Question

power pc on, nothing seen on the display. rebooting the pc 3 times it works: why?

Asked by: hreinart

something very strange happend.

a pc which i used already about 4 years without any problems is now used by a friend of mine.

he changed the monitor to a lcd flat monitor, the mouse to a usb mouse (mircosoft - 4 years old) and exchanged the keyboard to a new ps2 keayboad (was ps2 before, too).

now when turning the pc on he can't see anything on the monitor.
the red light of themouse is turned off.
normally you'd expect some bios messages and so on .


he (not an expert at all) waited about 10 minutes and then pressed the turn-off button.
he can't power it down because the screen is still black.

doing this about 2 undtil max. 4 times the monitor , and the mouse and the keyboard will will work.
(= restarting it 2 undtil 4 times , the pc works fine)

if the pc runs fine he can restart it and has no problems.

just to mention:
when i worked with my "old" ibm monitor, ps2 mouse&keyboard i had no problems at all like these.
my friend live too far away to just swith these devices.
he also doesn't own extra hardware.


any idea what he could do to improve this situation and solve this problem?

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Asked On
2007-02-20 at 05:39:36ID22400749
Topics

General Computer Systems

,

LCD & Plasma

Participating Experts
5
Points
50
Comments
14

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Answers

 

by: compfixer101Posted on 2007-02-20 at 09:57:13ID: 18572393

If the PC is plugged into ANY type of power strip try plugging it DIRECTLY into the wall, It could also be a failing PowerSupply, Or could be a bad power source overall. I would suggest trying to plug it directly into the wall, then try another Location to plug it into, then change out the PSU with one of equal or Greater power(I would suggest a more powerful PSU), If it still fails to boot right, try testing the PC at another Building overall to make sure that the buildings power source isn't faulty.
HTH
cf101

 

by: onsitezPosted on 2007-02-20 at 11:09:46ID: 18572989

I would agree that it sounds like the power supply. As far as the building wiring , you can buy ground fault detectors at the hardware store.

 

by: nobusPosted on 2007-02-21 at 02:24:52ID: 18577263

>>  he can't power it down because the screen is still black.   <<  Yes you can : hold the power button for 6 sec, it will power off.
As to why it happened, the system could have had trouble loading the necessary drivers.
since it is an older sytem, i would inspect the mobo for bad capacitors :
www.badcaps.net

 

by: hreinartPosted on 2007-02-21 at 02:38:49ID: 18577318

hi,

we'll  give it a try connecting all power cable directly to the wall.
when setting this pc up at my home it was not connected directly and worked fine.
it worked also fine when using it the years before also without connecting it directly to the wall.

regarding drivers:
i think that can not be the problem because (except the bios and so on) nothing is needed to display the pc startup information (like ram, which hdu is installed etc.).

regaring power down:
this is a good information on top.
thanks we'll try it. i guess that the behaviour (how it should work when holding this button) needs to be consigured in the powersettings of the control panle.

 

by: nobusPosted on 2007-02-21 at 02:44:22ID: 18577336

it does NOT have to be configured - standard setting on ALL systems i know of.

 

by: hreinartPosted on 2007-02-21 at 03:24:50ID: 18577490

thanks, i'll forward it.

we'll also echange the 220v power cables and connect them directly to the wall and see what will happen.

 

by: PCBONEZPosted on 2007-02-21 at 16:46:22ID: 18583562

One of the big causes of things like this is bad capactors either in the power supply or on the motherboard itself.
(Occationally on a video card or in a monitor.)
www.badcaps.net/ident
.

 

by: hreinartPosted on 2007-02-23 at 01:38:50ID: 18594639

hi,

some test are done and my friend told me this:

- he could connect the pc to the wall directly
- the monitor could not be connected directly due to a too long distance.

the behaviour did not change.

the he tested this:
inserting a floppy disk without any os.
turning the pc on
the os could not start from the floppy (ok ofcourse)
wait 10 minutes
do 1 reboot (pull out the floppy and reboot)
it works directly


any idea what's the problem here?

..just to mention it again: i never ever had this kind of problem using other monitor and mouse (like described before).

 

by: compfixer101Posted on 2007-02-23 at 05:33:30ID: 18595636

I would suspect a bad PSU or a bad caps use the link povided above to check the caps

HTH
cf101

 

by: compfixer101Posted on 2007-02-28 at 09:53:58ID: 18627120

do you have an update to the problem on this for us?

 

by: hreinartPosted on 2007-03-01 at 03:54:16ID: 18632273

hi,

sorry no update sofar.
he'll try to test it (get a new psu).
this may take some time.

 

by: hreinartPosted on 2007-03-21 at 11:00:27ID: 18765969

hi,

my friend tried a new psu but no success.
i have no idea what to do with this question.

his pc will go to pc shop. they'll look at it.
i have no more idea what to do here.

please give me an advice.
thanks

 

by: rindiPosted on 2007-03-26 at 07:35:17ID: 18793082

Either give the points to those you think helped best, or as in Community support for a refund like explained in the Link I posted above.

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Community_Support/General/#browseZones

thanks,
rindi,
EE Cleanup volunteer

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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