[Ferrante]

A friend gave me his tower to try and fix and hopefully someone here can help me. I have not attached my monitor yet, but he plugged it in and pressed the power button on. It begins to power up and then shuts right back off. Anyone have any ideas on what could be causing this and how to fix it. I would like some idea if there are any "F" buttons I need to press as soon as I push the power button on or any other suggestions you may have. Thanks in advance for your help.

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I forgot to add that this computer is only a few months old and is using Vista.

[Ferrante]

I forgot to add that this computer is only a few months old and is using Vista.

[SRX660]

Usually this is caused by the heatsink not having a good connection to the processor, which causes the CPU to heat up real fast and shut down the system. It also can be a bad power supply, or a bad motherboard, or even bad memory. If it's the power supply it has enough power to start the computer but not enough to run everything. A bad motherboard cannot be fixed and needs to be replaced. Bad memory will cause the computer to do exactly what yours is doing.

If possible find someone that has spare parts for your computer and try replacing things one at a time. First the memory, then the power supply. If they do not help then try reseating the CPU with new compound on the heatsink. Try finding a good hard drive to install in the computer and check to see if the computer will boot up with it.

If power supply, memory, another HD, and heatsink revamp does not help, than most likely the motherboard is bad. With all this i am assuming that the computer does not have a bunch of hardware like graphics cards, sound cards and others hooked up. If you do try taking them out( except the graphics card) and see if the computer will boot.

Heres a good website for troubleshooting.

http://www.fonerbooks.com/pcrepair.htm

Click on each diamond to find the next step.

SRX660

[hfcg]

I forgot to add that this computer is only a few months old and is using Vista.

Then it should be under warrenty.
If you open the case you will void the warrenty.
Check with the manufacture first.