I used to have this with an old stack. Here's how I'd get it going
You're struggling to get the hard drive to 'post in' and then boot the operating system. It's safe to say your machine is failing you, but still could work for a good amount of time. It's just you need to get it to start up
Loads of little things will do it.
1 make sure all usb's are unplugged (hdd's flash drives, that stops them being read first, leave mouse and keyboard in)
2 When the monitor didn't come on to "post in", I used open the CD drive, and then force the pc to turn off with the power button. Sometimes the cd drive closing on reboot would almost be a little whip for the horse
3 There might be a switch at the back, sometimes I liked to turn the machine off with that switch, then switch it back on, and then power up
4 erm, if there's a little pin button on the front (might have only been white pc's that had this), I used to start up the stack with the power button, and this reset button pressed "usually with a little pin if it's quite small"
5 Make or buy a boot disc called 'parted magic', it boots and linux operating system via the ram. You won't need to do anything, but just let it run (it won't do anything to windows 7)
Often a restart from that will restart the pc fine
It's all a case of pushing your machine into working
One day all the above will work, another they won't. That sort of brings me to point 6. On those days I just used to turn it on, and leave it on, then an hour later, would repeat all the above, and it would probably work
It's all a lesson in the first paragraph though, your machine is dying :)
Posted By: pants on February 5th 2013 at 10:55:45
Message Thread
- Morning wrath techys, a few moment of your time if you would be so kind. (General Chat) - samcd84, Feb 5, 09:10:57
- take the power lead out (General Chat) - Karnivore, Feb 5, 12:53:01
- What's the PSU Karn? (n/m) (General Chat) - samcd84, Feb 5, 13:15:37
- Power Supply Unit. It's the bit of the PC that you plug the kettle-lead into. (n/m) (General Chat) - Arizona Bay, Feb 5, 13:55:14
- kettle lead, proper idiot-proof, cheers AB (n/m) (General Chat) - samcd84, Feb 5, 13:59:30
- sorry Sam, only just seen this (General Chat) - Karnivore, Feb 5, 18:45:10
- kettle lead, proper idiot-proof, cheers AB (n/m) (General Chat) - samcd84, Feb 5, 13:59:30
- Power Supply Unit. It's the bit of the PC that you plug the kettle-lead into. (n/m) (General Chat) - Arizona Bay, Feb 5, 13:55:14
- What's the PSU Karn? (n/m) (General Chat) - samcd84, Feb 5, 13:15:37
- I've got a 10 year old Dell desktop that has always been fine so (General Chat) - CB41, Feb 5, 11:04:47
- ha, my 2007 ish desktop is starting to behave like this (General Chat) - pants, Feb 5, 11:06:58
- I used to have this with an old stack. Here's how I'd get it going (General Chat) - pants, Feb 5, 10:55:45
- Partition magic intut? (n/m) (General Chat) - Steve in Holland, Feb 5, 11:01:10
- much obliged, lots to try (General Chat) - samcd84, Feb 5, 10:59:35
- I didn't realise it was a newish one. Something in the start up that's failing then (General Chat) - pants, Feb 5, 11:03:24
- If by any chance you have a big external hdd plugged in. That would be good to hear (General Chat) - pants, Feb 5, 11:05:34
- I removed all USB's last night and tried starting it up with only... (General Chat) - samcd84, Feb 5, 11:08:40
- When you do get it going. Maybe put it into 'sleep' mode instead of shutdown (General Chat) - pants, Feb 5, 11:11:04
- this parted magic disc? (General Chat) - samcd84, Feb 5, 11:10:03
- Yeah (General Chat) - pants, Feb 5, 11:20:35
- This is what it looks like when loaded up (General Chat) - pants, Feb 5, 11:24:16
- How can it boot from RAM ? The RAM is empty until it boots. (n/m) (General Chat) - Steve in Holland, Feb 5, 11:33:43
- Dunno, just thought it did (General Chat) - pants, Feb 5, 11:35:54
