Computer won't boot, flashing hdd/power lights

Computer Forum General Hardware
1

A friend of mine is having some trouble with her computer. It’s an old machine, back from 2001. Unfortunately I don’t have any specs on it other than 1gb of DDR ram…

It started when she had her computer up and running, and it just spontaneously shut off on her. For a while she would be able to power it up, but only for a few minutes at a time. Then it wouldn’t get past the windows loading screen.

When I came to look at it, it would post but didn’t make it to windows because of a corrupt system file. I tried using the compaq restore, but that failed… However the computer was running for a full 30 minutes while I did this. Anyways, I got my Windows CD and was going to run the repair console to see if chkdsk would work.

This is where it got weird. I went to turn on the computer, but instead of posting the fans were going at half speed and the front lights (hdd/power) were blinking. The caps/number/scroll lock on the keyboard were also blinking. I figured it must be the power supply, but when I changed it out for one of mine that I knew worked, I got the same exact thing.

Anyone have any clue as to what this is or what I could try? My best guess (a complete shot in the dark) is that the mobo went bad.

2

Try a reset cmos to clear the bios settings. then load bios defaults if it posts. If it does not post you’ve got hardware failure, could possibly be the following: Motherboard, CPU, Ram, Graphics card, PSU and in some cases cpu fan.

If you get it to post, clean all the dust out of the inside of the case using compressed air, dont use a vaccum cleaner whatever you do as it will spit static on the hardware and can cause it to fail. Then try removing the power switch jumper on the motherboards control panel and then use a flat head screw driver to short the two power switch pins where you just removed the jumper from. This will rule out power switch. If it still keeps shutting down, you have most likely got an overheating cpu. keep the case open and have a fan blow on it if you’ve got one. if you can successfully get it to work and boot into the OS, download speedfan Download SpeedFan - Access temperature sensor in your computer and post back with your temps, cpu, and north and southbridge if possible and will advise you on what to do from there. Good Luck