System Shutdown pre-windows load

[paulm_2008]

Good evening, I'm hoping you can assist in my problem.

My borther who is ill asked me to have a look at his PC. The problem started with his monitor apparently failing. As a result he had my parents bring down there PC to connect to the monitor hence validating the prognosis. Indeed it does look like the monitor is indeed defunct. However during this test procedure he placed the parents PC on top of his full tower case - this is where the problems began, since that time his computer does not post. It basically starts then shuts down, it appears to randomly shut down prior to windows beginning to load. Turning the PC on immediately after it shuts down results in the system being totally unresponsive [i.e. no power at all, no LED's No fans turn at all [not even the PSU fan], leaving it 10 minutes however results in all the fans will turning where by the system shuts itself down after about 20seconds. During one such lengthy period with everything removed [All IDE Drives [4 HDD and two CD/DVD], Memory, graphics and sound card] bar the CPU. Beep codes where heard prior to again the system shutting itself down [I assume the presence of beep's from the board provides some indication that the Board it not totally dead]. I bought a cheap replacement PSU, but this did not work [however I do not know if this PSU was faulty or not], i.e there was no sign of life at all from it, i.e. the psu fan did not even turn on this unit]

basic specs as I can make out are very old indeed [which were state of the art when he built it], were looking at something like

Pentium 4
PATA/IDE HDD
ASUS p4p800 deluxe 478

Here the main problem is

1. seeing if the PC can be resurrected

2. Remove valuable photos etc...from the 4 PATA/IDE drives.

Any advice would be most welcome.

Regards

Paul

 

[jnkweaver]

Good evening, I'm hoping you can assist in my problem.

My borther who is ill asked me to have a look at his PC. The problem started with his monitor apparently failing. As a result he had my parents bring down there PC to connect to the monitor hence validating the prognosis. Indeed it does look like the monitor is indeed defunct. However during this test procedure he placed the parents PC on top of his full tower case - this is where the problems began, since that time his computer does not post. It basically starts then shuts down, it appears to randomly shut down prior to windows beginning to load. Turning the PC on immediately after it shuts down results in the system being totally unresponsive [i.e. no power at all, no LED's No fans turn at all [not even the PSU fan], leaving it 10 minutes however results in all the fans will turning where by the system shuts itself down after about 20seconds. During one such lengthy period with everything removed [All IDE Drives [4 HDD and two CD/DVD], Memory, graphics and sound card] bar the CPU. Beep codes where heard prior to again the system shutting itself down [I assume the presence of beep's from the board provides some indication that the Board it not totally dead]. I bought a cheap replacement PSU, but this did not work [however I do not know if this PSU was faulty or not], i.e there was no sign of life at all from it, i.e. the psu fan did not even turn on this unit]

basic specs as I can make out are very old indeed [which were state of the art when he built it], were looking at something like

Pentium 4
PATA/IDE HDD
ASUS p4p800 deluxe 478

Here the main problem is

1. seeing if the PC can be resurrected

2. Remove valuable photos etc...from the 4 PATA/IDE drives.

Any advice would be most welcome.

Regards

Paul

As far as recovering the data from the drives they just need to be plugged into a computer that works that has IDE. You could plug them into the parents PC.

Not being able to boot is very frustrating. Based on your description of the problem I am thinking one of three things happened.
1. The case warped due to the weight of the pc and is grounding the motherboard causing intermittent short.
2. The motherboard was cracked by the weight of the pc and is causing an intermittent short.
3. The power supply died.

#1 is the easiest to check. A visual inspection of the inside the case is usually enough to confirm the standoffs are keeping the motherboard off of the case. Or you can say that the case is well made and didn't warp.

I think #3 is most likely and setting the pc on top was coincidental. Do not buy a cheap power supply. You get what you pay for. Buy a Seasonic, Corsair, XFX, or Antec supply.

If it is #2 then a new motherboard is the solution. That motherboard would be very hard to find. It may be time to retire that computer and build a new one.

 

[ParanoidAndroid_0099]

Thank you for the post.

The PC case is pretty sturdy with a metal frame supporting the side panels, and it did not seem to buckle when he demonstrated what he had done !!

I think his families concern is the photos and data on the drives [I do not know why he did not back-up this information, he should have known it was a risk, particularly in light of the age of the machine [guess his illness did not help].

I may buy a IDE HDD -> USB caddy, then extract the information from the drives to a laptop, then back all the data to CD/DVD. I can also store the data/photos etc... on my NAS or even Cloud storge, where they can access them also.

Thanks Again for you input.....