squarepants

It seems there are more IT people in here than meets the eye, so here is one for you. Got a call about a pc refusing to boot up, after the owner "mistakenly" unplugged the power from the mains, when they tried to switch the pc back on, nothing is happening, it's not booting up at all.

Initial reaction for me is that power supply unit ( PSU ) has packed up, the question is, what do you folks think the problem might be apart from this?

Thanks in advance !

MikeStanton

In sequence, try the following:

i) did he/she remember to plug the power back in?

ii) has he/she remembered to pay the electricity bill?


iii) check that there isn't a power reset button (often on the back of the PC - or connected to the PC power supply)?

squarepants

Thanks for the response. The pc was still on when the person yank the plug out of the mains by mistake, so the whole pc just shut down, without going through the usual start-button.

Their bill is not an issue, and I was told they took all the wires out, put them back in, and switch the pc on, but it won't boot up, no sound of anything running at all. Usually when you don't shutdown properly, pc starts with scandisk telling you that you didnt shutdown the pc the right way.

I think the power supply could have been damaged, so you are saying the reset button could fix this problem? Shed more light on that if you can please.

squarepants

Come on folks, help a fellow expat out here !

MikeStanton

Sometimes there is a reset switch (like a fuse circuit breaker) on the power supply - sometimes it is accessible at the back of the computer.

Edit: has the person also checked that he/she hasn't blown the fuse/tripped the circuit breaker in the mains circuit that supplies the computer?

saraliz

I was thinking something along these lines as well... perhaps the fuse that's located in the in the plug (if its in the UK) has blown. Otherwise I'd tend to think it's the fuse in the power supply, or some other PS problem.

squarepants

Hmmmmmm......ok, thanks for that folks !