Andrew O'Brien wrote: > Please excuse the non-radio question... > > We have a PC that just stopped working, looking for some possible > ideas. The PC (a desk top) was knocked over by a frustrated teenager > , when plugged back in the power light comes back on but nothing is > seen by the monitor , no Windows attempting to boot or anything, no > beep codes. The fans are going, I do not see the HD LED light up, > and after a few seconds at boot-up, I hear a slight click like the HD > is trying without success. If the HD has gone kaput, would I not get > some indication from the PC rather than just nothing at all ? > > Andy K3UK
Andy, It usualy pays to take a peek inside. First, I would check the PSU output voltages and make sure they are within the allowable margins, usually +/- 5%. If it passes the test, I would remove anything that is pluggable (a damaged disk may impede booting), reseat the memories and make sure the speaker works. If the motherboard does not have onboard video, plug in the video card and attach a display. You should also check if the microprocessor is seated correctly on its socket. "A crab with no legs is deaf" 8-) With no drives, you should see some video and the boot process stopping at the point it has no bootable system disk. The speaker is important to check beep codes. For my use, I usually disable the beautiful boot screen and enable all the memory, disk and devices checks to be seen. If it does not show any signs of life, and it was a working computer, you may have a broken line somewhere. Nowadays motherboards have a small switching converters to derive the core voltages from, and you must have a working PSU plus a working core voltage converter. I have seen some motherboards fail by this reason, specially some AOpen boards with cheapo electrolytic capacitors. Those capacitors SHALL NOT be unsoldered (those are multilayer boards), but rather, opened to access the leads and solder a new capacitor to them. Tin wave soldering may have weak spots and a MOSFET pin may not be making contact after the shock. What else? It still may have some dizzy or angry electrons inside thar refuse to go with the herd... Good luck ! Jose, CO2JA VI Conferencia Internacional de Energía Renovable, Ahorro de Energía y Educación Energética 9 - 12 de Junio 2009, Palacio de las Convenciones ...Por una cultura energética sustentable www.ciercuba.com
