[cvrband]

Within the past week, my computer has been shutting itself down or hybernating on it's own and sometimes I put it on "standby" and can't get it to come back to life. There are 2 lights on the front of my computer - 1 is telling me the computer is on(constantly on)/off/or standby(flashing), the other light tells me when the hard drive is processing (that's my uneducated guess). When the computer won't come back on or revive from standby, the light telling me it's on/off/standby is working but the system is shut down (dead) like it lost power. I can get the light to go off by holding in the on/off button for 5 seconds like a hard reboot but then can't get the computer to boot up again, the only thing that happens is the light comes back on but the computer is "dead" otherwise. Every once in a while the cd drive flashes it's light like the computer is trying to boot up, but it's only a flash and doesn't boot up. What could this be and how can I fix it?

Also, before the computer seemed to crap out, it took a long time for the computer to boot up and really get up to speed. Could all this be a power supply problem????

I appreciate the help.

John

Edited by cvrband, 26 January 2007 - 06:05 PM.

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It may be that if you have power management turned on in both the BIOS and in WINDOWS. You can try turning the windows power management off. Just set everything to ''never'.

SRX660

[SRX660]

It may be that if you have power management turned on in both the BIOS and in WINDOWS. You can try turning the windows power management off. Just set everything to ''never'.

SRX660

[cvrband]

Thanks for responding.

Unfortunately, I can't get the computer to turn on. I may have not been real clear about that in my initial post.

I haven't changed any of my settings prior to this happening so I'm not sure how that would have gotten changed. I'm a novice at this stuff so I could have done it accidentally but I don't think I did.

When I press the power button on the front of the computer the only thing that happens is the "power light" comes on, a slight "pop" sound comes out of my speakers, and a light flashes once on one of my disc drives but the computer remains "dead" - no sounds or action except for that "power light" staying on. I can get the power light to turn off when I hold the power button in for 5 or so seconds like you would if you were forcing the computer to shut down.

Does that make more sense? The computer is 5 years old.

[SRX660]

Well, 2002 was about the time of P4 processors so the computer might be worth a little money spent on it. Heres what i would have to test in the same order to find the problem.
1. power supply
replace the PS and see what happens. You dont even have to install another PS. just hook up all the wires while the computer is laying on its side with the side cover off.You can lay the PS where it won't move and damage any other hardware. I usually will lay it on the area where the cdrom drives are installed in the computer. See if it boots, or the fans start running, etc.
2.Overheating
Check to see if the computer is overheating. Is everything nice and clean inside the computer or is everything gunked up with the fuzzys. The CPU may have dried up the thermal paste between it and the heatsink causing high temps. Intel CPU's have a built in switch that shuts them off when it too hot.
3. Memory
You need to try a good stick of memory in the computer.
4. Hard drive
After i have checked the first 3 i usually will try a known good hard drive that has Win 98 on it. Win 98 will crash but usually it will start loading if the rest of the computer is good.

Beyond this it's usually the Mb or CPU that has fried, usually the motherboard.

SRX660

[cvrband]

I have a suspicion that your #1 is the culprit so I will go out and purchase a p.s. this weekend and try that.

I really don't think it's an overheating problem because the computer is pretty clean on the inside (minus a few lint balls here and there).

after I purchase and install the power supply, I'll let you know how it went and if that did the trick. Luckily I have a laptop to use in the mean time.

[cvrband]

I purchased a new power supply and installed it. The computer seems to be working now. Thanks for your help on this matter.

My next goal is to wipe the entire computer clean after backing up all my files and reinstalling everything to see if I can get my computer to run like new. Do you have any suggestions on this matter because this will be my first time ever doing this. Are there any web sites that walk you through this process step by step so I don't mess anything up?

[SRX660]

these would be good reading.

http://www.auldfart.co.uk/format.html

http://www.cyberwalk...nstall-faq.html

http://www.informati...cleID=189400897

SRX660