Computer won't turn on, help!

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Drunk Skunk

I was in the process of unplugging my PCI card and a modem card that was still in there for some reason when I noticed something unplugged. I'm a computer moron, but it was plugged in before and it's not plugged in now - there's no plug on the PS to connect to whatever this thing is. It sits right above the two hard drives, and it's a white 4 pin connector, the same that is on my video card. I figure that before taking everything out, maybe I should find out of this whateveritis is important, and if it could be causing the issue. Here's a picture ... feel free to laugh at my computer ignorance

That's just the power connector for your floppy disk, don't worry about it You might want to hook it up though because sometimes you might want to boot from the floppy drive for certain programs/tests if your computer is in trouble but we shouldn't worry about that right now because at least your computer appears to be POSTing. (Power On Self Test - all the words that appear at the beginning) and then locking up.

Pretty good that you managed to swap power supplies by yourself, it might not be lining up because the case is an older standard - but more than likely, you might have it in upside down?

If you can at least boot to that screen, then its looking better. Like others said, resetting the CMOS might help. If you can't find the jumper to do this, you can turn off the PSU with the powerswitch on the back and then pull out the CMOS battery (the big round silver button battery) from the motherboard for an hour or so. There is no need to disconnect any wires or anything. If you want, you could pull the power cord from the powersupply. Also, it's usually DELETE that gets you into the bios and not F1, F2, F10, etc.

[BlackArcher101]

Originally Posted by Drunk Skunk

I was in the process of unplugging my PCI card and a modem card that was still in there for some reason when I noticed something unplugged. I'm a computer moron, but it was plugged in before and it's not plugged in now - there's no plug on the PS to connect to whatever this thing is. It sits right above the two hard drives, and it's a white 4 pin connector, the same that is on my video card. I figure that before taking everything out, maybe I should find out of this whateveritis is important, and if it could be causing the issue. Here's a picture ... feel free to laugh at my computer ignorance

Are you saying the video card had the same type of connector as the one that unplugged and you plugged power into it?

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by BlackArcher101

Are you saying the video card had the same type of connector as the one that unplugged and you plugged power into it?

Looks like he has an old Radeon with the 4-pin floppy power connector as I said. No big deal as long as his videocard is plugged in.

[ricosuave]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

Also, it's usually DELETE that gets you into the bios and not F1, F2, F10, etc.

I knew I forgot one - long day. Others too though, trust me!

[Drunk Skunk]

Tried it again to send a video of it to a tech buddy of mine. I let it sit for about a minute at the previous screen, then this came up -

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Drunk Skunk

Tried it again to send a video of it to a tech buddy of mine. I let it sit for about a minute at the previous screen, then this came up -

Oh simple,
Either your harddrive is dead, disconnected, or not properly setup or detected in your bios. Make sure the harddrive power and IDE cables are tight and plugged in the right direction. Try getting into you bios (hit DEL when you start up the computer). Looks like the bios is really confused, trying some kind of network boot (pre-execution boot environment is PXE) since it can't find your harddrive. You need to change the boot order in your bios. When a computer turns on, it has a list of priorities of where to go to find your operating system to start the computer. It usually goes disk drives (removable) to harddisk to network boot to find out where windows is installed. If it's in the wrong order, or it can't find your physical harddrive, it might be trying to boot windows off the network which of course won't work unless your windows is coming from a remote server or something

[Drunk Skunk]

I hit delete right when it starts, and throughout the entire process, and nothing happens. It still loads up to the blue screen, then I get the boot failure screen.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Drunk Skunk

I hit delete right when it starts, and throughout the entire process, and nothing happens. It still loads up to the blue screen, then I get the boot failure screen.

Have you tried taking out the battery yet? Do you know who makes your comptuer or what model your motherboard is? Do you have a manual? You need to figure out what key gets your computer into the bios. It appears you have an Intel Desktop Board product, don't know what model it is though
http://www.intel.com/products/deskto...oard/index.htm


Some computers may need the keyboard hooked up to PS/2 instead of USB also to get into the bios.

I've read that the standard bios key might be bypassed in the Intel Motherboard, you might need a jumper in the right position. You need to figure out what model or to find the manual either in your house or online.

[Hack&Lube]

Okay, some sleuthing, I believe the standard key for the Intel Desktop Board that you have is F2.

So just frantically hit F2 when you press power.

Let us know if you get in and then take some pictures if your are confused.

[Hack&Lube]

After hitting F2, hopefully you will get to the Intel BIOS menu, you'd want to use your arrow keys to move over to either ADVANCED for boot configuration or BOOT for changing boot order.

[Drunk Skunk]

Thanks a lot for the help everyone, I'm back on! Thank all that's holy, I don't know how much more of the 15" monitor I could take

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Drunk Skunk

Thanks a lot for the help everyone, I'm back on! Thank all that's holy, I don't know how much more of the 15" monitor I could take

What did you end up doing?

[Drunk Skunk]

Unplugging everything from the motherboard and PS, then plugging it back in. I was frantically hitting DEL when I was booting up, I got a keyboard error because of that, and then XP loaded up.

Thanks again for all the help everyone. I'm about as computer illiterate as they come.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by Drunk Skunk

Thanks again for all the help everyone. I'm about as computer illiterate as they come.

You've found CalgaryPuck and you've figured out how to post pictures and videos. Trust me, they come much worse.