Solved Computer gets power, shuts off, gets power, repeats, never boots

[450125]

When I got home from work tonight, my Win7 desktop appeared to be asleep, which is normal. I hit the power button to wake, it, walked away, and when I came back, it was not up as I'd have expected.

I looked more closely and something really weird was happening.

The fan would turn on and the power lights would come on. Not sure if I heard the HD (there's an OS C drive, and mirrored data D drives). Three seconds later, it would power off, without anything ever displaying on the monitor, no bios screen, nothing. This would just keep repeating.

I managed to get the CD drive open and put a boot disk in, but the whole sequence happens so fast that it doesn't even recognize the CD or try to boot from it.

Right now I have the computer turned off and unplugged, and hope that this will rectify itself with the passage of time.

 

[Gromit1710]

When I got home from work tonight, my Win7 desktop appeared to be asleep, which is normal. I hit the power button to wake, it, walked away, and when I came back, it was not up as I'd have expected.

I looked more closely and something really weird was happening.

The fan would turn on and the power lights would come on. Not sure if I heard the HD (there's an OS C drive, and mirrored data D drives). Three seconds later, it would power off, without anything ever displaying on the monitor, no bios screen, nothing. This would just keep repeating.

I managed to get the CD drive open and put a boot disk in, but the whole sequence happens so fast that it doesn't even recognize the CD or try to boot from it.

Right now I have the computer turned off and unplugged, and hope that this will rectify itself with the passage of time.

Have you done any overclocking?

 

[Total]

can you press "delete " to get into the bios ?

 

[450125]

Updates.

No overclocking.

Computer does not respond to boot CD or tapping F8 or delete.

When I plugged it in again, as soon as I flipped the power switch in back, it started cycling again, I smelled smoke, and I pulled the cord out. I'm going to a friend who is a computer hardware expert, and holding my breath.

 

[Gromit1710]

Sounds like a fried component. My condolences.

 

[450125]

I took the computer to a friend who is very hardware-adept - has a home electronics area better-equipped than a lot of repair shops.

He took the computer apart piece by piece, and in the end we're very confident that it's the motherboard. Power supply works when connected to another box, another working power supply displays the same behavior connected to mine. All drives are intact and data and files/folders fine.

So I am ordering a new MB and hope to be up and running once that's put in.

My friend said though that without the same MB (shown in my specs) I'll have problems and need to reload Windows and the programs on my machine. Not a big deal in the grand scheme, but an unwanted hassle when I have my C drive fine, with a configured and works fine version of Windows and my full work environment.

Just wondering, from those who might have been through a similar scenario, what challenges I might face. Again, I will have the same computer, exactly, except for a new motherboard (even retaining the old processor), and I expect to buy the same motherboard I'd had. So from a configuration standpoint, or even a Windows validation standpoint, what issues do I need to be on the lookout for?

 

[Tews]

You might want to reset the CMOS...

 

[450125]

Sorry, my friend probably knows the answer to this, but let me ask - (1) How do I reset the CMOS, and (2) isn't this something on the MB anyway?

 

[rraod]

When you smelled some smoke, means the MB or something has fried. Resetting the CMOS is not going to help at this time. You can either get your MB checked by a local expert or replace with an exact one (provided you get one ). Or ask the place where you bought the MB (or Computer) for a warranty replacement if within warranty period.

 

[Tews]

When you smelled some smoke, means the MB or something has fried. Resetting the CMOS is not going to help at this time.

Arrg ... I missed that part (I need some coffee), and rraod is spot on, resetting the CMOS won't help you at all! I wouldn't even power the machine up until the power (smoking) issue is resolved ... Dont overlook a wonky power supply while you're at it...

 

[450125]

Dont overlook a wonky power supply while you're at it...

I'm comfortable with the power supply. We swapped my PS into another computer and it worked fine; swapped a known good PS into mine and the same problem happened.

 

[450125]

Just another update.

New motherboard arrived yesterday. Put it in - and same behavior. And we tried resetting the CMOS on the new and old MB. Have now tried two MB's, permutated each possible way with two PS's, both of which are known to work, and same behavior each time.

Finally for grins (of which I've had few lately), we tried pulling the processor (Intel I3 550) out and firing it up - and the same behavior there. So based on that - the fan cycles on and off about 2-3 seconds a pop, but we never hit the bios screen or anything - plus some googling, we're suspecting it's the processor, which is fortunately covered under warranty.

Stay tuned for more once a new processor arrives.

BTW, other things that were tried and didn't work included disconnecting the restart switch (to eliminate possibility of a short causing this), and doing this all with the MB not mounted in the case, isolated on a piece of cardboard, again just in case some shorting was going on.

 

[450125]

I am happy to finally close this thread out.

For the record, what happened was:

• The original processor blew, taking the MB with it (or maybe it was the other way around - no way of me telling)
• Replacement MB did not work (thought MB was the original cause)
• RMA'd the processor, stupidly put new processor in original MB (since thought original MB was good, and wanted to keep as close as possible to original configuration), and that didn't work
• Put new processor in replacement MB and could boot, but system would just shut down to black in minutes
• Blamed memory and replaced that
• Same problems
• Had a computer shop look at things, and after some trial and error, they put a "new new" processor into replacement MB on a system they built, and they could boot to Windows and sustain a session
• So I now have my computer back with the replacement motherboard, the replacement replacement processor, new memory that I had not needed (but 8 gigs now instead of 4) and it's working fine, 24 days after the problem started. Total expenditure was $50 for MB off eBay (dumb, as original was covered under warranty), $50 for two expedited warranty cross-ships of processors, $40 for new memory, and $50 for computer shop to run diagnostics on all my HW. Annoying, but good to be back where I wanted to be.

For the record, although MB and processor are the same brand and rev as the originals, Windows did ask me to activate when I first successfully logged in after putting the pieces together again. I was able to activate in 30 seconds or less using the least-intrusive "Activate online" option.

I'm marking the thread solved. At long last.