Computer won't boot/shut down.

[[email protected]]

I'm trying to troubleshoot a problem with a relative's computer. She
has an Emachine (about 3 years old) and stated that her computer would
not shut itself down. Even if she unplugs the machine from the wall
outlet, the computer instantly tries to come on. She doesn't even have
time to hit the switch.

So, I'm thinking switch/power supply??

But.....she also says that the green (hard drive?) light is constantly
on
and that the computer won't get past the blue screen. Just gibberish
- no logo, no boot up, nothing.

So is this a motherboard problem??? Maybe both???

Any info is appreciated. Thanks

 

[Ray L. Volts]

I'm trying to troubleshoot a problem with a relative's computer. She
has an Emachine (about 3 years old) and stated that her computer would
not shut itself down. Even if she unplugs the machine from the wall
outlet, the computer instantly tries to come on. She doesn't even have
time to hit the switch.

So, I'm thinking switch/power supply??

But.....she also says that the green (hard drive?) light is constantly
on
and that the computer won't get past the blue screen. Just gibberish
- no logo, no boot up, nothing.

So is this a motherboard problem??? Maybe both???

Any info is appreciated. Thanks

May well be a victim of this:

http://badcaps.net/

 

[Bart Bervoets]

http://badcaps.net/

Not restricted to motherboards, power supplies suffer badly, i open all
power supplies which are trashed by a local
computer shop (if they are recent and 300W or more), i find bulged caps in
70% of the cases and in about all of those
cases replacing the bad caps fixes the power supply.
Just did 3 450W gold edition PSU's.

Bart Bervoets

 

[HarryHydro]

Hi:
I just visited this badcaps site. It reminded me of a board that
was given to me that would trip the power supply. It turned out in the
end, a tantalum cap was shorted, because it was backward, because the
silkscreen was backward! I bet a lot of those boards went to waste.

Thanks!
HarryHydro

 

[HarryHydro]

Hi:
I just visited this badcaps site. It reminded me of a board that
was given to me that would trip the power supply. It turned out in the
end, a tantalum cap was shorted, because it was backward, because the
silkscreen was backward! I bet a lot of those boards went to waste.

Thanks!
HarryHydro

 

[Ray L. Volts]

Not restricted to motherboards, power supplies suffer badly, i open all
power supplies which are trashed by a local
computer shop (if they are recent and 300W or more), i find bulged caps in
70% of the cases and in about all of those
cases replacing the bad caps fixes the power supply.
Just did 3 450W gold edition PSU's.

Bart Bervoets

yep.. I recently elected not to overhaul a 300 watter which had the bulged
caps (for my own pc) because I happened to have a brand new 450W that came
with a new case I bought, but had replaced it with a better Antec supply at
time of pc build.
A new replacement 300W same model is only about $16+ tax now, but the large
filter caps for the thing run around $7 each! So, I would have bought a new
300W anyway. Sometimes it's just more cost effective not to put time/labor
into an overhaul -- even when it's your own unit.
But luckily I had that spare supply, so I'm basically out no cost & no labor
on this one. Did restuff the old Abit mobo with new caps, though.
Digi-Key is a great supplier of oddball cap sizes. If they're out of one
brand of the cap needed, they likely have another brand available -- or
maybe I was just lucky. They're efficient, too. I ordered my mobo caps
(cheap in quantity!) + other odd items. Was well over a hundred parts in
total. Ordered in the morning and they shipped the package out that
afternoon! And the order was correct -- that alone seems rare these days in
general.

 

[Franc Zabkar]

I just visited this badcaps site. It reminded me of a board that
was given to me that would trip the power supply. It turned out in the
end, a tantalum cap was shorted, because it was backward, because the
silkscreen was backward!

I once saw this in a mainframe card. The tantalum cap was involved in
the CPU power-on-reset circuit. Customers stated that they had to
switch their machines on and off several times before all the affected
cards would power up correctly. Some machines had 6 cards.

- Franc Zabkar