Computer won't boot up. Fans run at high speed.

gelotalian

Honorable
Sep 20, 2012
3
0
10,510
Hi. I have a Compaq computer (SR2039X) running Windows XP. I use it regularly and when I turned it on to use it (from 'stand by'), the light went on but it didn't show on the monitor and the fans ran at their highest speed. The light was at steady green with no beep sounds (not yellow or any blinking. Also, my pc didn't beep anyway from what I remember). I have my pc set to when I hit the 'power' button, it goes on 'stand by' so it boots up quickly instead of the whole startup process. I also shut the whole pc down from time to time to avoid any glitches, etc. A couple times a day, the pc would start up for a couple of minutes and go on 'stand by' mode again. It's been doing that all along and I was just assuming that's how pc's work on 'stand by'. There wasn't any power outages nor any storms that came through so I know that wasn't the potential problem. I also don't have any virusus or anything else related to it. This just happened out of nowhere and I am wondering what the problem is. I've did some research online and some say it could be the power supply while others say it could be the mother board or perhaps just a better on the mother board that may need to be replaced. I'm not tech savy when it comes to plugging and unplugging things. I have a lot of information on there from work and lots of family pictures.

Does anyone know what the problem could be other than what I have read before? I am wondering if it would be easier to put my hard drive into a similar computer (which I have), or just have this one fixed so I can remove all my information to a newer pc. Any help would be most appreciated. Thank you for your time.
 

Durgesh Bhatija

Honorable
Jul 11, 2012
20
0
10,510
Most likely this types of issue arise when RAM goes dead the better way to judge it open your CPU box and uninstall your existing ram and plugin again and check if it could work or not? Else if you have a spare ram then install it and then look forward, if still the same problem persists then may be it's the problem with your mother board and you'll have to get it check by any system technician.
 

gelotalian

Honorable
Sep 20, 2012
3
0
10,510
Hi. I tried the ram trick and still had the same problem. I've brought it to a computer guy that I've dealt with in the past and after checking everything, he said he was 99% sure my mother board went so I bought a new one and he's installing it very soon. I just hope that was the only problem. I'll keep you posted. Thank you for your reply and help. :)
 

gelotalian

Honorable
Sep 20, 2012
3
0
10,510


You were both right... It was the motherboard capacitors that went bad and I had a new one installed for $200 (including parts and labor). I am very happy now and I bought a new computer as well to transfer all my information along with buying an external drive so I have a backup of a backup as mentioned by many others. Thank you all for your time and effort.
 

knreddy.ntpc

Reputable
Sep 2, 2018
3
0
4,510
My Problem:
(i) once mains on and PC power on button is pressed, PC power on LED glows, HDD activity LED comes on but does not progress and No signal message comes on TV/Monitor, when casing is opened the CPU fan and SMPS fan in spinning codion. This problem occurring many times during recent fast.

(ii) Some times it restarts on its own from the above non booting condion and boots normal.

(iii) When PC is restarted from Windows 10, it restarts but power LED goes off for few seconds (earlier POWER LED is used be on always during soft restart)

My Experience for solutions

Trial1 : Cleaned the HDMI port of PC and HDMI plug of Cable with Stanvac spray Safe klens (ELT) Co2 (fully safe to components and dielectric, evaporative spray) or any equivalent.
With the spray applied plugge in / out twice (the improvement in smoothness of fitment can be observed during insertion and removal )
The problem is solved , thrice checked ok but 4th time the problem resurfaced.

Trial 2: Existing smps inspected shortening and burning of hdd power connector observed. Smps power unit replaced it was working but problem repeated after few times.

It appears that it is not hdmi not working issue, probably it is not passing POST as once HD led glows and stops (it needs glow some more time during POST and intermittently while pc is on) and power led constantly glowing with fans running.
Trick of Remove all cables and hold power button for 30 second did not work
Memory stick removed contact area cleaned and fitted in another slot pc is now working but after shutdown, if it is restarted, it is not working.

