shutdown within 5 seconds of pressing the power button when booting

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
bromberg

bromberg

Distinguished
Jan 12, 2011
38
0
18,530
Suddenly, when I hit my (Vista) PC's power button to boot up, the power light, fans, etc... are activated for about 5 seconds and then the entire system comes to a halt and completely shuts down. Where should I start on checking out which component is failing?
Dan
 
Solution
Vic 40
Yes the switch is universal. On all mobo's are the two pins necessary to power the pc next to each other,connecting them with this should do the trick when wanting to start the pc.
You'll need to figure out which of the frontpanel pins that are.If you know the motherboard model/name could you find out via the manual.
Sort by date Sort by votes
bromberg

bromberg

Distinguished
Jan 12, 2011
38
0
18,530


No firmware menu, only the usual BSoD with their indecipherable codes.
For the same money M$ could've given more of a clue instead of being so cryptic.
Grrrr!

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
bromberg

bromberg

Distinguished
Jan 12, 2011
38
0
18,530

Good idea about the dust vacuuming (though my friend thinks blowing the guts out with his air compressor would be a better way to go?) - been a while since I've done that.
Changing cooler paste: never heard of that being done (though you're right, the PC is ≈9 years old).
Thanks.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Vic 40

Vic 40

Titan
Ambassador
Oct 22, 2013
20,885
994
87,990
If never cleaned before is it a good start. Do change the paste for the cooler as well,enough tutorials online for doing that.Maybe heat is why it is shutting down that fast.
Might also want to reseat parts like ram and gpu when cleaning the pc, well if having a dedicated gpu.
If you have a compressor is that preferred yes.If a powerfull one make sure it's not blowing to hard.Can also use a paintbrush for cleaning.
Make sure to look under the fan of the cpu cooler as well,might be a "blanket" of dust there too.
And of course make sure it's of the power before starting. ;)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
bromberg

bromberg

Distinguished
Jan 12, 2011
38
0
18,530


Vic:
All good ideas which I'll follow up on.
What about the CMOS - since the battery is at least 8 years old (and very well may be dead or close to it) might that have an affect on the BIOS?
Dan

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
bromberg

bromberg

Distinguished
Jan 12, 2011
38
0
18,530

OK - will do and thanks for your thoughts.
Dan
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
bromberg

bromberg

Distinguished
Jan 12, 2011
38
0
18,530


Since this is an 8+ year old PC I'm reluctant to purchase parts for swapping purposes. It's probably smart for me to cut my losses and run - maybe just save this old warhorse for spare parts (though I question whether a modern PC would be able to make use of any of it).
But thanks for the bench-troubleshooting article as there's some good info in there.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Vic 40

Vic 40

Titan
Ambassador
Oct 22, 2013
20,885
994
87,990
With swapping parts would i mean first lending a friends psu or if having two sticks of ram trying each on it's own. There's indeed little use in spending alot of money on a system that old unless being sure that it is the psu,which can be bought reasonably cheap,and it works allright for the purposes you need that pc for.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
bromberg

bromberg

Distinguished
Jan 12, 2011
38
0
18,530


Actually, I do have a PSU from an old XP machine (I just hope all the power cable connections match). So after I vacuum out the dust bunnies, recheck my cable and RAM stick connections, I'll then hope the PSU replacement will solve my problems. If not, guess I'll have a whole bunch of new spare parts to store away!

Vic, thanks for your encouragement and suggestions.
Dan
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
bromberg

bromberg

Distinguished
Jan 12, 2011
38
0
18,530


If I used an air compressor wouldn't that just blow the dust around, maybe forcing those dust bunnies deeper into crevices of some components? Intuitively, I though sucking out the dust (without a brush and not touching any components) would be more effective - no?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
cilliers

cilliers

Honorable
Jul 13, 2012
825
0
11,360
I haven't read this thread since the 21st, but I must say, in my humble opinion, that you guys are perhaps looking in the wrong places for a solution.
Don't get me wrong. A good cleaning is always a benefit, but merely cleaning the chassis will not solve the OP's problem.

Now lets look at the original problem: shutdown within 5 seconds of pressing the power button when booting. Then the OP replied that he gets a BSOD. Therefore my money is on the fact that there is quite possibly a problem with the boot drive. I would suggest the following:

1. Remove the boot drive from the chassis and plug into a different PC, or an external HDD enclosure to backup valuable data that is still wanted.
2. After that process is complete (and I can elaborate on point #1 if you want to), use crystaldiskinfo to perform a quick analysis on the HDD itself, while it is still plugged into another PC or enclosure in another PC. This is purely for verifying the integrity of the hardware. Cyrstaldiskinfo will show the SMART of each drive in the system and give a visual indication if the drive is good, OK-ish or bad.
3. If your drive checks out, then that is one step in the right direction, because it means that your problem is most probably software related. I.e. You will have to repair windows or do a fresh install.

I can also elaborate on how to do a fresh windows install here, but it is probably one one the most widely discussed topics on tech forums and there will be really good tutorials out there. Just flex your google search muscles a bit.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
bromberg

bromberg

Distinguished
Jan 12, 2011
38
0
18,530


*
Cielliers:
Thanks for taking the time to reply to my problem.
Update: Let's forget the BSoD since that only happened once and now the problem is not only as I originally stated, but worse! My PC used to boot up and immediately shut down within 5 seconds. Now it doesn't even boot up! i.e., none of the fans spin at all and the only sign of life is the green LED power light by the plug. So I'm guessing it's the power supply that has finally given out. I've never replaced one before so I just hope all the wires coming out of it are standard so the new one will similarly connect.
Dan
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
cilliers

cilliers

Honorable
Jul 13, 2012
825
0
11,360


You might need the help of a professional, though. It doesn't seem like you are moving forward with this at all.
I'm out.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Vic 40

Vic 40

Titan
Ambassador
Oct 22, 2013
20,885
994
87,990
This just happened? Or was that after cleaning?

If giving motherboard would i know more about what psu to pick if you want to try that. All atx spec psu's should do the trick though,just trying to get an idea of how old that pc is.For replacing it look at some vids and/or tutorials.
I like to know more about cpu and gpu used as well for the wattage needed.
Case is important too for the formfactor.If having a small case would you maybe need a sfx psu or other formfactor.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
bromberg

bromberg

Distinguished
Jan 12, 2011
38
0
18,530

Cleaning was one of my hopeful solutions, though there really wasn't any dust to speak of when I opened the case. Anyhow, the PSU is 300W, model PS-5301-08HA, (HP Vista PC ≈2008). So off to Google-land & YouTube to see what is out there and how to do it (though it pretty much looks like out with the old & in with the new).
Thanks for your interest.
Dan
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom