[Zugz]

Occasionally my computer will not turn on. It is becoming more frequent so I would like to figure it out before I can no longer turn it on.

When I hit the power button I hear it beep, the fan turns on, and when my speakers are on eventually i hear the little noise it makes when a bubble appears above the lower right bar. The LEDs light up on my keyboard but my mouse does not. My monitors show a black screen and the LEDs are orange as if they arent recieving anything. (normally green when displaying something). Also the LED on the front of the case lights up to show it is on. Usually this happens once and then I turn it off by holding the power button and then try to turn it on again and it works fine. This time it happened 4 times before it finally turned on.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

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First check the BIOS batery, check it's voltage, it may very well need replacing.

Post back with results

[Jack Hackett]

First check the BIOS batery, check it's voltage, it may very well need replacing.

Post back with results

[ultimateslacker2]

Thats one possibility

Make sure all your cables inside are securely secured as if if they fall out , the computer wont turn on correctly.

Your PSU may be going also.
Video cards going bad

many of possibilities.

[Zugz]

Well i havent had time to check the battery yet, but this morning it took 4 tries again to get it to turn on. But i did notice some different things. My mouse does turn on, i just didnt wait long enough before. And it appears that windows functions normally I just cant see it. I was able to shut it down by pressing the windows key, then up, enter, enter. so the only issues seems to be with my monitors not recieving a signal. Does that information rule out any of the possibilities?

[crash override]

While you are in checking the battery, take a look at the capacitors. They are the vertical cylinder shaped components attached directly to the motherboard. The tops should be flat and flush with the sides. If they are "popped out" or bulging, it might be causing the issue. I know that is the case with some of the Dell's I support at work.

See the picture here for a visual description.

Edited by crash override, 13 October 2006 - 10:47 AM.

[Zugz]

Well the capacitors are all flat, none are bulging. I do not have a multimeter to check the voltage of the BIOS battery, is there a different way to test it? Or is it inexpensive enough to just go out and buy a new one?

[computerwiz12890]

Another thing you could use to check your PSU is SpeedFan. If your computer has the sensors, Speed Fan can tell you the voltages that your PSU is putting out. And, while you got it, might as well see what Speed Fan says about your hard drive(s)' health.

Please download Speed Fan and install it.

Start Speed Fan. When it is fully loaded, take a screen shot of the first screen by pressing Print Screen/SysRq on your keyboard. Open Paint and paste. Save the screenshot as a JPEG and post it in a reply to me. Now click on the tab called S.M.A.R.T.. Select your hard drive by using the drop-down box at the top. Now take a screenshot of that as well. Post it in your reply to me as well.

NOTE: For certain computers, Speed Fan will not display accurate measurements. If the temperature wildly fluctuates or doesn't change at all, let me know, otherwise I will believe the mesurements are accurate.

[crash override]

Have you reseated the video card or is it onboard? Does the case fan turn on when power is turned on? Could be a heat issue too.

[Zugz]

Alrighty, I ran speed fan and here is what came up. (I have 2 hard drives so I put the two screen grabs together into one image)

[Zugz]

I am not sure what reseating a video card is, so my guess is it is onboard. On power up, all of the fans turn on.

[crash override]

Reseat means to remove and replace it. While the machine is off of course.