PC Startup

[Garry Russell]

Hi guys

I just popped out leaving my PC on standby

When I returned it was on the Password screen

I hit return and the machine made a sort or whosshy hiss and shut off

I tried to restart and the same noise and no start

Tried again and here I am

I am thinking perhaps the fan didn't kick in??

I have an ASUS board that did hace probs with northbridge fans at one stage.

Any suggestions?

Garry

[petermcleland]

First thing to try is to turn it off and unplug it from the wall for about a minute then plug it back in and try it. You should get a single beep at the end of the POST...No beep or a number of beeps means that POST is failing and it is unlikely to recover without some serious action. Possible mobo replacement.

If it is a fan failure then if you take the side off and watch carefully, when you attempt to start the fans rotation should be visible. I have not replaced a Northbridge fan but I imagine that you could get one from the mobo maker...My Northbridge looks to be removeable with three small crosshead screws.

[Garry Russell]

Thanks Peter

I'll try a tun off ASAP

ATM I am copying files that I need onto a memory stick

I do have daily back ups but sometimes when problems looms I find the back up were corrupted.

So as soon as I dare I will do that strart check

Garry

[Quixoticish]

A northbridge fan failing shouldn't make your system fail to boot, the only thing it could do is prevent it coming on full stop if there is some kind of protection enabled in the BIOS where you must have a working fan connected to the header to power. But as far as any potential damage or overheating, the northbridge will be fine cooling passively as long as you've got a system fan or two.

If you ever get anything other than one beep after the bios note down the beep code (how many long, how many short) and post it here. You can decipher the problem based on the beep code the system is putting out.

To be perfectly honest this could be a whole host of things, your RAM could be on the way out, your CPU could be damaged although this is unlikely as they tend to either work or not work. Something could be making a loose connection (my guess would be the graphics card, I've seen a lot of them that are tight fits and work their way out of the slot over time) but checking everything would help. Your PSU is also a very likely candidate and that could be getting ready to die a death. Unfortunately you're going to have to do some problem solving with this one and work through every component one at a time.

If this is the first time it happened and you've got backups then I'd put it down to a one off occurrence, these things do happen all the time during the boot sequence with everything powering on at once and chances are it's nothing at all.

[Garry Russell]

Hi Chris

A while ago it failed to boot

A similat thing happened to my old PC

Both times it was the northbridge fan failed and the machine kicked off as soon as it detected a fault.

I am not in a position to problem solve as such so I was hoping there may have been a straightforward answer but perhaps not :-(

I'm stil backing up essential files so I have not looked at the beeps yet.

Garry

[Garry Russell]

I did the restart and I and a normal single beep

Everything came up as it should :think:

Garry

[Techy111]

Everything came up as it should :think:

Garry

PC Viagra....?

OK i am leaving.....

Tony

[Garry Russell]

:o

Garry