PC not working ... any advice welcome

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suey3b

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We were away on vacation and during our absence, my sneaky sister-in-law used our computer without our permission. It was working fine before she was here (according to my cousin who was staying at our house), but after she left it wouldn't work. It's an HP a305w. The power light on the pc is a constant orange and it won't boot up. The power light on the monitor is blinking green, but nothing else shows up. I've tried unplugging everything and turning it on, changing the voltage switch to 230 and back to 115 and turning it on, nothing is working. TO me, it almost seems like it's either the power supply (but there is power to it and the light comes on), or the mother board. If it is the motherboard, is it possible to intentionally sabotage someones motherboard? She's pissed for several family related reasons, and I don't trust her at all.

Thanks!
 
You changed the voltage switch?? OK first thing get yourself a new PSU.
 
Drake2007 said:
You changed the voltage switch?? OK first thing get yourself a new PSU.
Click to expand...

You mean I shouldn't have changed it? I unplugged the tower, pressed the on/off button to discharge any electricity, switched the red button to 230 then back to 115, plugged it in and it didn't make a difference.

Is the PSU the problem? I have an older HP in the attic. Wonder if I can use the PSU from that one.
 
suey3b said:
You mean I shouldn't have changed it? I unplugged the tower, pressed the on/off button to discharge any electricity, switched the red button to 230 then back to 115, plugged it in and it didn't make a difference.

Is the PSU the problem? I have an older HP in the attic. Wonder if I can use the PSU from that one.
Click to expand...

Huh? What country are you in? The red switch should be left on 230....

Remember that if you try the one in the attic...
 
Try re-seating the RAM. At work I also had a HP computer not booting up with the same symptoms.
 
It could be both the power supply and the motherboard - if there was a power surge it would have fried the board and popped the psu. Happened to me a few times now in this country because of Eskom's unreliable throughput. Does your sister in law really have the acumen to deviously sabotage your PC? Sounds unlikely to me. is the plug surge protected?
 
To be fair, it's very difficult to actually 'break' a pc like that, unless of course she caused some physical damage :p
 
He said it wasn't plugged in when he changed the voltage switch, so it couldn't have caused any damage.
 
Lol, thought he said to 115 then back to 230. I should really start reading for carefully...
 
I'm from the US, where it should be on 115, if I understand correctly. And yes, the pc, monitor and everything is plugged into a surge protector.
 
I wish. Limited funds and a daughter leaving for college in 3 weeks = no new pc for me.

I changed out the PSU with one from another pc and it still doesn't work. I put the old PSU in the other pc and it booted up right away, telling me that it isn't the PSU.

Thinking this isn't good ...
 
It's probably a dead mobo

Try booting up with only the cpu, mobo, gpu and ram. Also try taking out all the ram modules and booting up. The mobo should beep to indicate that no ram is installed. If it does not beep i would guess its safe to presume the mobo as being dead :(
 
Last edited:
Hi Dude

Just take out you Cmos battery , your boot values are messed up dew to power surge or switching pc off at the button, take out cmos battery ,boot up pc , switch off and place battery back , should work ,let me know

Thanx
 
hmmm... make sure everything is plugged in :P, like the ATX cable and what not. your sister in law might have decided to go look inside the pc and pulled out cables from their sockets... Because you not hearing any beeps I'm assuming that it maybe causes by either dead mobo (but he's getting a power light when the power button is pressed), or a cable is not plugged in (the ATX would cause these issues if not plugged in. the ATX cable has 4 little "pins" joined together and goes into a socket next to the cpu)
 
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