Help pls! PC seemingly broken!

[jamess]

Yo,

Having a lot of trouble with my pc -- using laptop at the moment which sucks!!

When I turn the PC on it loads up for about 5 secs, and turns off for about 5 secs then trys again.  Worked fine last night but doesn't work now!#

Any ideas ?? 

[Daekesh]

Try starting it in safe mode (spam f8 when your pc boots and select safe mode when prompted).  If it survives that, it's probably a driver problem.

Alternatively you can check your bios (more specifically the pc health stuff) and see if anything is overheating.

Just to check... you aren't kneeling against the off switch?

[Archz]

Daekesh is wise man!

If that works you should install Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and do a scan.

If that doesn't work, try booting your system from a Avira AntiVir Rescue System cd and do a scan.

If that doesn't work, try repairing/reinstalling from the windows-cd.

if neither of the above work it sounds like a hardware problem, battery maybe?

[jamess]

The problem is -- I can't get it to boot to a point where I can actually pres F8.  I get no response on my monitor before it powers off.

[Inphy]

Sounds like either a pwer problem, PSU, or your motherboard. Does it beep when you power it up?

[Daekesh]

Ah, when you said it 'loads up' for about 5s, I assumed u meant it loads windows... if it's not even giving any output on the monitor, then it's a much more serious problem.

7 things that'll stop you booting to post

- RAM problem: Give it a good blow to get rid of dust and reseat it.
- CPU problem: not really much u can do about this one, unless u have a spare one...
- Overheating problem:  You cpu fan isn't working? Your pc will shut down pretty instantly when it overheats - get rid of dust!
- Motherboard problem: as with cpu, ur pretty screwed unless u have a repalcement
- Graphics card: Tried re-seating your card? (unplugging it and plugging it back in)
- Other miscellaneous addon problem: Try disconnecting everything, except psu, cpu, ram and graphics cards - then add back in 1 at a time if it boots.
- PSU problem: As with cpu, not really much u can do, except replace it.

As Inphy says, check to see if it beeps at you, then check your mobo manual to see what it is.

If it's turning on and off again straight away, without beeping at you, it's probably power, heat or a defective motherboard.

[jamess]

Hm, it doesn't beep when I boot it up at all.  I hear a strange noise as if something's either tripping out or struggling to start up and then it goes off.  Weird thing is it working last night but now it's dead.  I'm gonna dismantle it and give it a good clean tommorow and see how that goes.

[Daekesh]

Sounds like a PSU issue.  I had that problem when mine died.  It tried to spin up the cpu fan and just failed and turned off.

[jamess]

I think you just solved my problem!  I noticed when I was trying to power up, the CPU fan would move a little and that's when it would power off. 

[Kilizion]

I had the same problem with my old pc. As stated above it's most probably your PSU, but in my case it was actually my CPU fan not connected to my CPU properly.

[shankski]

i had the same problem with my pc atm just replaced my psu and its all gravy
GL