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Tower Pc Went Nuts


Emma

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My advent tower pc had a hissy fit about a week ago.  Basically all the blue lights on it started flashing on and off like strobe lighting and the only way to get it to stop was to kill the power to it.   Then a few days later I tried to plug it back in and turn it on and nothing, the power isn't going to it at all.

Anyone got any ideas on what to try to fix it?  Or maybe this will be another "please dad can you look at......"  job.  :P

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Dad....Please look at this...

 

have you checked the fuse? otherwise I think it might be the power supply that has gone bump in the night...if there is nothing happening when you put power to it at least...

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I will be honest with you Rob, I personally have done nothing at all.  Software issues are what I tend to look at and hardware malfunctions are Paul's forte.    Paul's had a bit of a look at it and officially pronounced it extinct of life but Paul being Paul, will take forever and a day to get round to trying to fix it.  It is old (it's running windows vista!) but it's a good old fashioned tower where you can take it apart and replace parts easily enough, not one of these fancy little things that are all compact and practically impossible to fix yourself. 

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Exactly.  We used to have one of those compact little things but when the dvd player went belly up and I realised how awkward it was just to fix it, I ended up sending it packing over to my parents and went back to a proper tower.  They really are so much simpler.  

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Ah, PCs...not easy to troubleshoot these things. From the sounds of it, the power supply is knackered. On an old machine, not surprising. They should be quite easy to replace. If you know what you're doing with voltmeters and ammeters, you can find out for sure if it's the power supply by measuring the flow of electricity into it. Be careful though as it's very high voltage.

 

Voltmeters and ammeters can be bought from Maplin.

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  • 2 weeks later...

It could be caused by your Operating system becoming corrupt and then causing mayhem with your Motherboard or it could be your PSU, Motherboard or even your RAM?

 

The PSU is modular, (on all PC's), and, (basically), delivers +12 volts, -12 volts and +5 volts, (low voltage but high current - I use one to power one of my 100 watt Short Wave Transmitters)!.

 

All PSU's are 'switch mode' which means that they create the required voltages by a combination of transformation, (isolating the power supply rails from the mains supply), and voltage regulation, (by way of a number of voltage/current regulators), but the PSU only draws the amount of power, (from the mains supply), that it needs - if the PC demands more power the PSU will deliver it!

 

These PSU's are very efficient, (when compared to earlier types of power supply), although power is still lost by way of heat despite the complex circuitry.

 

A quick check with a DVM, (meter), or swapping the PSU, (with a known good one), should serve to confirm/eliminate the PSU from your troubleshooting exercise!

 

If the Motherboard is damaged you may experience a wide variety of symptoms but don't forget that any of your peripherals, (video, sound, modem cards, hard drives, floppy drives - remember them, CD/DVD drives can all cause problems if they cause one of the power rails to drop).

 

If your PC is quite old it would be more cost effective to purchase a new one rather than repair your current one, (PSU's cost from £15 upwards).

 

Don't forget to remain safe at all times - remove the mains supply before removing any covers, (even though modern PC's do not have any exposed 'live' areas as they are all enclosed within the PSU container.

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Thanks Martin.  I tried plugging it in again the other day and it worked fine.  Came on and off when it should.......a few days later it had a life of it's own again and started turning itself on for no reason.  I think this is a job for my dad.  Bit embarrassing as the other day I rang him up to tell him that it was fine, lol.  Famous last words!  :facepalm: 

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Although no longer my primary area of employment these days I have spent the past 40 years pitting my wits against against a wide range of electronic devices, (and I have rarely lost), but intermittent problems are, by far, the worst to resolve!

 

I have encountered some very 'esoterical' problems that verged on the edge of belief such as a blood chemistry analyser that produced erroneous Sodium results, (that were well outside of the 'normal range'), due to poor shielding around the electrode casing - it was picking up radio transmissions from a local BBC transmitter - although I was unable to determine which station!

 

They were the days ... .

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