Shoutbox

Whoah, hold your horses.

The cpu, wouldn't and shouldn't stop everything else powering up. I very much doubt its the CPU.

It sounds like its the PSU.

but when i turn off the main switch i hear the mobo turn off so it cant be the psu

get a voltmeter on a molex connector and check if it's working?

it can still be the PSU, every PSU has more than one output voltage, so it could be that one of them died. I'd try one from another PC before running to the store to get new parts. Actually, I would recommend not to buy any new parts until you're sure it will solve your problem.

The fact that your CPU fan turns a little after turning the PC on does not necessarily point to a faulty CPU in any way. The CPU fan is connected to your mainboard, not to the CPU. In fact, if I cold-boot my pc, the CPU fan also spins only a little before stopping again (smart fan control by the bios, temperature controlled) so that could even be normal behaviour.
How about your PSU fan, is that one spinning? (although that one could be temperature controlled too)

Anyway, if a PSU from another PC does not solve your problem, try removing as much of the hardware as possible (eg. use only one memory bank(try all slots and banks), use onboard vga (if available) and remove the AGP/PCIe card, remove extra pci cards, hdds and cd/dvd/floppy drives, unplug usb devices (except mouse and keyboard ofcourse), etc.) and see if it works.
If it does, put the hardware back one piece at a time until you identify the culprit.
If it still does not work, try borrowing parts until you find out what's causing the problem. If you can't borrow the parts it might be better to return it to the shop rather than buying new parts without knowing if they will solve your problem (unless you planned on buying them anyway)


Bit off-topic, my sisters pc wouldn't boot yesterday. No beeps, no errors, monitor displayed "signal cable not connected" message only when the pc was turned on, only the fans would start spinning (no smart fan control ), turned out my dad forgot to plug in the 4-pin atx 12V connector after switching her PSU

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Originally posted by SpunkyLoveMuff
stuff

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Fuse..? Never seen a fuse near my computer. Also the CMOS battery just has that little bit of power so it can load your settings each time you boot. The computer should still work without the battery (I know for a fact they do in newer computers) and even if it was the battery the computer should still beep indicating the problem.

It looks like the PSU is tripping every time you turn the PC on. Go grab another one and try it. If you don't know what you are doing then just take it to someone that does know what they are doing.

All the CMOS battery does, is powers the little bios chip to stop it from dying (am i right?)

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Originally posted by Napbree
All the CMOS battery does, is powers the little bios chip to stop it from dying (am i right?)

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depends on what you mean by "dying"

If the battery is removed or empty, all bios settings in the CMOS are lost. You'll probably notice this first by looking at your clock, because the hardware clock will start from 0:00 every time you boot.
At least that's how it used to be in earlier days
Modern PCs often have a 5V standby voltage, which can also power the CMOS, so as long as they are plugged in and the PSU is switched on, they will keep their settings, even without a CMOS battery. (I use this 5v standby voltage to charge my phone through USB while my pc is turned off)
The PC will function, regardless of the amount of energy left in the CMOS battery.

edit: On topic : roflmao, to be able to test all pins on you power supply, take a look at this article for info on how to "power it on" without having it plugged in your mainboard (I destroyed my mainboard once while trying to measure the PSU while it was still attached to my mainboard... spark, poof )

Yeah thats it. To stop the BIOS from losing its memory

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Originally posted by Phillip
Fuse..? Never seen a fuse near my computer.

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The plug that you use to plug in your computer will have a fuse in. If I'm not mistaken the power supply in your pc should be fused as well.

so my solution is a new psu then?