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Computer Problem

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Guys, I have a computer problem.

My computer has an ‘on’ button on the front and a green LED on the back. When working properly, the ‘on’ button lights up blue when the computer is turned on. When the computer is off, the button is not lit. The LED at the back is constantly lit while the computer is plugged in.

BUT

Last night I went to turn on my computer and I noticed that the ‘on’ button was flashing blue, and the computer was making a very faint ‘clicking’ noise, and the bastard wouldn’t turn on. I looked at the back of the computer and the green LED was also blinking. After checking all the obvious things (is the computer properly plugged in, etc), I decided that there must be something wrong internally – maybe the computer had been bashed and something inside had been knocked loose or whatever.

I’m no stranger to opening up a computer and tinkering inside, so I unscrewed the case and went in to have a look. There was nothing obviously loose or disconnected, but just to make sure I unplugged every cable one by one and made sure they were reconnected properly.

When I unplugged and reconnected the main power cable (the big multicoloured one that goes from the power supply into the mother board – don’t know the correct word) I thought I had been successful because the LED stopped blinking and returned to it’s normal constant glow, and the on button also stopped blinking and returned to it’s normal unlit state. However, when I tried to turn the computer on, nothing happened. I tried again to disconnect and reconnect the main power cable and now the on button is unlit but the LED is flashing, and the computer still won’t turn on.

I am at a total loss – does anybody have any ideas?

War does not make one great.

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Clicking can signify a dying hard drive. Even with a dying hard drive, the fans should power up and the motherboard should spit out an error message during boot. If you're seeing absolutely no response at all aside from the LED, it could be your power supply.

Is it a name brand computer or was it built for you? If you have the manual for the motherboard, it should tell you what the blinking LED means in the troubleshooting section.
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MTFBWY…A

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It's a Hewlett Packard, but I've modified it quite a bit since I bought it - I think I still have the original manual somewher, and if not I can probably find it online.

I also suspect it is the power supply, but I bloody hope not - I don't need any unforseen expenses right now, but I do need my PC back ASAP.

It could be a dying hard drive - one of the 2 I have in there I took from an old piece of junk my brother was throwing out. If I was to remove the offending device might this help?

War does not make one great.

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If you can't pinpoint the exact cause of the problem via error messages, the next step is usually to start removing hardware piece by piece and starting up the computer. Unplug one hard drive and try to power up. If nothing, try the other one.

Does the fan in your power supply spin? If absolutely nothing is happening at all when you try to power it up, that really points toward the power supply. Even if nothing else in your computer works, the fan in the power supply should spin if it's not dead.
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MTFBWY…A

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Originally posted by: Jay
Does the fan in your power supply spin? If absolutely nothing is happening at all when you try to power it up, that really points toward the power supply. Even if nothing else in your computer works, the fan in the power supply should spin if it's not dead.
The only thing that is happening is that little green LED is blinking at me, mocking me.

I've just read HP's troubleshooting advice on the blinking LED and it also suggests removing components one at a time. If this doesn't work, your power supply is f**ked. I believe those were HP's exact words.

When I get home I'll give it a go and if not, I guess I'm off to spend some money.

The baffling thing is that when I disconnected the main power cable from the motherboard, the light stopped blinking - could this mean my motherboard is gone? How could that be? It was working fine one day, the next it won't turn on. Or could it be that by disconnecting the motherboard I was effectively disconnecting the defective hard-drive (or whatever piece of hardware is defective).

War does not make one great.

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Don't know about the blinking.

Do you know anybody who might have a spare power supply you could use for testing? If not, I'd call some local PC shops and see if they'll run a quick bench test on it with a known good power supply. Shouldn't take more than a couple minutes. Tell them you'll buy a power supply from them if that turns out to be the source of your problems.
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MTFBWY…A

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I do have a friend who might be able to help me with the power supply test, if not I'll try some shops like you suggest.

Thanks Jay, much obliged.

War does not make one great.

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Update:

So I went home last night and got to work on the computer. I tried various combinations of unplugging a piece of hardware then trying to turn the computer on, etc, but no joy. I tried a similar approach with the main cable from the power supply to the motherboard, pulling it out, plugging it back in, trying to turn the computer on, no luck, try again, etc. Finally, the LED stopped blinking and the computer turned on and booted up and now seems to be working fine. So, in short, the computer is working, but I have a feeling there's something fundamentally wrong that will probably rear it's ugly head again soon. The most likely culprit is a broken/gay power supply.

Anyway, thanks again for the help.

War does not make one great.

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No problem.

The good news is that power supplies are one of the cheapest things that can fail in a PC.
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MTFBWY…A

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Not to mention the newer power supply are much more energy effective
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Indeed they are. More power, less power consumption.

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Han Solo: I'm a nice man.