Trial3: With some doubt on the spare smps (it is very old, for old pc, +12V capacity rating may be lower for this mother board), but it is not booting PC. Hence the original smps is installed after removal of burnt part and cleaning of all parts and lubrication of fan bearing. Now it is working normal, many times shutdown done and restarted it is working. But some times (rarely) it is not working, like when power to HDMI is given from PC (i.e. no external power is provided)

Trial 3 (Final diagnosis and Soln Part-I)


(1) The spare capacity in the power supply is very little that too might have exhausted due damage happened at the time of short circuit (+12V)[see SMPS voltages and currents requirements.txt]. It was also observed that some times wireless WiFi was not working, any excess drawal due to attched or new pheriphrerals or any minor short circuits may resist boot up of PC (probobly the above short cicuit might have happened during BurstMining with 2 HDDs, the cable might have damaged at power connector.

Hence the existing defective XPES-251 250W (+3.3v/15A, +5V/15A, +12V/18A...) is replaced with ZEB-ML450W 450W ( +3.3v/25A, +5V/38A, +12V/15A....i.e. +12V is inferior) as same or better amperage arated at +12V is not available. [not like earlier PCs, in new PCs of i3, i5, i7 ......era, CPU with its own DCtoDC converters , Graphics (HDMI) with its own DCtoDC converters, HDD Motor, Disk Drive motor, Fans , all draw power from +12V)



(2) One observation is that, if the chipset (south bridge) temp is already high and power is on freshly on, it is not booting till temp is lowered (to solve it, wait for some time to allow it to cool). This condition is noticed when running pc is shutdown and mains power is made off and immediately main is made on and CPU power is made on, but if the PC restarted or shutdown (without mains off) and power on, it is booting normal.

Obs:
(i) Hence in this case, it is not HDMI stopped working but the PC itself stopped booting

(ii) So SMPS needs cleaning every 3 to 5 years? depending on use and environment.


(iii) The present HDMI cable length is 1.5m , required is 0.5m , the excess cable weight may be acting on HDMI port , hence it is folded and properly supported.

(iv) If MBD south bridge temp is normal & Mains on and Switch on TV, wait till no signal , now main on to PC, switch on the PC , Every time the PC is booting.If not,restart PC, still if not switch off mains of both PC & TV, repeat.
(even with SMPS 800W (peak) Frontech JIL-2430 with dual CPU 12V power, same (i.e iv) is happening. BIOS updated from vF10 to F15)


Diagnostics with PCI Diagnostic Card

When tested with PCI Diagnostic Card the following taking place (MSI MBoard:....BIOS: AMI Dual BIOS)


TOP LEDS:
(A) Once power on button pressed
LED 1 (-12V), 2 (+12V) , 3(+3.3V), 4 (+5V) and LED 8(Reset) glow Full and restarts immediately

(B) Now LED 1 (-12V), 2 (+12V) , 3(+3.3V), 4 (+5V) glow full and LED 5 (clk) and LED 8 (reset) glow dim But LED 6 (Frame) and LED 7 (Rdy) blinks once (very short duration) after 62, 62 but before 72 72.

Error codes
along with above process at above (B)
the following codes go on
08 08, 10 10, 19 19, 15 15 (visible duration), 3b 3b, 42 42, 4F 4F, 60 60, 61 61,62 62,...72, 72 (visible duration), 9A 9A, b2 b2, 99 99, b4 b4, A2 A2 (visible duration BIOS screen appears), Ad Ad, b6 b6, b1 b1, AO ,AO (visible duration window loads, some times O4 O4 also seen)

Observation:
(a) If south bridge is hot stucking at 62 62
(b) If memory is not installed 52 52, continous beep from motherbaord and PC repeated restarts
(c) No aux Power to CPU, O O and immdeaite power off
(d) No HDD (No Media) AE AE
(e) Shutdown command given to Windows it changes from AO AO to O4 O4 before power off

With above Soln at Part-I mostly the proble is not happening, even it happens with trick at (iv) i am able to boot reliably. but in view of this trial 4 is conducted as below.

Trial 4 (Final diagnosis and Soln Part-II)

Bios file B75MD3H.F15 is downloaded from Gigbyte site for Motherboard B75MD3H
copied to USB flash drive and booted to BIOS screen by Del key, q flash selected and updated from version F10 to F15
Now the PC booting normal
Rootcause: Probobly , when SMPS has failed , it might have curruped the BIOS partially or Some virus has attacked and corrupted partially (resetting the old version BIOS to default was tried but there was no improvement)
I amy safely conclude: Cleaning / shorting portion removal of defective SMPS (or replacement with new) & Updation Corruptive BIOS has solved the problem