-08 at 16:34:31ID: 22422560

coral47:

The voltage selector switch is at correct position. There are multiple black wires. Can I use any one of these on the PSU? I would like to try this during day time so that I do not run the risk of blowing any fuses in my house. I am kinda scared of shorting electrical equipment with paper clip. Is this the only way to check?

 

by: scmathurPosted on 2008-09-08 at 16:54:52ID: 22422802

moorehouselondon:

I have printed the information from this link and try it out. Will keep you posted.

 

by: coral47Posted on 2008-09-08 at 21:30:30ID: 22424295

>> There are multiple black wires...

Yes, any of them will work. They are all Ground. I usually use the one that is on the other row and one pin over. You could plug the PSU into a power strip if you are really worried about blowing a fuse
If you have a voltmeter, you can then check the Yellow wire(s) for 12v and the Red wire(s) for 5v, Use one of the other Black wires for your Ground.

>> Is this the only way to check?

No. You can use a known working motherboard, or you can get a PSU tester from most any electronics or computer store. They start at about 10-15 dollars for a basic one.

 

by: scmathurPosted on 2008-09-09 at 19:31:28ID: 22434184

coral47:

Thanks. I will try this tomorrow. If PSU works, that would then be an indication of other hardware failure (motherboard?), am I correct?

 

by: coral47Posted on 2008-09-09 at 21:16:55ID: 22434926

OK. When you jump the PSU, and you don't have a voltmeter or tester, if the fan runs it is a good sign.

>> that would then be an indication of other hardware failure

Correct.
It could be something as simple as a loose connection or addin card, to something died because it didn't like being moved.
You will need to take it down to bare minimum, as nobus posted, as the next step.

 

by: nobusPosted on 2008-09-09 at 23:46:13ID: 22435641

i feel ignored... :-(

 

by: scmathurPosted on 2008-09-10 at 18:36:45ID: 22445023

nobus:

That was not my intention. I was trying one suggestion at a time. It turns out that the PSU was indeed fried. I repaced it with a new PSU just now and the computer is back up and running. While it was down  I had to access e-mail thru my friends' computes and that created in delayed responses.

 

by: scmathurPosted on 2008-09-10 at 18:42:37ID: 31493979

I would like to thank all of you for taking time to help me resolve the issue. I do apologize for not being able to repond quickly as my computer was down and had to access friend's computer when time permitted.

 

by: coral47Posted on 2008-09-10 at 22:00:07ID: 22446436

Thank you much.  : )

lol @ nobus
better now?   ; )

 

by: nobusPosted on 2008-09-10 at 23:44:02ID: 22446894

snarf    :=))

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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