Doh

[billyskank]

When I turned my computer on this morning, it whirred for five seconds then powered itself off. My brand new computer.

I tried it again. Same thing. Every time.

Crap.

Assuming the motherboard wasn't fried, I could only think of one hypothesis - the power supply wasn't powerful enough. It had been a bit touch and go buying a 400W power supply - the minimum recommendation for my graphics card - but it was a quality PSU and I thought it would be okay. But maybe it wasn't, maybe the power supply was deciding that too much was being asked of it and switching itself off.

Odd that it had been working happily for a couple of weeks already though. Still, that was the only theory I could think of. I could test the theory by swapping the power supply from my old computer. That computer also had a decent unit, but a more powerful 650W one - it would certainly be up to the job.

Unforunately, swapping a power supply in a computer is a big job. Especially if you have gone to great effort when you built the computer to keep the cabling neat.

But I couldn't think of anything else to do, so I took a deep breath and started on the task.

Eventually I had the new PSU swapped out and replaced with the old one. I put the sides on the computer and pressed the button -

same thing.

:cry:

So it wasn't the power supply. In which case, I had no idea what it was. I was faced with the lousy prospect of sending the motherboard back to the manufacturer. I really didn't want to have to do that.

One last thing I tried before I gave up; I reset the CMOS. That is the basic settings the computer remembers, like which drives to boot from, that sort of thing.

It worked.

:o

I wish I'd thought of that first.

:banghead:

I always like to waste a sunday.

:eyes:

[LaurenG]

1. So what is a CMOS

I don't know about CMOS.
:hi:

[billyskank]

2. I am ashamed to discover I don't know what it stands for

but it means computer memory that is supported by a battery, so that it remembers its data when the power is off.

:hug: :hi:

[Deja Q]

4. Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor

:P

Didn't google it either. I'm a geeky little twat.

[Deja Q]

3. Get a Mac

Get a Mac Get a Mac Get a Mac Get a Mac Get a Mac Get a Mac Get a Mac Get a Mac Get a Mac Get a Mac Get a Mac Get a Mac Get a Mac Get a Mac Get a Mac Get a Mac Get a Mac Get a Mac Get a Mac Get a Mac Get a Mac Get a Mac Get a Mac Get a Mac Get a Mac Get a Mac


There. I said it so anybody else who'd want to is now too embarrassed to do so. :P

:rofl:

The CMOS rocks... :D

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. OK. Get a Mac.

[billyskank]

6. I'll run out and buy one immediately.

[Deja Q]

8. I'll buy two!

Will Al Gore loan me the money? Or will he say "No", claiming the computers would contribute too much to global warming?

[no name no slogan]

12. Get a MacBook with the Intel processor

You won't need to run your heat in your house anymore. It cranks out enough heat for a whole neighborhood

[DarkTirade]

7. Well... at least it's working now. :)

I need to get a USB hub for my computer. For some reason the USB ports in the front have been doing something weird lately where sometimes when you plug something in there, the computer shuts off. I think they're just too close to the power button or something. :P Unfortunately I just ran out of ports in the back.

[billyskank]

9. Computers suck, don't they?

And yes, they don't put anywhere near enough USB ports on them. Especially now we're using USB keyboards and mice. We need like thirty of them on each PC.

:hi:

[DarkTirade]

10. Seriously

I managed to cut down on that a little bit by using a USB to PS/1 adaptor for my mouse... :) But I've still got two controllers (I'm actually not much of a gamer, but I'm an amateur game designer. Hence my need for both a joystick and a gamepad.), an external harddrive, a memory card reader, ect. And my grandpa has an ipod but no computer, so I need a free port to plug that into to recharge it and put new CDs on there. Right now it looks like I'll have to take turns between having the memory card reader and the ipod plugged in.

[Deja Q]

11. Agreed, 100%.

USB supports 127 devices (in theory), but the more devices on the USB channel only leads to more potential congestion.

Besides, my experience with USB keyboards and mice vs PS2 keyboard and mouse ports... especially under Windows 9x and BartPE, PS2 is far more reliable... Even when booting under 2k/XP/Vista when the keyboard/mouse are moved to another USB slot, to reinitialize them takes a good chunk of time and it's annoying as heck.