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PC won't start

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by hotrod27

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I have a PC (Compaq Presario 5050) that ocassionally won't start at all. The power light comes on but the hard drive light does not. Neither can you hear the tell-tale sound of the hard drive when it is doing something. The problem just started today after the computer has been off for 2 weeks. I turned the power off/on numerous times. I thought maybe the hard drive wasn't getting any power. I opened up the case and reseated the power connection to the hard drive. Then the computer came on. I thought I fixed it.
I installed some software and restarted about 4 times. No problems. Then, I shut off the comuter and moved it to the person's office and it wouldn't start again. I shut it off and turned it on again and it worked. I am beginning to suspect either the motherboard or possibly the CMOS battery. Can anyone confirm my suspiions or point me in the right direction. Thanks in advance for your help.

11 replies

by xpertdragon

Usually when you have a silently started PC that does not have system beeps or anything like that, the Processor is to be carefully looked at. Many of us, will take all the cards out of a Motherboard, and just leave the video card to investigate. What kind of CPU processor do you have in your Compaq? I had the exact ame problems that you are having, only to find out on an older Socket 7 processor, that the processor got too hot, and fried because the fan was clogged with so many dust bunnies.

The obvious test you are looking for is endurance....re-seat the processor if you can, and just for kicks take the CMSO battery out for 5 minutes at the same time, put them all back in, and try to power it back up. Not exactly sure what else I could tell you.

Best of Luck!

Paul M. Chavez

by dpalsen

Actually, my first guess would simply be a loose connection in the power cable. I had a system that had this same problem frequently. Every time the drive failed, all I'd have to do is pop the case off, reseat the power connector, and it would come back fine. I finally replaced out the case and power supply, and never had any further problems.

by trippin

unplug the power cable, the main one on the cpu
let it be for a few hours.
then plug back again..
could be due top the static built up

by hotrod27

I heard Checkit utilities mentioned on this Q&A forum regarding multiple hardware problems. Is this the best product to buy or is there another?

by steve_martin90

Check the hard drive, if this is a western digital (and you dont say)some model were prone to the spindle sticking when it had not been used for some time, no easy way around this but easy to prove, take a hard drive ANY, an old small one will suffice, unplug your original and plugin the temporary drive, now boot the machine with an MSDOS disk (if the new drive is not bootable)format and sys the temp drive in the usual way. and reboot the machine. It should fire up ok if there are no problems with the PSU and or controller. If no boot, swap power cable from the PSU (use another plug), you need to look for disk rotation on power up, this is part of the Power On Self Test process. Generally you should work back from the PSU--> disk--> controller---> checking cables etc.

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