PC won't boot - No video, no beep, but fans spin

[ncc50446]

Hey,

Got a small problem with a computer..

Wife was using the computer when it suddenly froze. She shut it down, and tried to reboot. That's when the trouble began..

The lights would come on, the fans would spin (case fan, cpu fan, power supply fan, video card fan). The fans actually go crazy, spinning at full force.

There is no beep however, and no video.

I had her remove all the ram, and try to start the computer. The computer beeps every few seconds.

She also unplugged everything on the outside.

I also had her remove the BOIS battery for 1 minute, and replace it.

She also checked all the cables and everything. They are all secure.

The keyboard and mouse don't receive power. (No lights)

The computer was dusted out, though it was already pretty clean to begin with.

 

She isn't comfortable with unplugging everything on the inside. And I can't help her with that, since she is visiting with her dad out of town.

 

No I assume the motherboard is fine. It beeps when there is no ram, so I'm hoping that's a good sign.

My thought is the power supply is screwing up, but they don't have an extra one to test it with. And before they have to spend some $80 for a power supply (Current one is 750W), I was hoping someone else would have some other suggestions for them to try, to confirm that it is a power supply.

 

The model is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dell_XPS#XPS_630 if that helps any.

 

Thanks for any help :)

[ncc50446]

Does anyone have any ideas that I can pass along, before I go in search of a power supply?

[Dark-Heart]

Hi there are products like http://www.digitus.info/en/products/accessories/misc-accessories/pc-atx-power-supply-tester-da-70601/ which will allow you to test a power supply or search online for one... But I don't think it is the problem here as your FANS still spin and you are getting BIOS bleeps. Is the PC using a on-board graphics card or a PCIe card? for it is not uncommon for a graphics chip to fail.

[Starbuck84]

I'd go for the minimalistic route. Unplug every external device, except for the keyboard, monitor and power. Detach any DVD / CD drive and HDD. Also remove all RAM modules except for 1. And boot. See if that does anything.

 

If it still doesn't work, just remove any PCI devices except for the videocard (unless it's an on-board videocard, in which case you just remove all PCI devices). Strip it to a bare minimum and see if it will boot. If it does, from there on just start plugging devices back in. The last thing you want to reconnect is your HDD, you don't want it to boot to Windows at this point.

 

If it beeps every few seconds, my guess would be a RAM issue. Maybe a faulty RAM module? You told her to move all RAM modules, but didn't state if you let her boot with just one module.

[ncc50446]

Hi there are products like http://www.digitus.info/en/products/accessories/misc-accessories/pc-atx-power-supply-tester-da-70601/ which will allow you to test a power supply or search online for one... But I don't think it is the problem here as your FANS still spin and you are getting BIOS bleeps. Is the PC using a on-board graphics card or a PCIe card? for it is not uncommon for a graphics chip to fail.

There is no onboard video....I had been hoping there would be, but there isn't, and no extra video cards laying around at the moment...I'll see if he has something to test the power supply with, a multimeter or something.

 

I'd go for the minimalistic route. Unplug every external device, except for the keyboard, monitor and power. Detach any DVD / CD drive and HDD. Also remove all RAM modules except for 1. And boot. See if that does anything.

 

If it still doesn't work, just remove any PCI devices except for the videocard (unless it's an on-board videocard, in which case you just remove all PCI devices). Strip it to a bare minimum and see if it will boot. If it does, from there on just start plugging devices back in. The last thing you want to reconnect is your HDD, you don't want it to boot to Windows at this point.

 

If it beeps every few seconds, my guess would be a RAM issue. Maybe a faulty RAM module? You told her to move all RAM modules, but didn't state if you let her boot with just one module.

She isn't comfortable unplugging everything, but guess she will have to lol

And no, didn't try just 1 ram module, but I'll have her try that as soon as she can.

[Dark-Heart]

If it turns out not to be a graphics card problem, or memory.

