PC won't turn on

[Ducard]

Right, so my old PC won't turn on.

 

I can hear the fan spinning inside the CPU, and everything seems normal.

 

It's quite an old PC but if anyone has a solution, please do post.

 

(Sorry for the brief post, I am on my phone)

Edited November 2, 2014 by Ducard

[Red Hat]

Well then, post a bit more information.

 

Is your monitor working?

How many sticks of RAM do you have? If you've got two or more than two, then try removing one stick and booting up the PC and do the same with the other stick to check whether both the sticks work or not.

Which GPU are you using?

And try replacing your display cable (VGA/DVI/HDMI).

Edited November 2, 2014 by Kevin3014

[Ducard]

My monitor works fine.

 

I have only 1GB RAM.

 

I noticed a red light over the CD drive though, not sure if that is normal.

[AZAZEL]

We need more info to be able to help you. All the specs (open the case and read the labels if necessary), check all the plugs and connectors to see if something is awry.

[Ducard]

Right, I am back on my laptop, so I can now give more detailed info:

 

Specs:

 

Intel Pentium Dual Core 2.0 GHZ.

1 GB RAM

Windows XP 32 Bit (Home Edition)

Intel Chipset Card

35 GB Hard Disk.

 

Like I said it is an old PC. It stopped working a week back, at first I could hear a screaming sound (if that's the way of putting it) and then it turned slient. Now the screaming is gone too.

 

Prior to this, the PC was heavily infected, I ran multiple scans and cleared about 50% of the virus and there is still a lot left. It also used to shut down by itself very frequently, even in safe mode. (At first safe mode used to fix all the crashes and stuff but now that is not working either)

 

I also had a problem with the monitor where the display was green but apart from that it was fine.

[Red Hat]

Um... try inserting Windows XP's disk and reinstall windows.

 

When you turn on that PC, does it show anything on the screen? At least the MoBo's company name or something like that?

[Ducard]

It only shows the manufacturer of the monitor and then shows nothing. I am sure that the problem lies within the CPU and not the monitor.

Edited November 3, 2014 by Ducard

[hornedturtle]

Does it beep when you try to turn it on?

[Red Hat]

So no display is shown at all? I mean from the CPU. What did it show when you inserted Windows XP's Disk?

 

Open up your cabinet and check whether the CPU Fan spins or not.

And, I'm talking about the CPU Fan, not the cabinet fan.

[iddqdvie]

let me try the impossible, helping you over the internet with little info.

 

its old, clean it with a hoover. give every cable connector a "blowjob" just like old nintendo games, dust can cause issues like that.

 

after that, we have a few options. cpu, ram, motherboard, graphic card or power supply.

 

cpu's turn of the pc if they overheat, if the cpu fan doesnt run at all they can shut down during desktop usage

ram is easy to test with a memtest (search for bootable usb thingy) also taking it out and puttin it back in can help (old, dusty...)

motherboard is a good tip if the pc is turning itself of with no obviously pattern.

graphic card is easy to check, use the onboard graphic of your mainboard.

 

power supply is easy to check if you have a spare one... and can be the reason for starting problems (usually they give up while heavy gaming cause of overusage (watts)

 

so play around, clean it first. give it a few try's check the components...

 

!!!:

 

according to your description the monitor doesnt get any picture from the PC, probably check the card first (use onbaoad card, check if its on via bios) or, a motherboard/memory issue which leads to some faulty settings which can affect the graphiccard, bios mem settings for example... i had a few problems with pc parts and alwys found the problem. think about what u have changed, what u havent changed, maybe its only the cable, maybe its a broken motherboard....

Edited November 3, 2014 by iddqdvie

[Red Hat]

its old, clean it with a hoover. give every cable connector a "blowjob" just like old nintendo games, dust can cause issues like that.

lol. I like that. Here, you have earned yourself a cookie.

Shouldn't that be a handjob? Last night when I was on my bed, I used my brain a little bit and figured out that blowjob to cable connectors can be a bit risky.

Now, I'll take that cookie back, thank you very much.

 

Anyway, there are a lot of things to check when you find yourself with no display.

@Ducard, you really need to check out this site from tomshardware. Helped me a lot.

Edited November 4, 2014 by Kevin3014