View Full Version : Buggered PC
Bonge
19th Nov 2007, 20:42
Returned from a nice long vacation of two months and hit the power button on my pc (very old emachines e180) - and low and behold absolutely nothing happened!
Anyone any ideas? could it be the hard drive or would power still come on but give an error message if it was anything to do with that? it was working perfectly before i went away.
cheers
Parapunter
19th Nov 2007, 21:01
Absolutely nothing? It's buggered mate:} Fuse??
The Flying Pram
19th Nov 2007, 22:20
I see similar posts in another forum I frequent. Old "switchmode" power supplies suffer from the capacitors drying up. They usually keep going as long as the machine is plugged in and power is available, but if allowed to discharge then they won't kick in to life again. Try a new power supply, or see if you can borrow one.
joeflys256
20th Nov 2007, 01:53
I would doubt it is buggered based on that...
Start with the basics and go from there.
Check all external cables are pluged in correctly, then check internal cables. With that case open is there any lights on the motherboard showing when you switch it on?
Is anything starting up, do you hear anything?
If no, after doing the above and you don't have access to a spare PSU (don't watse your money on a new one just yet), then start removing unessential components, e.g. modem, hard drive, gpu, ram see if that makes a difference when you switch the power on, any lights any beeps ,yes tell us what they are. No then start to way up your options buy a new computer, is it worh buying a new PSU for this "very old machine"...chances are you may waste your money on a PSU and it is the motherboard that is shot...
Good luck.
You could always ring the AOL help desk and they will ask if you unplugged it before you went away:)
"Now what I want you to do for me is to unplug the computer from the wall socket and remove the power lead from the computer... ... ... ... ... ..."
HuntandFish
20th Nov 2007, 15:25
Sounds like a power supply problem . Try checking the output cables with a meter to see if there is any power
If there's a fan in the PSU, that should start up when the button is pressed. If it doesn't, I'd bet on the PSU being no longer of this earth.
I've changed far more PSUs than motherboards when friends have said "my PC won't work". (In fact, a ratio of five to zero).
Which reminds me ... I must get another spare PSU to keep in my cupboard. They seem to be getting expensive on eBay these days, though!