Power Supply Issues

My home computer won't boot up. Initially it'll start coming on (maybe 3-5 seconds) then nothing. Pushing the button again gets nothing. The light on the motherboard is lit but that's about all that proves it's plugged in. Do you think I am getting enough juice to light the light bulb but not to kick start the system?

 

Tough to tell. Could be a bad PSU, bad mobo, overheating (or bad) CPU or a short somewhere in the system to name some possibilities.

Do you hear any beeps before it turns off?

 

you should get a power supply tester and test the rails. You probably have low power coming from one of them.

They are inexpensive and good to have for troubleshooting.

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=208145979&listingid=41251862


Or you can always use a multimeter...

 

I have a multimeter at home. What range would you expect to see from a 500 watt. Granted 500 watt is the high end what is the acceptable low end?

 

Use this as a guide...
http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/showpost.php?p=1363072&postcount=1

 

Thanks I'll be doing this in the AM

 

I`ve seen harddrive issues cause these symptoms also.

 

Hmm That would be a first for me.

I press the power button and hear maybe 2-3 seconds of the unit booting up and then it goes dead. I used my multimeter as mentioned by Savio and believe everything is in order. I'm wondering if I have a crack in the wire or it's shorting out between the power button and the power supply. I even went ahead and swapped out the old power supply with new one and still have issues. I will probably disconnect everything except the power supply, motherboard and first hard drive and start from there adding pieces if I get it up and running with only bare minimum attached

 

You want to see if it POST, first.

Have only your Motherboard, CPU/fan, RAM, Video Card all hooked in turn it on...nothing else. Turn it on and you should see it go through the POST (reading CPU, Memory), if it crashes then you could look at your RAM or VC, if you say your PS checks out ok.

 

Shit. Upon further review and with the help of a friend of mine the motherboard has shit the bed. Like you mentioned I unplugged everything and it still won't come up. Switch is fine, Power Supply is fine. Now I have to decide if I want to try to find a socket a mother board that uses ddr ram (I've looked at tiger direct and newegg and haven't found one) or bite the bullet and get a newer Motherboard and cpu along with new ram or just go out and buy a new PC