My PC won't turn on.......very strange happenings......this is the sequence of events so far...?

Question

1. wouldn't turn on 1 day so opened up & checked all connections. Still didn't work.
2. tested with a different power supply....it blew up!(But possibly due to wrong volt setting or faulty P.S)
3. put old P.S back in and tried different Motherboard (& CPU) borrowed from a mate but still didn't turn on.....
NOW THIS IS THE WIERD BIT...
4. Put my Motherboard & processor back in so ALL original parts.... TURNED ON!!
5. 3 days later same thing happened! Wouldn't turn on again!
6. Swapped Motherboard again and it turned onto standby (orange light) so swapped back to my board and it turned on again!!! Later on it crashed so I tried to restart but nope - wouldn't turn on again.
7. Tried swapping hard drive - didn't work.
8. Tried using a different case (so different switch) - didn't work
9. Tried swapping Motherboard again but mate's board started to smell like burning so quickly took out!!
10. Now all original parts back in but even though it sprung back to life twice b4 it seems dead as a dodo now :(

I really don't understand as it's a Packard Bell that was over £300 for the tower alone last yr from PC World (refurbished) and THREE FLIPPING WEEKS past its year's guarantee. I really can't afford to pay to get some1 2 look at it coz I've got no money.

Does anyone have any ideas please??????????

Answer 1

well there are two lessons here

1) Don't buy anything at all from pc world, they are crap and rip people off.

2) Don't faff around so much with your computer it is now pretty much impossible to tell you whats wrong with it and it sounds like from your description you blew quite a few other computer parts up too.

Answer 2

Wow , you have relay tried to fault find, Now you know how to build computers
The first thing to do is blow all the dust out of the case, use an air compressor if you can borrow one, or you can buy air in a can. Often dust on the processor heat sync can be your problem. But blow all the dust out of the case and the psu too. relay this often works.
I am thinking its an intermittent fault with the power supply unit. Try another that does not 'blow up' just make sure the power output is the same or more than your current one.
To work this out use ohms law. ( if not printed on the psu.)
Voltage divided by current = power.
If its a memory fault as another answer wrote, you would see the computer 'crash'. You wrote a dead PC. hence the obvious answer is the psu.

Note 'ray_diat' is wrong , you can swap hard drives from machine to machine. Ive done it, this PC I'm using has had hard drives from many machines window 95 and xp and vista.
I did not think it would work, as the drivers are wrong etc. but it does, windows just builds the correct drivers and is working from a boot up on another hard drive with another operating system. Sometime you just need to try things out.

Also the mother board battery ( button battery like calculator use) is not your problem, the battery is use to store the date and time when the machine is switch off. Your machine is just over a year old, the battery should still be fine. But if it was dead, your pc would just prompt to to enter the correct details or go on-line to update.
I’m no expert, but have a C&G level three in computer fault finding, 3 year full time course, so know a little more than most.

Answer 3

From the description you've given, and without me having your computer in front of me to test, I'd hazard a guess that it's your power supply unit (PSU). You say that when you tested another PSU that it blew up "(But possibly due to wrong volt setting or faulty P.S)". You then went on to say that you tried a different motherboard and CPU. As has been pointed out, the information on your hard drive would have experienced problems in booting, but you state that you replaced this with the original motherboard and it was able to "turn on again".

You go on to say that three days later the same thing happened, where your computer wouldn't "turn on". Again, you tried a mate's motherboard but that didn't work. Even with the original parts, you still seem to be experiencing problems with your computer loading up. I'd say that the power supply unit just isn't pushing out enough current to make it work.

I'm not sure with your particular Packard Bell machine if it uses a standard PSU (Power Supply Unit) or whether it's one of the reduced size ones. I've seen both. If it's a standard sized one, you should be able to get one for about £20-25. I appreciate that that's not so easy when you haven't got the money, but I don't have a spare one available, otherwise I'd gladly have sent one to you. Sorry.

Answer 4

When you say it doesn't switch do you mean its dead or does the CPU turn on but the monitor doesn't come out of stand by.
if its the later then it sounds like the same problem had with a dell, switch on nothing, switch it of and back on a few times OK for a couple of hours, change a component then OK for a few days.
turns out to be a faulty batch of mother boards made by Intel, check your motherboard pay attention to the capacitors (small round cylinders mounted on the board they have a cross on top of them) they should be flat on top if any of these are bulging or oozing brown substance from them then this is your problem, if so then replace the motherboard.
if not then i would say look at the power supply again if a regulator is faulty the it wont output power on that voltage.
hope this helps.

Answer 5

looks like you tried most things, I would be worried a power supply blew up, this can cause so many parts to fail, I once had one where every part on the board ended up duff when 240v went down the 5v line, be careful using your mates stuff, you might blow them as well if you have voltage problems
when you power it up use a volt meter to check the 12 and 5 volts from supply, if one is missing keep trying again with bits missing to see if it comes back , then replace the last part removed, if voltages are ok then you may have a faulty processor or memory stick, check all parts for damage, like caps with blown tops or chips with cracks in.

just a note on one idea mentioned, DO NOT use a compressor to blow your parts down, there is always some water in the air and it gets blown under the components ready for fireworks when u switch on, use the canned air or a soft brush to remove dust.
always wear a antistatic strap when you are handling MB's memory or processors or you can damage them

Answer 6

You can't just swap motherboards around and expect it to work, Windows HAL (Hardware Abstract Level) will have a nervous breakdown. The same goes for hard drives, you can't just chuck them into a different machine and expect them to work.

If you do manage to get it to spring back into life then have a look in Event Viewer and check for any errors and see what they say. If your computer has the wrong time and date and is losing settings in the BIOS then the motherboard battery may be dead and needs replacing.

Answer 7

Sounds like a faulty power connector example the cables running into to plugs may have a bare cable, i've seen this even on a brand new psu. on the back of most psu's there is a switch that selects the voltage if this is swapped over to the wrong voltage it will cause damage to the components.

Answer 8

I can think of two things... Bad memory (85% sure) or short connection between the Motherboard and case.
If you can try the memory from your mate's computer and see if that helps. memory issues are usually noticed by odd things happening.
As for a short... well if you aren't using the risers or if something is just stuck and it's doing a direct connection between the board and case well bad things can happen that way too.

Answer 9

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Answer 10

Very strange, did you try it with a different Hdd?
The old one may have a short and can stop the boot up process.