Computer help no turn on

My PC won't turn on. Haven't been able to set it up for a couple of months and so it's been sitting off in the corner of my room. I set everything up on my desk and I pressed the power button and nothing. I double-checked that the outlet it was plugged into worked and the button on the power supply was on but still nothing. I looked a little bit into it and saw people saying it might be the CMOS battery dying so I changed that and still no dice. I was wondering if you computer wizzes had any other things to check that might be causing this. Thanks in advance.

19 comments

"Doesn't turn on" can sadly be anything, but I've seen a couple times that this can be literally just down to a faulty power button wiring. In the unlikely event that it is, it's a very easy workaround.
Look inside, and follow the cable(s) from the power button to the two pins on the motherboard. These two pins should be directly next to each other (and are often labelled on the board as PWR_BTN or similar) - gently remove the power button wires (and remember to put them back on the same way afterwards), then try shorting the two pins with anything metal, I usually use just a flat-head screwdriver.
I repeat, it's not overly likely, but in case it is the power button itself that's faulty, the computer should then turn on as if you pressed the power button. Otherwise, proceed per the other post.

This sounds like a power issue to me. Is it a desktop computer? You could check that all the cables from the PSU are correctly plugged into the motherboard/GPU. Another thing worth trying is taking the components (RAM sticks/GPU) one by one and try turning on the computer after every part you remove, that way you can isolate the problem to a particular component. If it still wont work, then the PSU might just be fried. The easiest way to test that is to try with a different PSU, if you happen to have one of those laying around... I guess a power meter of some kind would work too, but I don't know how to go about that.
It might also be some other unexpected bullshit. I did have a similar issue recently. I swapped the PSU and everything and it STILL didn't work. Turns out there it was caused by a piece of lint in the GPU port. I took out the GPU and blew some compressed air into the port and it seems to have done the trick. I didn't even know that could happen.
If it's not a desktop computer then I don't know shit.
good luck comrade
- Yeah it's a desktop, I'm gonna see about meeting one of my more computer-savvy friends and remove stuffikentou said.

Is the machine spirit distressed in some way?
I would hold a vigil and commune with the machine spirit, of course using the correct incense and unguents
Make sure to respect its anima by saying a prayer to the Omnissiah while making the sign of the cog before striking the ignition rune
- I've been anointing it with oil for hours

First thing to test would be the power supply. Is this a prebuilt (e.g., Dell, HP, eMachines, etc.), or something that you or a friend assembled from parts?
If it's something that you assembled from components, the power supply should have a standard pinout on the cable that powers the mainboard (this is the big-ass one with the huge connector). Assuming it's standard ATX, you can unplug the PSU, preferably remove it from the case, and bridge the PS_ON pin on the connector to one of the ground pins (e.g., with a piece of wire or a paperclip) to force the PSU to turn on once it is plugged into the wall outlet and switched on.
Video demonstration here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIDarSg2jqk
NOTE: If you do not have a standard ATX power supply, do not attempt this! The pinouts are different and you may damage the power supply or start a fire. If you aren't comfortable working around high-amperage direct current electricity, you may want to have your computer-savvy friend do this one just so that the magic smoke doesn't escape and take your home along with it.
Anyway, if the power supply works outside the case, it's the mainboard. If you reassemble everything again and it suddenly works, it was a loose or improperly seated connector; I've had that bite me on PCI Express power connectors (video card) once or twice.
- Yeah it's a computer a friend helped me build. It has an ATX, so If just replugging stuff doesn't work I'm gonna try the bridge thing.
  
  Sweet, good luck.
- I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
  yewtu.be
  inv.nadeko.net
  yt.artemislena.eu
  piped.video

Er juuust in case did ya flip the switch on the back of the power supply? Sure it's obvious but I have forgotten this before and freaked tf out before i remembered and i build computers as a hobby
- Yeah I started pysching myself out and couldn't remember which one was on lol, so I tried it both ways several different times and at different outlets.

I guess you moved it before it was sitting in your corner? Some connection might have came lose during transport. Try re-plugging all the cables and and maybe even the other components. Though it's probably related to power, otherwise it would likely do something. It's possible though that it's actually broken. Since it doesn't power on that would either be the power supply or the mainboard most likely.
- Yeah that's what I'm hoping.

This looks like it might be useful.
https://fixingmycomputer.com/

Did you try it in another outlet? A wrongly-wired outlet can work for some devices, but not necessarily everything. It was working fine before you packed it up?
- Yeah I tried a couple different outlets, one of them being one I have had it plugged up to in the past.
  
  Ah, dang. Sounds like the insides are gonna need poking then.

Are you using the cables that came with you PSU? I previously thought they were all the same until my build didn't boot.

Someone’s gonna ask “have you tried running linux”

Was this something you built? Prebuilt? Something you ever have to open at all?

19 comments