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Hi,
I've seen this asked before, but their problem differed a little I believe.
Anyway, a friend of mine got his old computer (Not OLD, but just not his newest computer-Came w/ Win7) out of what I assume was storage in his house somewhere. He was going to set it up in his office, but when we hooked it all up and push the power button, It turns on for maybe a second and then turns back off.
I've previously fixed similar issues by replacing the Power Supply. But, I found out if I leave the power to the Hard Drive unplugged and then try to turn it on, the computer powers on and stays on (fans, everything else, etc). Now, I've used one of those SATA to USB adapters and used it on the hard drive over to my laptop and it came on and everything appeared to be functioning normally on it.. I could see the files and everything (through my laptop).
So.... what do I need to do to fix this? Could it be some sort of virus on the HD making it shut back off? or do I need to go ahead and spend the $30-$50 on a new power supply box?
It is: Asus Essentio Series cm5671-05
Windows 7
Sorry, I don't really know anything else about it.
It turns off too quickly to be a virus. Your hard drive sounds physically fine. Try swapping SATA cables. What happens if you leave the SATA cable unplugged but you plug in power to the drive?
I had previously tried swapping SATA cables, still had the same problem. It does it only when the power is plugged into the HD. If I unplug the power to the HD, but leave the SATA, it all boots up okay (well.. as okay as you can get without an HD lol). It's 1TB (Not sure if that's relevant) my theory was that possibly the power supply is going bad and just can't power the HD as well as other stuff and kicks back off before trying again. But I wanted a second opinion before spending the $$.
Additional note I probably should have mentioned before: When it attempts to turn on, you hear the fan and everything coming on like it should, then you hear the HD attempting to power on and that's when the power kicks off then tries again.
Is it possible that maybe the fan needs to be cleaned or something? That happened to my laptop once.
@Osito: I don't think that's the problem, I've vacuumed the fan vents and the fans run/turn without any problem. It was dirty, but not just terrible. (It is a desktop). Besides, everything else runs just fine when I disconnect the power to the hard drive.
So.. disconnecting the power to the hard drive resolves the problem, but you can't just run the computer without a hard drive. lol. So we still have the problem :P
@Osito: I don't think that's the problem, I've vacuumed the fan vents and the fans run/turn without any problem. It was dirty, but not just terrible. (It is a desktop). Besides, everything else runs just fine when I disconnect the power to the hard drive.
So.. disconnecting the power to the hard drive resolves the problem, but you can't just run the computer without a hard drive. lol. So we still have the problem :P
Nothing you've tried would rule out a bad power supply, spinning fans are not a sign that the supply is without a doubt good. The only thing that would rule it out is to test it (if you have a tester) or replace it.
Nothing you've tried would rule out a bad power supply, spinning fans are not a sign that the supply is without a doubt good. The only thing that would rule it out is to test it (if you have a tester) or replace it.
Thanks, I think It's probably the power supply.
(I only mentioned the fans because someone suggested cleaning them.)
I don't have a tester, so I guess I'll just have to spend the money and purchase a new power supply.
I'll try to let you know if it works or not.
Thanks, I think It's probably the power supply.
(I only mentioned the fans because someone suggested cleaning them.)
I don't have a tester, so I guess I'll just have to spend the money and purchase a new power supply.
I'll try to let you know if it works or not.
Just buy it from a place with a good return policy
Both of NHDave's posts offer sound advice. I've tested a PSUs 12v, 5v, 3.3v etc rails with a multimeter and everything looked rock solid when I got the dreaded MCE, Machine Check Exception error once. I proceeded to look into other causes until I finally tried a different power supply and boom goes the dynamite it was fixed. Amperage issue? Ripple? Noise? Electricity is a stranger to me, all I know is even getting good reads from my PSU wasn't enough.
Also like Dave said, WorstBuy, I mean BestBuy has a 30 day return policy. If that doesn't solve the issue, bring it back. GOOD LUCK.
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Dave is right