- How can it boot from RAM ? The RAM is empty until it boots. (n/m) (General Chat) - Steve in Holland, Feb 5, 11:33:43
- This is what it looks like when loaded up (General Chat) - pants, Feb 5, 11:24:16
- Yeah (General Chat) - pants, Feb 5, 11:20:35
- I removed all USB's last night and tried starting it up with only... (General Chat) - samcd84, Feb 5, 11:08:40
- If by any chance you have a big external hdd plugged in. That would be good to hear (General Chat) - pants, Feb 5, 11:05:34
- I didn't realise it was a newish one. Something in the start up that's failing then (General Chat) - pants, Feb 5, 11:03:24
- Did it do any beeps on boot up? (General Chat) - Ken Dodds Dads Dog, Feb 5, 10:07:33
- Forgot to attach link (General Chat) - Ken Dodds Dads Dog, Feb 5, 10:07:58
- Ah, when this happened to me (General Chat) - yarmyyarmy, Feb 5, 09:41:00
- i did the same, didn't work for me either (n/m) (General Chat) - samcd84, Feb 5, 09:41:33
- check the lead. (n/m) (General Chat) - Pixelman, Feb 5, 09:37:19
- monitor lead? (n/m) (General Chat) - samcd84, Feb 5, 09:37:35
- yes... or should I say cable. It is (General Chat) - Pixelman, Feb 5, 09:39:44
- monitor lead? (n/m) (General Chat) - samcd84, Feb 5, 09:37:35
- Almost certainly the processor. (General Chat) - lurd, Feb 5, 09:30:43
- Really? Processors pretty much never go wrong (General Chat) - scruffy, Feb 5, 09:53:35
- yeah cant see it being processor either. (General Chat) - doncoop, Feb 5, 10:06:54
- Every time I've had this failure it's been the CPU though it may well not be. (General Chat) - lurd, Feb 5, 10:12:58
- The thing is that most (all?) modern CPUs have an automatic shut off (General Chat) - scruffy, Feb 5, 10:35:38
- Replaced the whole motherboard iirc. (n/m) (General Chat) - lurd, Feb 5, 11:21:56
- The thing is that most (all?) modern CPUs have an automatic shut off (General Chat) - scruffy, Feb 5, 10:35:38
- Every time I've had this failure it's been the CPU though it may well not be. (General Chat) - lurd, Feb 5, 10:12:58
- yeah cant see it being processor either. (General Chat) - doncoop, Feb 5, 10:06:54
- I'm not but cheers, may be home sometime in next couple of weeks (n/m) (General Chat) - samcd84, Feb 5, 09:37:21
- Really? Processors pretty much never go wrong (General Chat) - scruffy, Feb 5, 09:53:35
- My dad had similar and it was his graphics card (General Chat) - Ben, Feb 5, 09:28:03
- a couple of people have mentioned graphics card, i haven't modified the unit at all (General Chat) - samcd84, Feb 5, 09:36:25
- Laptops either have on board gfx this means the chip (General Chat) - eddie, Feb 5, 10:17:58
- it's a desktop, cheers for your help (n/m) (General Chat) - samcd84, Feb 5, 10:22:45
- Ok same goes for desktop (n/m) (General Chat) - eddie, Feb 5, 11:09:24
- it's a desktop, cheers for your help (n/m) (General Chat) - samcd84, Feb 5, 10:22:45
- Laptops either have on board gfx this means the chip (General Chat) - eddie, Feb 5, 10:17:58
- a couple of people have mentioned graphics card, i haven't modified the unit at all (General Chat) - samcd84, Feb 5, 09:36:25
- things to try.... (General Chat) - doncoop, Feb 5, 09:18:12
- Only other monitor option is trying HDMI to tv which I'll do tonight (n/m) (General Chat) - samcd84, Feb 5, 09:22:21
- Sounds tine for a new one if it has a separate gfx card could be tgat (General Chat) - eddie, Feb 5, 09:17:39
- yes, I've had this before on a Dell....I fixed it... (General Chat) - Cheltenham_Canary, Feb 5, 09:15:05
- my particular smell hasnt helped (n/m) (General Chat) - samcd84, Feb 5, 09:16:14
- eat pickled eggs and red cabbae, then try again. HTH xx (n/m) (General Chat) - Cheltenham_Canary, Feb 5, 09:32:13
- my particular smell hasnt helped (n/m) (General Chat) - samcd84, Feb 5, 09:16:14
- take the power lead out (General Chat) - Karnivore, Feb 5, 12:53:01
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