2 seconds then power out

Ok, something's up with my primary computer. It's 1 am and I can't pick it apart and vacuum the components before assembling it one at a time, so I have no idea what the problem is yet.

The symptoms are as follows:

- It starts up for about 2 seconds when I press the power button before the whole thing goes dead.

- It won't power up again until main power is completely turned off (meaning not just the power switch, but the wall socket as well)

- I have not cleaned the innards of the PC for 2 months, the chassis isn't covered ('cause heat in this country can be disastrous to an older AMD chip) so it's positively dusty.

At first I thought the CPU fan died so the mobo shut of the main power before the CPU burnt itself out, but the noisy as hell 9000 rpm fan is the first thing I hear in those 2 seconds the computer was alive.

Couldn't be lightning either because there was no thunderstorm earlier, just a light shower. I'm open to the possibility of a power surge, but the wiring of this house is three-phase... it's not suppose to surge, at least it's not as likely to spike or surge as normal wiring, I'm told.

My question is, does any one have any ideas as to what the problem is so that I can check it out later in about 6 hours time when the Sun is up and my family members are awake? I plan to give the whole thing a good scrubbing (figuratively, of course) and get rid of all the dust with a mini-vac. Can't do it at 1 am -- people will be pissed.

So any ideas as to why it won't start up? Could it be dust clogging up the RAM slots causing a short circuit?

Are you getting ANYTHING on screen?

Also any beeping?

Sounds like something major is happening there, but with no indicators, can't help you much.

Possible Power Supply problem, though.

That is the second thing I would check, after cheching all the internal connections.

[edit on 5/3/2006 by Mechanic 32]

Nothing, no sound (except the whizzing of the cpu fan), beeps or anything, out of the ordinary. Just two seconds then out. It's too fast for ANYTHING to appear on the screen.

I thought it could be the power supply. Haven't tested out the components yet on the other computer... It's really dusty, I figured if I'm gonna disassemble it to test out the connections and components I might as well give it a good cleaning as well.

Gotta wait 5 more hours 'till sun-up for that.

Deffinately something your going to have to contact the OEM about. With the small window you have to do anything, you really won't beable to do anything yourself.

Bring it to whoever built the system. HP, Dell etc. should beable to do something for you.

I was having similar symptom with my computer. I had to replace my graphics accelerator card. Have you tried hitting esc on bootup?

Originally posted by chissler
Bring it to whoever built the system. HP, Dell etc. should beable to do something for you.

I built all the systems in my house from components I chose myself from various retailers in my area. So if any of them gets broken I'm the one who has to fix it. Slightly chaper then getting it from Dell, twice the fun when it works, twice the heartbreak when it's broke :p

Oh, by the way, I didn't mean to say I have a short window of time to do something about it. I've the whole day, except the day won't start until another 4-and-a-half hours. I will only be able to actually start working on the problem when the time comes.

For now all I posted is all I know of the problem. So I'm just collecting ideas and suggestions. Hey, if there was a way to transfer ATS points I was thinking I could start a pool -- give your thoughts on what the problem might be and if yours is the right one you're the winner

Originally posted by darkelf
I was having similar symptom with my computer. I had to replace my graphics accelerator card. Have you tried hitting esc on bootup?

Just tried that but it turned off too fast before the LEDs on the keyboard could even fire up. In fact, it turned off before anything could start. Just 1-2 seconds of the fan starting up. Goes like "wheeeEEEzzee..". Like turning on the vacuum cleaner for a split second, that sort of sound.

I'll look into the graphics card possibility as soon as it's daybreak.

It could be that any one of the components have an electrical short in them. But I would hazard a guess at the powersupply as the primary suspect.

Because:
A dead motherboard usually wont even come on for 2 seconds.
A bad CPU will usually give you one beep.
A pc will usually at least try to boot if there was a problem with the video card.
Bad ram will usually give you 3 repeated beeps.
A short against the outer case will usually give you multiple beeps.

Therefore it may be the power supply.

Since you built it you know how to quickly remove it from the case and set it up on a non conductive test bench to begin troubleshooting. Your best bet is to use a Diagnostic Flowchart with text guidelines to help you isolate the problem.

If you do find that it's probably the power supply, you can put a known good one in the system as a test. If you have a digital multimeter you can do a basic or detailed test of the power supply.

Best of Luck

Ok, I just had time to take a good look at the machine and clean it of dust and other dirt particles. I switched the components around between that computer and the one I'm using now and all the components seem to be working.

The only components I haven't tested on this PC are the motherboards and cpus, because they're totally different. The broke one is running an AMD Athlon XP 1.6 on an MSI KT4V motherboard while this PC is running an Intel Celeron 1.8 on a cheap generic Socket 478 motherboard. Lets call one AMD and the other Intel from now on.

The interesting thing is that when I use the Intel's PSU on the AMD, the AMD's chassis speakers start giving multiple beeps in a High-low-High-low kind of tone. I'd put it at G-C#-G-C#, low octave.

I'm not sure what it means. I've never experienced this particular tone before.

Originally posted by Beachcoma
The interesting thing is that when I use the Intel's PSU on the AMD, the AMD's chassis speakers start giving multiple beeps in a High-low-High-low kind of tone. I'd put it at G-C#-G-C#, low octave.

I'm not sure what it means. I've never experienced this particular tone before.

Beep codes (Error beeps at Startup) can be BIOS specific... try this site...
networking.ringofsaturn.com... or this one to check the codes for your BIOS. It's not the tone/pitch of the beep that's important, but the amount of beeps and the lenght of the beeps.

Personally I'll put my money on Motherboard, Videocard or memory problems. In that order.
Good luck!

Have you checked the Bios setting for Emergency shutdown temperatures.

maybe it lowered itself to such a low temp, that as soon as the temp sensors kick in during POST, it immediatly shuts down?

You've reset the mboard?
Tried a different PSU?
Have you tried in a different wall socket?
Could the powerswitch on the chasis be dodgy?

Have you unplugged EVERYTHING, leaving only RAM, CPU, Video card and power in?

If you put an intel cpu in a amd mboard it wont help..
and vice versa

being it beeped only shows that the original CPU is being detected.
are there ANY color flashes or anything different on the boot screen?
maybe as simple as a small square in the corner?

another IDEA..

Press PAUSE during the startup..

if the computer stays paused and DOESNT reset, its something to do with a specific device turning on.

If it doesnt stay on and does shut down,
its definately a heat issue