 

Check the 12 volt line which is used to power processor usually 4 or 8 pin connector... It will be near to CPU. If it's not connected or providing the right power, will cause the CPU to fail.

 

Which would defiantly mean a new PSU

[Olly-]

Have you tried replacing the motherboard (CMOS) battery?  I've seen an issue similar to this a few years ago, where because the CMOS battery was flat the computer would only spin up the fans.

[ncc50446]

We switched out the CMOS battery, and still didn't work. They decided to just wait until I can come and take a look at it. They aren't the most tech savy, and are afraid of breaking something, so I'll test the other suggestions at a later date. Thank you all for the help :)

[Squuiid]

As others have indicated, likely a graphics card issue, especially if it's an nvidia chip as indicated in the wiki.

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1137385/nvidia-bad-bump-misery-deepens

 

Another thing to check, especially with Dells, is for bad capacitors. Look at every capacitor on the motherboard and check that they haven't burst. I had this happen to over 150 Dell Optiplex GX520 units. Had to threaten Dell that we were moving to HP to get them to 'admit' there was an issue, and they fixed all 150+ units. Poor Dell onsite tech, horrible job!

http://www.thenakedpc.com/dan/Bulging_Capacitors/close-up.jpg

[Squuiid]

Hey,

Got a small problem with a computer..

Wife was using the computer when it suddenly froze. She shut it down, and tried to reboot. That's when the trouble began..

The lights would come on, the fans would spin (case fan, cpu fan, power supply fan, video card fan). The fans actually go crazy, spinning at full force.

There is no beep however, and no video.

I had her remove all the ram, and try to start the computer. The computer beeps every few seconds.

She also unplugged everything on the outside.

I also had her remove the BOIS battery for 1 minute, and replace it.

She also checked all the cables and everything. They are all secure.

The keyboard and mouse don't receive power. (No lights)

The computer was dusted out, though it was already pretty clean to begin with.

 

She isn't comfortable with unplugging everything on the inside. And I can't help her with that, since she is visiting with her dad out of town.

 

No I assume the motherboard is fine. It beeps when there is no ram, so I'm hoping that's a good sign.

My thought is the power supply is screwing up, but they don't have an extra one to test it with. And before they have to spend some $80 for a power supply (Current one is 750W), I was hoping someone else would have some other suggestions for them to try, to confirm that it is a power supply.

 

The model is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dell_XPS#XPS_630 if that helps any.

 

Thanks for any help :)

How did the repair go? Any luck?

[ncc50446]

As others have indicated, likely a graphics card issue, especially if it's an nvidia chip as indicated in the wiki.

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1137385/nvidia-bad-bump-misery-deepens

 

Another thing to check, especially with Dells, is for bad capacitors. Look at every capacitor on the motherboard and check that they haven't burst. I had this happen to over 150 Dell Optiplex GX520 units. Had to threaten Dell that we were moving to HP to get them to 'admit' there was an issue, and they fixed all 150+ units. Poor Dell onsite tech, horrible job!

http://www.thenakedpc.com/dan/Bulging_Capacitors/close-up.jpg

Thanks, I'll have her take a look at the capacitors :) And thanks for the articles, I'll pass it along

 

How did the repair go? Any luck?

So far it's a no go. She has tried some of the suggestions here, but doesn't want to break things further. So until I can take a look at the computer personally, and do what others have suggested, she is stuck using a pc that isn't quite as good lol Could be a couple months before I get to take a look at it..Unless she can bring it to me sometime lol

 

Thanks everyone for the help :)

[shadowgmo]

I know is a very simple step and dunno if you already tried (I didn't read it in the thread).

 

Did you tried draining the power?

 

Remove the power cable (or anything that provides any type of power).

Press and hold the power button for around 15 seconds.

Reconnect the cables and see what happens.

[ncc50446]

I know is a very simple step and dunno if you already tried (I didn't read it in the thread).

