Blinking green power LED + no boot

[fuzzymath10]

[this is a repost from another section but it was suggested I post here]
I accidentally left my machine on for about 5 weeks after being away for awhile. I've left it on for two weeks before and nothing has ever happened. However, when I got home, all the hard drives were powered down (cold to the touch) and only the fans were spinning. 4-second power down didn't work, so I took out the power cable from the PSU and re-plugged it in. Green led on motherboard is on, but when I go to press the power button, the power LED on the front of the case flashes green quickly (vs steady on), and only the fans turn on and spin sporadically and then sometimes turn off after several seconds while the case LED continues to flash. Is this a bad sign? It's a mATX case (Antec Minuet 300) with an Asus P5KPL-VM (s775) so my suspicion lies in the PSU not being able to handle 5 weeks of continuous operation. I haven't bothered trying clearing the CMOS yet but if you think that might help I'll go for it. I've had consumer machines run for months on end without this happening before. Thanks.

followup: I tried a new PSU and clearing the CMOS and it does the exact same thing. One thing I was wondering is that my hard drives (SATA) won't power up when they're connected, even though they work fine in a dock. Is there some fancy thing related to the motherboard or PSU that makes them not turn on in certain cases for safety reasons?

 

[Matan Eldan]

Please try to unplug everything from your computer:
start with the RAM stick's - if you got more than 1 stick of RAM memory, unplug the others and leave only one stick.
Unplug one of the Hard Drive's (leave alone the one that contain the OS)
Unplug every SATA device that you don't need (CD-ROM / DVD burner etc)
Unplug every USB device plugged in to your PC.

These are the components that I want you to leave plugged in:
PSU + CPU + Motherboard + 1 stick of RAM memory + Video Card + 1 HD

Doe's it work now?

 

[fuzzymath10]

Thanks for that. Cycling dimms didn't do anything. Seems like the only way to not get the blinking light is to remove the CPU, but I have no idea if that means anything. I have a feeling it's the mb, but it's impossible to tell without a spare CPU lying around. I'm almost hoping it's the mb so I can just sell the memory and cpu and get newer parts.

 

[Matan Eldan]

Please look for distended caps in your MB.
This is pretty rare problem though, but it's worth checking it.

You can take a look in this guide, to learn how to identify distended caps:
http://www.ehow.com/how_2162895_identify-distended-capacitor-inoperable-computer.html

 

[jbwhite99]

Sorry to dredge up an old thread, but I have a similar problem - new build. Will go back to ASUS, but thought the HW gurus might have a thought.

HTPC:
ASUS M2N68-AM2 Plus
Processor = AMD X3445 (on the compatibility list)
Video = ASUS AMD 5450 fanless (no power cable needed)
SATA Optical (Blu-Ray burner)
2GB Kingston memory
3.5" HGST Drive
Antec TruePower 430w Power Supply (recycled from another machine).
Cheap Case (NewEgg email blast - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811121091) HEC 6T.

The user guide (and the online version) show the power/reset/speaker pins backwards or so I believe (the pins on the case show the down area for POSITIVE, right)?

Net is that when I turn on the power supply (switch on the back), the LED lights up on the board, which means I am getting power. However, when I push the juice button on the front, I get nothing. No CPU fan, no power supply fan, no nothing.

I am sure I have done something goofy - but I'm stumped. Have tried the power block of switches like 10 times, even did it backwards. Since the LED light is on, that says the MB is getting power. My thought is either the switches are wired wrong (no reset button on this case), or the power switch is bad (I've tried pressing both it and the case). Can I jumper the power on to at least see if everything else is working? No reply from the case maker.

Thanks!