PC not starting

[wheezergeezer]

Hi can you help ? my pc crashed yesterday while I was using it, I had internet connection, cd playing,
I have XP, Norton antivirus,and all Ms.updates, the PSU is working, when I swich on /reboot there is NO post, no HDD activity, just zero happening except for a blinking cursor on the monitor, I wonder if the battery is dead, or worse?

Any help will be much appreciated
Thank you

 

[Cache-man]

Make sure all your connections in your case are solid.
If that does'nt work try disconnecting and removing all non-essential devices, and then only reconnecting only vital ones, such as main HDD & graphics card. If it works now, add your devices back one'by one and you'll know if any of them are knackered.

This is a general trouble shooting method, and may not actually be the solution to your problem. If you would like more help, could you please give us more detailed specs of your system.
Also, when you say there's a cursor flashing on screen - is that prior to BIOS, after BIOS, during windows INITIATING etc?

 

[wheezergeezer]

pc not working

cache-man, thanks for your reply,
the flashing cursor happens when I switch on the pc& monitor, there's no post so I assume the bios isn't initallising,so no windows ,no message's, just the blinking cursor, the machine is an old dell around 4-5 years old, I checked for lose connections all seems ok ? its the bios not working/ initiallising that has me going down the failed battery track.........any thoughts on this

 

[Alf]

what you can do is disconnest the PSU from...power. and take out the motherboard battery and let it be for about 5 mins or more. reinsert it and try again.

 

[Cache-man]

I don't think a batterey failure should stop the BIOS working altogether. The battery generally provides power so that your personal BIOS settings can be saved when the computer is off. If the battery is flat then your BIOS should still work, but it would reset to default settings evrytime you turned on your computer.
You could always try a new battery though, they only cost a few quid.

 

[Alf]

i had a problem similar to this one, my computer would not boot, there wasnt even a beep! so by taking out the battery (and replacing it ) my computer booted. chances are your battery died on you, this may help but it wouldnt hurt to do it anyway as your computer is 4-5 years old

 

[muckshifter]

Taking out the BIOS battery will not prevent a PC from booting ... all you did by doing so was reset the BIOS, and there is usually a 'jumper' that will do that for you.

When you power-on does the CPU fan work?

 

[Alf]

C-MOS jumpers, yea, but changing out the battery actually worked form me i dont know why but it did.

 

[wheezergeezer]

Thanks for your reply Alf, I will change the battery, its seems the most logical thing to do at present........

 

[wheezergeezer]

Muckshifter, the CPU fan is working,also the PSU is too.......

 

[wheezergeezer]

Thank you all for your reply's , I now have to go to work, will reply later..............

 

[wheezergeezer]

just one last message, I believe that if the battery is flat you lose your bios, can anyone confirm this ?

Thanks

 

[Alf]

just one last message, I believe that if the battery is flat you lose your bios, can anyone confirm this ?

Thanks

What?
if you change out the battery it will clear your C-MOS if thats what you mean.
also MAKE SURE YOU GET THE RIGHT KIND OF BATTERY!!!

 

[muckshifter]

just one last message, I believe that if the battery is flat you lose your bios, can anyone confirm this ?

Thanks

You don't lose anything as such but it will reset to a 'default' setting ... and it moans at you to re-set time & date.

You will need to reset your BIOS to the correct configuration according to certain components in your system ... speed of CPU, type of RAM and a few others.

As I said, the battery should have no affect on how your PC boots, but the wrong settings in the BIOS can.

 

[Indy500]

Let me know if you are still having problem with blinking cursor. I got a solution for it. (e-mail address removed). Put "PC question" in the subject line so I wont delete it by mistake.

 

[jasper]

Try this, unplug everything from the Motherboard. remove the battery test it with a meter if you have one. Leave all disconnected overnight. then reverse the procedure. If the battery is US then get another. If that doesn't work the CMOS chip is no good.