pc just won't turn on.

coldfeet

hey, i'm havin a bit of a hum dinger of a problem.

I tried to start my pc on sunday but I was gettin no power in a keyboard or mouse so the screen was staying in standby. I disconnected all usb devices, put the keyboard in a diff position and booted, this time it worked, pc started, stayed on for maybe 2mins then seemed to switch off. I restarted, got prompted for safe mode which I entered, pc shutdown again after a min or so and went into a boot loop. I tried restarting again but it didn't bootup and there was a clicking sound from the pc. I walked away in discust. I came back to it on mon and tried starting it, it booted up and I went into the secondary drive which seemed to run fine so I restarted and went into the primary drive. It shut down again.

Now when I try to boot nothing happens and I get the clicking sound again, I disconnected the dvd drive and primary drive from the motherboard and tried starting but I'm getting nowhere with it.

Sorry for the long winded explanation but just tryin show exactly whats happening. Any ideas out there on what to do.

Hal1

Have you changed anything recently on the PC like new hardware / software?.
Check the obivous things first check cables. Listen for fans spinning up do a visual inspection if needed. Check you are not overloading a power socket. Do all this first.

coldfeet

There's nothing been installed recently, either software or hardware, There's only the pc and monitor running off a four plug adapter. I've had a look inside the pc, everythin looks properly connected,

Hal1

Review your bios settings (usually F2 or Del at startup), try setting the bios defaults. Failing that, go back into the bios and boot from your windows disk. You will need to change startup order to cd/dvd first.

onechewy

Dodgy PSU?

coldfeet

Hal1, I can't go into the Bios to reset settings or try boot from the windows cd because the pc dosen't startup.

Wud a dodgy psu allow it boot into the secondary drive and work fine that one time? Cud that be where the clicking sound is coming from??

Kimbot

Clicking sound... my guess the HDD is knackered.
Failing that its your PSU or motherboard.

coldfeet

Its not coming from the HDD as far as I can tell, I also disconnected the one that keeps shutting down and tried booting with the other one but no joy. The noise does seem to be near the top of the pc, near the psu or ram.

I'm starting to swing to the idea of a bad PSU or a short somewhere.

Can any1 recommend someplace good to look for 1

coldfeet

I was onto dell, any unbelievably my pc is still in warranty by 20days so its getting packed up and sent away

unnameduser

happy days for you so. The clicking sound certainly does indicate hard drive issue but not getting as far as the BIOS?? There may be an issue with the PSU.

Thankfully it isnt your worry anymore!