Hi, first time I'm here for the simply reason that I've never had problems with my computers before, so excuse me if I post in the wrong forum

Now over to the problem, I started having this problem on friday where I had turned on my computer on around 8pm, then went out, and came back 10pm to my pc being off. I thought, hmm... strange, I just turned it on. I proceeded to turn it on, nothing happened at all, this went on for about an hour of me sitting there just pressing the power button and raging intensely. I realized nothing would happen so i put the power cable in another socket, to my surprise, it worked! But then i was stuck on black screen for about 10 minutes, and said screw this, i then did the unspeakable and hold down the power button, tried to turn it back on. What happened was it turned on, with fans and lights and all, 2 sec later it turned itself off. This is still happening.

Now, I've only found one guide to what to do, which is Computer Turns On Then Off - How to Troubleshoot a Computer That Turns On and Then Immediately Turns Off so I'll just copy paste (if you don't mind) what I wrote on their forums.

#1 Didn't understand this really, and I dont have a POST card available so that's out of the question for now.

#2 I'm from Norway, there's no option to change the voltage on the PSU so I don't think this counts, it's still on 230V i guess unless this student home changed something while i was gone.

#3 I opened my case, shook it for a while, heard no sounds and then proceeded to search inside it for anything that was loose, there was nothing.

#4 I can't do this right now even as much as i want to, I attend a class where I have access to a multimeter, but we're off school on Monday so wont be able to do this before Tuesday, also shops are closed on sundays so can't buy a PSU tester.

#5 Not sticking to the case or any of the sorts so this is not the problem.

#6-9 I didn't even touch my pc in the time it stopped working so I seriously doubt this is the problem.

#10 I don't have a POST card and can't buy one for 2 more days.

#11 I don't have access to any hardware.

#12 If nothing works I guess I'll have to resort to this.

If you've come this far, I thank you for taking the time to read all my TL;DR and I look forward to any help.

If theres nothing on the screen at all, no bios splash screen or a flashing white -, start by checking all the connections and cables, , if thats not the problem it could be just about anything,

remove any unnecasary connections just keep what you need plugged in k/b mouse and video, and power obviously.

does it have onboard video card or is it a seperate card, if its an add on card make sure its pushed in the slot properly

are there any beeps when you turn computer on (and were there ever any beeps)

do you have access to any spare parts to narrow down the problem, spare monitor and cable would rule those out, a graphics card would rule out video problem, spare psu that doesnt make a differece would start to point toward a faulty m/b

Nothing on the screen at all, it's only on for 2 seconds.

Video card is geforce gtx 460, so seperate i guess.

There was never any beeps, only thing that happens is that the fans starts and a few lights, then it goes off.

I don't have access to any spare parts sadly right now, no :/

I'm gonna try and unplug every cable and put them back on

concentrate on video card first, check its not come loose in its slot and the auxilliary power connection is good (would imagine its got one or should, normally a six pin block connector to the card), and the connection to monitor is good, if your intersted in fixing computers spare ram, graphics cards and psu will help, you dont need to buy new ones most of the ones ive got came out of scrapped computers,

think its more likely theres a fault on the board or psu myself but you need to rule out eveything else first

Alright, the only things that are connected right now is as follows:

PWR button, front USBs, front jacks (to headset etc), basically everything that is on the front of a HAF cooler master.
All the fans (I tried having them off aswell).
PSU to the motherboard (for obvious reasons )
CPU. I don't like fiddling with this, it looks very fragile and I dont want to break anything by taking it off, nor do I think this is the problem tbh.

What is not connected is CD-ROM, hard drive, RAM (I tried having only one RAM on by a time, didnt work), video card. Still not working. So yeah it's very likely that the problem lies in the PSU or motherboard, I pray that it's the PSU, that's at least a little cheap

actually meant anything like usb memory sticks, printers external hard drives etc, not every connection on the board, leave cpu its very unlikely to be that (cpu is always last thing to check, they are pretty much bullet proof if they are kept reasonably cool, only time i would suspect cpu is if its just been fitted), try taking out the graphics card and reseating it and check theres no auxilliary power supply missing, like one in top pic

[IMG][/IMG]

if you can get a multimeter you could try checking voltages to the main m/b connector yellow is +12v, red +5v, orange +3.3v, blue -12v, white -5v, black is ground, you would probably have to jump start the psu to test the voltage green to black if memory serves me right , lot easier to just borrow a psu, surely you know some gullable idiot willing to lend you one, i know loads, they all avoid me for some reason , but i know loads.

Great pics Popeye!

I did try to unplug everything, like fans and usb ports etc., still wasn't successful

I got access to a multimeter this coming tuesday, same with PSU, i'll just ninja it off some school computer. thanks for your help so far and I'll update this thread as soon as there's any development

I'd test the power supply.
Also, carefuuly look over the motherboard. Are there any capacitors that have tops that are bulged out or perhaps leaking a little on top?
If so, the motherboard is shot.
A bad capacitor does not have to be leaking or bulged out very much.

Below are bad capacitors.

Alright so I unplugged the last cable that I didn't do which was the one going to the CPU, below are pictures




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And it's running, anyone knows what this might mean, other than maybe CPU is ***** sideways?

I've tried plugging everything back in except internet cable since I need that for this laptop and the screen is just black with the power LED on the monitor blinking....