Computer won't boot

Jjoshua2

Senior member
Mar 24, 2006
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I am trying to fix a friend's computer. Apparently it was working normally, and they shut it down. When they tried to turn it back on, there was an error message, and they haven't been able to get it to do anything since.
When I press the power button it doesn't do a thing. So I unplugged the 4 pin and 20 pin power molexes, and plugged them in from a different psu of mine that I know worked a week ago. Still nothing. However, I noticed that when I turn the switch off on the psu, the cpu fan moves about a half turn. There were two sticks of memory, and I tried using each one in each channel, and still nothing. I tested each stick in another computer and they did fine on memtest for the minute a tried them. So its not memory, or psu then it seems. If the cpu was busted would the fans move at all? I'm thinking this is either bad mobo or cpu. The graphics card is onboard, maybe thats bad, but the fans should still move a bit when I press on right? Thanks for any help. Its an Emachines T2484 Celeron 2.4ghz. One stick of memory was ddr2700 and the other 2100.
Edit: I bolded what I thought were the important points, for hopefully easier reading.
 

Jjoshua2

Senior member
Mar 24, 2006
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If the cpu was bad would any of the fans move at all? I don't have any beeps, video, or fans.
 

Jjoshua2

Senior member
Mar 24, 2006
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Do cpus just go bad sometimes? I don't think I've heard of that. I'm thinking that either power trouble such as a surge or perhaps a bad psu (i didn't test there's, 'cause I didn't want to hurt some of my equipment) fried the mobo, and at least the mobo is bad, and they should get a new system. Possibly the cpu is bad too. Sound good?
Do you think theres a chance that putting in a graphics card would make the system boot or have video to see an error message? I doubt the onboard graphics card would fail w/out the whole system failing. I also thought perhaps the on/off switch power button broke. How would I test that?
 

Jjoshua2

Senior member
Mar 24, 2006
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Bump. Has anybody tried turning on a computer with no cpu or a bad cpu? Would the fans spin a little bit? Would any lights go on? Would it beep?
I recommended that they buy a new dell B110. Its default is 256mb ddr400. Would their old ddr2700 (ddr333 i think) work likely?
 

mechBgon

Super Moderator<br>Elite Member
Oct 31, 1999
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I recommended that they buy a new dell B110.
Ugh, no AGP or PCI-Express slot = bad pick, especially going into this era of Vista + Aero Glass.
 

Jjoshua2

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Mar 24, 2006
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Well, its actually for my friends mom, who is about 70, so probably little gaming. :)
 

furballi

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Apr 6, 2005
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Was working on an Emachine T2692 with a 2.6GHz Cel and OBV. Same issue. Probably a dead board. I think the CPU is okay.
 

mechBgon

Super Moderator<br>Elite Member
Oct 31, 1999
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Originally posted by: Jjoshua2
Well, its actually for my friends mom, who is about 70, so probably little gaming. :)
Vista Aero Glass is the Windows GUI, not a game. But whatever.