How to start your computer?

Question

i built my own comp, got everything together and started it up to make sure, whent to restart to format and now i dont get anything

Answer

This question was answered on December 27, 2004. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.

So, you get no video signal, no power on self test [POST] single beep saying the hardware is okay and no multiple beeps, which would be error codes indicating which piece of hardware may be the culprit. If data is the most important issue I would find another computer to put the HD in and boot into safe mode and copy the data off of it to another HD. If your XP was installed using the FAT32 file system you can just add it to another computer as a slave drive and copy your data to that computers HD. Now if the HD is making noise and it won't work in another computer, sorry....

Your power supply needs to be tested first. If you know how to use a digital meter capable of a 20vdc setting you can test it yourself. The pattern is pretty easy. You remove the 20 pin ATX connector from the motherboard and leave the CDROMs plugged into the power supply. Use a plastic coated twist tie from a loaf of bread,etc. strip off about a half of inch of the plastic coating on each end and double the ends back to thicken the ends. Put one end in the green wire and one in any of the black wires. This turns the PS on. The Orange wires are +3.3vdc and can be .2 higher or lower. The Red wires are +5.0vdc and can be .2 higher or lower. The blue wire is -12vdc, Yellow is +12vdc, purple is +5vdc and White is -5vdc. If your PS tests good you need to keep isolating the components. Remove the memory stick after reconnecting the PS. Disconnect everything else from the mobo. Turn the system on. It should give you a steady slow beeping. If it doesn't your CPU or mobo is bad. If you get the beeping, you need to find another stick of RAM to try and then continue to isolate the faulty component.

Author

Posted by Kareem of Katharine Gibbs School - New York on December 27, 2004