 

Did you tried draining the power?

 

Remove the power cable (or anything that provides any type of power).

Press and hold the power button for around 15 seconds.

Reconnect the cables and see what happens.

Yes, she did try that too, just forgot to mention that in the first post. Was actually a problem that I had with one of my computers a month ago lol But had no effect for her..

Thanks though :)

[Heisenberg]

This is somewhat similar to what happened to one of my desktops before, it has an Intel i3 processor and only uses the integrated graphics module. I would power it on but only fans would work, on-board LAN worked too (i think, because its LEDs are flashing), but no power for the keyboard and mouse. I tried replacing RAMs from other units as well, but that did not solve the problem. A friend told me that it might be CPU that prevents it from booting, primarily because of insufficient cooling, so I went on buying a new CPU fan (Deep Cool Gamma Archer), and then installed it. It worked. 

[cork1958]

As others have indicated, likely a graphics card issue, especially if it's an nvidia chip as indicated in the wiki.

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1137385/nvidia-bad-bump-misery-deepens

 

Another thing to check, especially with Dells, is for bad capacitors. Look at every capacitor on the motherboard and check that they haven't burst. I had this happen to over 150 Dell Optiplex GX520 units. Had to threaten Dell that we were moving to HP to get them to 'admit' there was an issue, and they fixed all 150+ units. Poor Dell onsite tech, horrible job!

http://www.thenakedpc.com/dan/Bulging_Capacitors/close-up.jpg

 

It's not to often that the capacitors just make the computer basically go poof, but very possible, especially on a Dell. Don't know what kind of cheap, leaky crap they use, but that's a pretty common problem in them.

 

The capacitors don't have to be blown all to bits either. Just a tiny, tiny brownish spot on the tops of them and they're toast.

[Praetor]

I've seen a similar case like you're having and it was the PSU that went bye bye; the fact that it still powers the board doesn't mean it's powering all the components or it's powering with a constant flux; if you can test the PSU with a multimeter or even quicker test with another PSU. I've seen as well damaged boards that shared a similar situation, but those boards had a all common factor: faulty capacitors.

[ncc50446]

This is somewhat similar to what happened to one of my desktops before, it has an Intel i3 processor and only uses the integrated graphics module. I would power it on but only fans would work, on-board LAN worked too (i think, because its LEDs are flashing), but no power for the keyboard and mouse. I tried replacing RAMs from other units as well, but that did not solve the problem. A friend told me that it might be CPU that prevents it from booting, primarily because of insufficient cooling, so I went on buying a new CPU fan (Deep Cool Gamma Archer), and then installed it. It worked. 

Thanks for that information :) I'm hoping that it's only the power supply..lol

 

It's not to often that the capacitors just make the computer basically go poof, but very possible, especially on a Dell. Don't know what kind of cheap, leaky crap they use, but that's a pretty common problem in them.

 

The capacitors don't have to be blown all to bits either. Just a tiny, tiny brownish spot on the tops of them and they're toast.

Thanks for that information as well, guess I'll tell her to grab a magnifying glass lol

[Praetor]

It's not to often that the capacitors just make the computer basically go poof, but very possible, especially on a Dell. Don't know what kind of cheap, leaky crap they use, but that's a pretty common problem in them.

 

The capacitors don't have to be blown all to bits either. Just a tiny, tiny brownish spot on the tops of them and they're toast.

I've seen dead mainbards from Dell (laptops and desktops) more than i should have seen..honestly i can say that those were old models (circa 2008 till 2010), because newer models don't suffer from completely engineering stupidity like this board from a GX620:

(in case you are wondering what's wrong, let me tell you that all those capacitors near the CPU are in the most hottest area of the board and not dumb enough the case of this wonderfully crap desktop has only one fan... that pushes air into the CPU and directly to the HDD, without any way to vent it. yeah....)

