Bad news: PC won’t start after power cut

Have you tried these?

First, try turning on your computer: if the ‘green’ light comes on and you can hear the fan, but nothing happens—it’s a sign your computer has been affected by a power surge or outage.

  1. Unplug the big black power cable from the back of the computer. If it’s a laptop, remove the battery as well
  2. Hold the ‘on’/power button your computer
  3. Wait 5 seconds
  4. Press the power button to ‘turn off’ your computer
  5. Plug in the big black power cable from the back of the computer again
  6. Turn on your computer
If this fixes the issue, you should be fine. You have just purged the “dirty power” from your computer, and your computer power supply is fine. The same could be accomplished by letting your computer sit turned off for several hours or days, but who wants to wait that long?
If that solution doesn’t work, or the lights and fans don’t turn on when you try turning on your computer, there are a couple other fixes you can try to diagnose the problem:
[h=3]Check Your Power Source[/h] If your computer won’t turn on at all, check the outlet, power bar, or power source it is plugged into. If it is plugged into a surge protector, it’s possible that it was tripped during the power surge.

To test, remove any power strips, battery backups, or other power sources, and plug your computer directly into a wall outlet. If your computer starts after doing this, it means a surge may have fried whatever power source you were using and will need to be reset or replaced.
[h=3]Check Your AC Adapter[/h] If your laptop battery doesn’t seem to hold a charge, your AC adapter may have been damaged by the surge. Dirty power from power surges or brownouts can also affect your AC adapter, causing it to stop properly charging your battery.
[h=3]Check Your Battery[/h] If you’re working with a laptop, take out the battery and try booting it using AC power. If your computer starts up without any problems, it is likely an issue with your battery and will need to be replaced.
 
expat said:
Any suggestions appreciated.
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Gonna need a LOT more info than that to resolve it.

I'm pretty sure I could think up a 100 reasons a computer 'won't start'.

Mine didn't once....4th December 2020. Took me nearly a month to get it fully resolved....along with $2000 AUD.

Mine...I narrowed down to a 'spike' but....only via the audio system...as the rest of the computer is on a UPS [protected].
Needless to say, ALL of it is now...;)
 
Falcon, Jafo - thanks for your help and replies.

We had the power go on and off quickly last night and this morning there are no lights or any sign of life to the PC. I have checked the power cable, fuses, opened the box, removed and replaced the CMOS battery. I hope it is just the PSU that needs replacing, but could be other things like the motherboard, etc. Rather than order a new PSU on just a guess I will try to find a local technician as it may need a bit of a rebuild and use the opportunity to increase the RAM installed. Hopefully, nothing on the hard drives is affected, but one never knows!

Quite ironically, the night before last I switched off the PC to give it a rest overnight - something I never do (always on idle with fans). Had I done the same last night I would almost certainly sidestepped this.
 
Sounds fairly typical of a PSU failure.
There seem to have been a few recently including one of my own.
:banghead:
 
Yes, Falcon's suggestion is what you do first...to clear CMOS and get back to a potential 'default'.
However....
Power outages can be 'deadly'... particularly if/when there's an associated 'spike'.

No lights at all, even after a full 'cold start' [no connected power cables/battery] and first point of call is the PSU - as it's transforming your supply voltage to computer-speak.
What you're looking for is the power led on the MoBo [not the case].
If the MoBo is lit then it only 'might' be the PSU...but chances are it's elsewhere and/or more.

When the power button is pressed you expect a response from ancilliaries on the MoBo such as fans, etc.
If none...then it's more than likely PSU and/or MoBo.

When it gets 'interesting' is when you have the appearance of everything OK...but absolutely no 'Post'. That's when a whole swag of things can cause it to go no-where. [that was my issue....fried CPU....GPU....1 channel of Audio ....and meanwhile I'd already swapped out the MoBo [probably wasn't needed]. High-end stuff costs heaps...so was a costly spike.

When you get it all together again...run proper protection for your power...not just an ELCB but a fully protected UPS.
I had run this machine since Jan 2015 pretty well 24/7/365. I don't turn it off ...so I avoided issues - except since I moved home...and 'forgot' to double check where things were plugged....;)

Annoying thing with PSUs is they have more than one circuit [and voltage bus] so they don't have to fail totally to still fail 'enough'.
It's not an extravagance to go OTT with their capacity...as they tend to be more robust....mine's a 1200 watt....;)
 
Thanks all. Just got off the phone with the local repair guy. He said I should just order a new PSU and swap it in and is pretty sure that's the problem.
Fingers crossed . .
 
Just to add...
When there are no lights....action...it's really only 2 things [assuming the house is fine...and the point has power].
1. The PSU fails to switch/function.
In that case the can be no LED display on the MoBo.
2. The PSU is fine...but the MoBo power-connect LED and switch logic circuit has failed [or entire MoBo is fried] ...so the switching process at MoBo stage has failed.

Switching out the PSU for another will soon tell you which it is...;)
 
Is it the latest Win10 update?, since its installation, my PC wont start , but will when restarted, ive uninstalled update and everythings good, i let update reinstall again and problem is back
 
Got it working !!!

New PSU ordered last night delivered this a.m. A bit stressed removing and replacing - difficult access to connectors requiring removal of components, remembering what goes where, etc. - but she fired up, booted and posted right away. What a relief! Thanks all for the support.

PS - Ian - I am still on old Win Pro 64, fyi.

Cheers!
 
expat said:
New PSU ordered last night delivered this a.m. A bit stressed removing and replacing - difficult access to connectors requiring removal of components, remembering what goes where, etc. - but she fired up, booted and posted right away. What a relief! Thanks all for the support.

PS - Ian - I am still on old Win Pro 64, fyi.

Cheers!
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Great news, glad you're back up and running.
 
Fantastic expat, I can't think of a worse feeling that when you turn on your computer and nothing happens. I went through one of my two monitors saying "check your port or cable" this morning. It gave me fits. I even reset CMOS. After pulling the two video cards and re-installing for some reason the two monitors worked perfectly again. What is worse, not sure why it happened. Ahhh the joys of computing. Sure glad you got things working.
 
expat said:
New PSU ordered last night delivered this a.m. A bit stressed removing and replacing - difficult access to connectors requiring removal of components, remembering what goes where, etc. - but she fired up, booted and posted right away. What a relief! Thanks all for the support.

PS - Ian - I am still on old Win Pro 64, fyi.

Cheers!
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Good to hear, lad, tho I'm equally as bad...still on Win 7 Ult ....but at least there are ways of keeping 'safe' on 7. [thing called "0 Patch'] - worth getting if you plan to stay away from 10 ...;)

Time to invest in a UPS. Next time it could be worse than just a PSU ....;)
 
still on Win 7 Ult ....but at least there are ways of keeping 'safe' on 7. [thing called "0 Patch'] - worth getting if you plan to stay away from 10 ...;)

Time to invest in a UPS. Next time it could be worse than just a PSU ....;)
Click to expand...

Wise words Jafo - thanks.
 
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