shuts down after 2 seconds

Frankieboy

As the title suggests its a problem thread I know people hate to read these but I could really use some help here. When i turn on the computer it begins to boot, and then just cuts out. Almost certain I saw this problem here before but cant find the thread, probably cause there is so many problem threads. If anyway can help please do.

Ri_Nollaig

it cuts out during the bios?
i would think a hardware fault, can u remove things u dont need like sound card etc and try then? does it have 4 little LED lights on the back? cuz they can tell u or atleast point u in the right direction to wats wrong

scion

sounds like a power supply problem to me

Frankieboy

I'll be honest its for a friend, the hardware thing not sure cause would it not boot fully then start crashing if you were using the hardware?? The power supply thing sounds probable, he seems to think himself that there was a surge. Is there anyway of testing a power supply on its own? Or would it have to be tested in another machine? Thanks guys

astec123

May simply be a stuck power button. A friend has a cheap generic PC case and his one sticks when pushed in so after 3 seconds it cuts out as per the power off settings. Ensure that the power button isnt catching. sometimes taking off the case face will help to diagnose that problem and you will find an easy to press button behind (not applicable to all cases).

Ri_Nollaig

2 seconds does sound like power alright
and the botton getting stuck happened in one of my old generic cases too, really cheap one... wud b funny it is was that

astec123

Funny in a positive way in that it costs nothing to fix. And at least the OP wont have the trouble of getting a new PSU etc.

Khannie

I had this problem because my bios needed flashing. Try ruling out individual components by removing or disconnecting them (down to the bare minimum: hdd, one stick of ram, processor and graphics card). This will have the added bonus of reducing power constraints.

Lord Panic

Had a similar problem before, turned out to be the processor heating up too much because the heatsink wasn't on properly, chip overheated and shut it all down, but that was when I was putting a pc together, so its probably not likely that that's your problem! Ya getting any beep codes at all? Could listen to them and check them out online, that's what helped me solve that problem (I think)!

stevenmu

Another possibility to add to the list, I once connected some case fans using a molex splitter type thing attached to the fans. The cable had a female molex to plug power in, and a male to go into another device (hard disk, cd drive etc). If I tried to switch on with a fan connected to the psu but not connected into another device it would power off after a a second or two.

axel90

are all molex connectors intact cause i saw the problem before where someone had removed/replaced molex connectors and when 2 wires were touching the computer would goto boot but stop!