I've got an hp pavilion xt963 desktop computer that won't boot. When I turn on the power, the light by the power button turns on, but after just a second or two it turns off. Then the light on the CD drive blinks a few times. I can hear the hard drive spinning. I don't get any beeps, and I don't don't get any display. The fan on the processor does not turn on.

I tried booting it from my ubuntu disc, but I go the same results as above. Given these symptoms, what is the likely culprit for the problem? How do you recommend I troubleshoot this?

This post has been edited by josephwalter: Jul 14 2005, 09:49 AM

My guesses would be.... a short somewhere.... a Power supply problem.... a motherboard problem.... or a cpu issue....

The fan on the power supply is working. The CD drive and hard drive are getting power from it, too. I'm guessing it's not a bad power supply.

I took the memory out of the computer and turned it on. I excpected some kind of beeping, but I go the same symptoms as described in my original post (no beeping...).

I'm going to guess that the mother board is bad.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find a replacement mother board online; although I'm not 100% sure I'm looking for the correct board, because I couldn't find the brand/model on the board. I'm relying on the accuracy of the specs for the pavilion xt963 that I found on some website.

I wouldn't rule out the psu just yet. Just because the psu fan is working doesn't mean the psu is OK. For example, if the psu cannot provide a constant voltage above a certain level on the pwr_good wire, the system will shutdown.

I would also be more concerned about the cpu fan not working. If it is faulty, the system is liekly to shutdown as soon as it realises the fan isn't functioning in order to prevent it from overheating.

I'm not saying that the motherboard IS fine, I'm just saying that it could be any one of several other things instead, so don't rush out & buy a new mobo just yet

Well that wouldn't eliminate the power supply for me. I've seen power supplies that had some power out put but not enough to drive everything. However if it doesn't beep after removing memory you may be right about a bad motherboard. being an hp it might be hard to find a replacement. even if you find one that is suppose to be the same unless it was made for an hp it might not fit in the case.

Is there a tool I can use to check the power supply?