My younger (mentally challenged heh!) brother got a PS2 a couple of days ago and hasn't touched his computer since. My mum wanted me to start it up for her to do some online research for something and it just refuses to start all of a sudden.

Basically no matter what I did only (sometimes) I could get the CPU fan spinning either really slow or just slow and the machine making a slight buzzing noise (normal but not as perky as usual).

I have had problems like this in the past with the main power supply connector for the motherboard, some of the pin cases not getting in properly for some reason or another but this time it doesn't seem to make a difference.

There could probably be million just possible reasons why it's stopped working all of a sudden but.... any ideas???

P.S., It's a P3 933 using the motherboard for an Acer Veriton 4200, an old 32mb graphics card and 80gig western digital (If I remember correctly). Oh and just 256mb SDRAM module (PC133).

Was there any beeps from the internal speaker on start up? Once I had a motherboard go bad and got a series of beeps from the CMOS system basically saying the MB was bad. Also, any recent thunderstorms move through?

Finally, my first guess would be powersupply. I've had more of these go bad in the last few years it's crazy. I still have an 80086 that will still boot with it's original powersupply unit from circa 1985 (granted I boot it once a year to see if it still works, but it did get heavy use from 1985 - 1994).

I don't think there was any beeps, most of the time it plain doesn't start at all. Sometimes the fan of the cpu go's (usually when I unplug the power cable and plug it back in :S).

No thunderstorms recently as far as I know, only high winds for the last couple of days but I dout that would have had any effect, besides the clothes on my clothing line nearly being blown off lol.

It's a newish powersupply and my current PC has been using the exact same model for alot longer, it's just a generic P4 PSU though.

In any case, we need to eliminate possible causes one at a time. Since your box refuses to start up at all, the first thing you need to check is the power supply - use the same power supply in a simililarly outfitted machine and check if it can power up. Use the power supply of that machine in your box to find out if the power supply's at fault or if there is some other fault as well.


It seems more likely that your machine isn't getting enough power to even do a POST (Power-On Self Test) as evidenced by the lack of beeps.

If you're unable to get another machine, ask your local tech guru for help.


[If you are the local tech guru in your neighbourhood, you need to ask yourself - what would BillG do ? ;-) ]

Hahaha well yeah I am my own tech guy

It looks like it was the power supply which actually surprised me, besides being a generic brand all the ones I have had went amazingly well on machines that demand alot more power and run for much longer.

It looks like the cause was plugging it into an exntended (4-plug) socket while the power was on, unfortunately I couldn't turn it off beforehand because I needed the internet connection running at the time and I had my mum hounding me to get it up and running for her ASAP.

I ended up later pulling out the veriton's original 230 or so watter power supply to see if that was indeed the problem and it booted up immediately.

But I don't know how long it will last and the power supply has only two power connectors for IDE devices and doesn't fit a standard case, not to mention the short wires/cording so I'll have to invest in a new one soon for him.