Computer starts as soon as powered

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ray Kostanty
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Ray Kostanty

The power supply in this Gateway 500SE went dead. I replaced the power
supply. As soon as I connect the power cord to the new supply, the CPU and
power supply fans turn, and the green light on the front of the case
lights. I do NOT have to push the button on the front of the case for this
to happen. Holding this button in for many seconds has no effect.

The LED on the monitor is a steady green for about two seconds, then it
flashes, as if in the power saving mode. I can't see anything on the
monitor, but judging by the lack of sounds from the hard drive and floppy
drive, the computer is not even trying to boot.

Please also email your helpful suggestions.

Thanks,

Ray
 
Try holding... f8,(is it f8 for safe mode, I forget) I usually hold f8,
shift, cntr, to get it to soft mode because I forget what works, it could be
your video card, the same thing happened to me and I opened in safe mode and
then reinstalled my graphics card and it works perfectly now.
Girgath
 
The power supply in this Gateway 500SE went dead. I replaced the power
supply. As soon as I connect the power cord to the new supply, the CPU and
power supply fans turn, and the green light on the front of the case
lights. I do NOT have to push the button on the front of the case for this
to happen. Holding this button in for many seconds has no effect.

The LED on the monitor is a steady green for about two seconds, then it
flashes, as if in the power saving mode. I can't see anything on the
monitor, but judging by the lack of sounds from the hard drive and floppy
drive, the computer is not even trying to boot.

Please also email your helpful suggestions.

Thanks,

Ray
Click to expand...

Just so we're clear on the prior state of the PC, it was known for
certain that the power supply "died", and what exactly does "dead"
mean, what was the system doing at that point? Do you have theory or
evidence about why it died or what internal part failed, or that it
just didn't work or?

Any additional info you can provide might prove helpful.

The first thing I'd try is resetting/clearing the CMOS (BIOS) via the
jumper, should be near the battery but certainly it's mentioned in the
motherboard and/or system manual or perhaps documented on one of the
system CDROMs. Unplug the system prior to doing this.

Is there any chance that during the power supply removal, installation
of the new power supply, that cabling, memory, video card, or other
was disturbed?

Are you sure the original and the new power supply are standard ATX,
or at least that they're compatible? Had you done significant
upgrades to the system that might make the original (or new) power
supply's capacity inadequate for the system?

If all else fails remove (unplug) all components non-essential to a
system POST (which in this case might just look like a Gateway Logo
screen), leaving only one memory module, the CPU, CPU fan, video card
installed. Hard drives, CDRW, modem, etc, etc, should be either
unplugged from the motherboard and from the power supply. The
keyboard mouse and any other USB devices should be removed too, just
the CPU, fan, memory, video card (and power switch wires of course,
you might leave the other front panel wiring alone (connected) for
the time being). When the system is at this minimal state and you've
cleared the CMOS, try powering on.

Is it possible the power supply has a dual-voltage switch (on the
back, next to the AC plug-outlet) that's incorrectly set for your
location?


Dave
 
Time to open the box again and check the connections..either that or
somehow the BIOS settings have changed so that it doesn't need the
front button to be pressed to power up (which is how mine is set up
anyway) The fact you don't get any video output suggests possibly that
the card has been disturbed when the PSU was installed. In short,
check that everything has been installed and connected up properly and
that cards are seated properly.

BTW what was wrong with the original PSU?????????? Did it damage other
components when it died?

regards
Graham
 
Girgath said:
Try holding... f8,(is it f8 for safe mode, I forget) I usually hold f8,
shift, cntr, to get it to soft mode because I forget what works, it could be
your video card, the same thing happened to me and I opened in safe mode and
then reinstalled my graphics card and it works perfectly now.
Girgath
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion. The graphics card is integrated into the
mobo. Turns out the mobo was bad and one of the memory chips was bad.
Replace the whole computer.
 
Graham said:
Time to open the box again and check the connections..either that or
somehow the BIOS settings have changed so that it doesn't need the
front button to be pressed to power up (which is how mine is set up
anyway) The fact you don't get any video output suggests possibly that
the card has been disturbed when the PSU was installed. In short,
check that everything has been installed and connected up properly and
that cards are seated properly.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestions. No cards to seat; everything is integrated
into the mobo. Turns out the mobo and one of the memory chips were bad.
I replaced the whole computer.
BTW what was wrong with the original PSU?????????? Did it damage other
components when it died?
Click to expand...

Don't know. Computer just didn't respond at all when power button was
pressed. No green light, no fans turning, nothing.
 
kony said:
Just so we're clear on the prior state of the PC, it was known for
certain that the power supply "died", and what exactly does "dead"
mean, what was the system doing at that point? Do you have theory or
evidence about why it died or what internal part failed, or that it
just didn't work or?
Click to expand...

No idea why it died. There was simply no response when the power switch
was pressed. No green light, no fans turning, no beeps, nothing.

Things were really bizarre. Thbe original computer had 32 MB RAM in one
socket and 128 MB in the second slot. At the local store, they put together
a replacement computer and tested it with just the 128 MB RAM. The new
computer wouldn't boot; monitor showed nothing; no beeps. Took the 128
MB out
and replaced it with the 32 MB RAM. It booted properly. Then we took the
just the 32 MB and placed it back in the original Gateway, hoping that
the defective 128 MB was the original problem. The Gateway still didn't
boot. So it had multiple failures: power supply, memory, and mobo.
Replaced the whole computer.

Maybe there was a voltage spike that caused these problems. Anyway, thanks
for your suggestions.

Ray
 
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