Have an extra computer that won't turn on

@CommanderShran wrote:
Hi all,
 
Your friendly Andorian again 😃. I have a second computer, and it just flat out will not turn on. At all. I don't mean it won't boot up, I mean it won't even power up. When I plug in the power source, the power light blinks orange, but that's all it does, even if I don't actually press the power button, as soon as I plug it in it just blinks orange every second or so. I've checked the bios battery, and all the cables, nothing is loose or missing. Any ideas?
 
Thanks,
 
Commander of the Kumari :D

Hey, "Commander"... small world :D
 
Is your PC a "Dell" PC by any chance?  If so, the blinking orange light usually indicates a problem with the Power Supply.  It can also indicate a Mother Board issue with failed component  there but the Power Supply would be the first place I'd check.  You can use one of several Power Supply Test devices available online or at a local PC store.
 
Here's an example of one from Amazon:
 
PC Power Supply Tester
 
Typical PC P.S. units will have 3 outputs:
 
- 12 Volts for Hard Drives (motors)
 
- 5 & 3.3 Volts for Motherboard circuits
 
There are 2 basic types of PC P.S. units. and "AT" and an "ATX" type.  Testing ATX P.S. units can be a little trickier since, to test the cooling fan, for example, requires that P.S. be connected to the Mother Board.
 
If I recall, some Testers (similar to the one at Amazon in the link) will simulate this connection but I'm not up to date on the Testers as I once was about that part of the testing procedure.
 
If your P.S. is bad, the best scenario is to see a lack of voltage output since that will positively confirm the P.S. is bad.
 
P.S. issues can also have intermittent issues that will fail under extended load conditions as well.  Those issues are more time-consuming to locate.
 
Some P.S. units are fused so you may discover that the fix could turn out to be a fast inexpensive fuse replacement inside the P.S.

Very well said Scoop!
 
 

Also, if it is a desktop, try reseating the ram, if no post still start one by one pulling out any expansion cards, meaning graphics cards, network cards, anything other than the cables coming from the power supply and CPU, if you still have same issues then your motherboard is dead, and if its a laptop nine times out of ten its needing you to pull the battery and hold down the power button for about ten seconds, then reseat the ram, after that no battery just direct plug in to the wall, and that fix is if it got stuck in hibernation

I had this happen once before with a Dell pc that I got.
 
There coule be several possible issues other than the battery to blame.
 
1. Bad/Broken Mother Board Pieces.
2. Weak Power Supply/Power Shortage/outage
3. A recent virus that was not detected quickly enough to stop it, (if you have Webroot though that shouldn't have happened.)
4. One of the Exturnal Devices that you plug into it could have issues that is cuases the power to become wekaer that it really is.
 
My top ways to fix this are running Webroot through the other pc via a remote desktop to the powerless one, Checking all possible options of weak cables, devices, etc, Calling you power company to see if they recently had any issues with power surges/outages, and if all else fails call Dell about it!

Hi all,

Thanks for all the replies 😃.

I actually fixed it before I was able to log back into the community. There were many, many problems with it. The RAM had to be reversed and switched positions, and I had to unplug all cables from the motherboard, including the power supply to everything. Still wouldn't boot up, and I had to fiddle around with some more cables. I got it fixed, reset the BIOS and now it's working.

Thanks all for the advice :D

And hi Scoop you old fart!

Shran