[ncc50446]

I've seen a similar case like you're having and it was the PSU that went bye bye; the fact that it still powers the board doesn't mean it's powering all the components or it's powering with a constant flux; if you can test the PSU with a multimeter or even quicker test with another PSU. I've seen as well damaged boards that shared a similar situation, but those boards had a all common factor: faulty capacitors.

They will be picking up a multimeter to check it out (Always nice to have one around anyways lol

[ncc50446]

I've seen dead mainbards from Dell (laptops and desktops) more than i should have seen..honestly i can say that those were old models (circa 2008 till 2010), because newer models don't suffer from completely engineering stupidity like this board from a GX620:

http://www.esaitech.com/images/detailed/3/GGG/img54820.jpg

(in case you are wondering what's wrong, let me tell you that all those capacitors near the CPU are in the most hottest area of the board and not dumb enough the case of this wonderfully crap desktop has only one fan... that pushes air into the CPU and directly to the HDD, without any way to vent it. yeah....)

That is some bad planning on Dells part then lol Thanks for that info, I'll have her look at the capacitors near the CPU extra carefully :)

[Dark-Heart]

It happened quite a lot with other mainboards and graphics cards, and even some PSU's that some of the capacitors would leak... It is a well known issue.

[PNWDweller]

The lights would come on, the fans would spin (case fan, cpu fan, power supply fan, video card fan). The fans actually go crazy, spinning at full force.

 

 

 

 

Not that this would be the same for your computer, but at my job, we had a bad run of HP's that would do the same thing with their fans.  System would be fine, next power up randomly, it would not POST or do anything else, but the fans would go into a high speed mode making the tower sound like a wind tunnel.  We jokingly call it the self clean mode as it pushes dust out fast. 

 

It turned out that the mainboard was the root of the problem with a bad controller on it.  It wasn't a recoverable thing on our end and we ended up getting factory mainboard replacements.  It turned out to be a bad batch of mainboards that missed the QC of things.

 

I am not saying it is the case with your board, but if the fans are doing the full speed action upon cold boot with no post, this is a pretty good indicator of something deeper than a few loose cables.  

[ncc50446]

It happened quite a lot with other mainboards and graphics cards, and even some PSU's that some of the capacitors would leak... It is a well known issue.

Thanks, I'll have her keep looking. So far nothing..

 

Not that this would be the same for your computer, but at my job, we had a bad run of HP's that would do the same thing with their fans.  System would be fine, next power up randomly, it would not POST or do anything else, but the fans would go into a high speed mode making the tower sound like a wind tunnel.  We jokingly call it the self clean mode as it pushes dust out fast. 

 

It turned out that the mainboard was the root of the problem with a bad controller on it.  It wasn't a recoverable thing on our end and we ended up getting factory mainboard replacements.  It turned out to be a bad batch of mainboards that missed the QC of things.

 

I am not saying it is the case with your board, but if the fans are doing the full speed action upon cold boot with no post, this is a pretty good indicator of something deeper than a few loose cables.  

I'm hoping it's not a motherboard problem...Power supplies are cheaper than motherboards lol

 

So far nothing, but from the sounds of it, can be a very small brown speck, which makes it difficult to find..

But thank you everyone for the suggestions :) They are just waiting on me to be able to look at it now lol (Hate tech support over the phone...I like having the computer sitting in front of me..)

[CyberManifest]

I had a similar issue a long while back that was the results of Video sync issues with the monitor syncing with my video card. Try changing resolutions on your monitor and maybe demagnitize.  

[PNWDweller]

I had a similar issue a long while back that was the results of Video sync issues with the monitor syncing with my video card. Try changing resolutions on your monitor and maybe demagnitize.  

If it isn't POSTing (No beeps) and there is no sound coming from Windows indicating a good boot (Windows startup chime), then it wouldn't be a video sync issue.   Also, if the OP is using an LCD which is more than likely, demagnetizing won't have any effect. :)