PC won't start

[steve_nfi]

I have a PC that won't start.

When I power on I don't get the bios screen but the power light comes on and the disc light is on constant, plus the nic lights are flashing. There are no keyboard or mouse lights. Would you suspect the motherboard has gone or could this be something else?

Any suggestions before I get another motherboard would be greatly appreciated.

[LosOjos]

Do you hear any beeps? If so, you can use a PC with internet to get a bit of diagnostic info: PC Hell: BIOS Error Beep Codes

 

I'd also check that everything is set properly in place: sometime I have to remove and re-set my RAM or my PC won't boot (by re-set, I mean literally take it out and put it back in again). Take everything out, make sure all the connections are clean, put it all back in and have another go.

[steve_nfi]

There are no beeps when I turn it on. I've popped the battery out for a while. I will try taking the memory out and reseating it also.

[AWicher]

did you do a bios reset, there should be a pin jumper that needs moving over, not just removing the battery.

[LosOjos]

did you do a bios reset, there should be a pin jumper that needs moving over, not just removing the battery.

 

Just to expand on that a little, on some motherboards there's a button you can press on the mobo to reset it as opposed to using a jumper; either are going to be near the BIOS ROM somewhere

[Cache]

Something I often try is pull the power cord out the back, press the power button a few times and then plug the power cord back in and see if it sorts it.

 

Another thing is to pull the RAM out the machine, power it on and see if the BIOS beeps then power back down and reseat memory.

 

Might just be perculiar to my machines though.

[difinity]

Unplug everything that's not needed like the cd rom, it is rare but i've seen faulty devices stopping a PC boot. Might be worth removing it from the case and testing on a bench. Do you have another CPU to try also ? and finally have you checked for leaky capacitors ?

[Jawloms]

If the disc light is on constantly then it could be worth unplugging any hard disks, CD drives, DVD Drivers etc and switching it on again. It may do a bit more! If it does, plug the discs back in one by one and see which one causes the disc light again.