I have a 4 year old P4 1.7GHz which my mum uses regularly for word processing etc.. Today I went to switch it on as usual and when I pressed the power button it didnt start ! No beeps, no lights, just as if I didnt press the button ! I bet it could be many differrent problems.. But where can I start diagnozing first? I already tried a differrent lead but it didnt solve the problem.
Could be a number of different things. If you're confident in opening your case, take a look inside and from the power on switch there should be 2 wires coming frm it (or it may be bundled with other wires). On the motherboard they'll all go into pins in an array (not single pins), these are for the power on, reset, HD LEDs etc. Find the one which corresponds to the 2 power on switches, it should be labelled. Then take the 2 wires out, and use a paper clip or a small conducting material and touch the 2 pins together for split second, causing a current to flow. If it boots then you've got a faulty switch. If not then its going to be some other problems.
Borrow a decent, known working power supply. After the switch, that's the next thing you'll need to check. It's hard to say if it's just the power supply going out, but as it's probably the next cheapest thing and the logical progression here, get ahold of one to see if that's the problem or not.
