Help! My computer will not stay on!!!

This is kind of a long story...Please someone tell me what to do!
About 3 weeks ago my psu went out and I brought my PC to work to have
our IT guy fix it. He replaced it with a Rhino ATX 12v 450 watt
power supply (it had whatever the standard 12 v 300 watt for hp is).
My PC is a Compaq SR2180NX with Vista Home Premium.
Anyway, after he fixed it, it would come on, but now it will not stay
on! It will boot up and stay on for MAYBE 5 minutes and then it will
go blank. The power light is still on, but it will not do anything. I
have to hold the power button down for a few seconds before it will
go off. If I try to turn it on for the next hour or so (sometime
longer), it will only boot up to the start screen and do the same
thing. Sometimes the light will only blink and the fans start to
turn but they go off almost immediately. AgHHH! I have tried
everything. I have replaced the Bios Battery. I have cleaned my
DIMM. I have cleaned out all of the dust, checked my pins....I don't
know a lot about the "guts" of the computer so I am asking
for HELP! The other day I was able to get it to stay on for almost
an hour. I was playing solitaire and it shut off in the middle of
the game. This is driving me crazy. Do you think it could be a bad
power supply?

csar244 wrote:
This is kind of a long story...Please someone tell me what to do!
About 3 weeks ago my psu went out and I brought my PC to work to have
our IT guy fix it. He replaced it with a Rhino ATX 12v 450 watt
power supply (it had whatever the standard 12 v 300 watt for hp is).
My PC is a Compaq SR2180NX with Vista Home Premium.
Anyway, after he fixed it, it would come on, but now it will not stay
on! It will boot up and stay on for MAYBE 5 minutes and then it will
go blank. The power light is still on, but it will not do anything. I
have to hold the power button down for a few seconds before it will
go off. If I try to turn it on for the next hour or so (sometime
longer), it will only boot up to the start screen and do the same
thing. Sometimes the light will only blink and the fans start to
turn but they go off almost immediately. AgHHH! I have tried
everything. I have replaced the Bios Battery. I have cleaned my
DIMM. I have cleaned out all of the dust, checked my pins....I don't
know a lot about the "guts" of the computer so I am asking
for HELP! The other day I was able to get it to stay on for almost
an hour. I was playing solitaire and it shut off in the middle of
the game. This is driving me crazy. Do you think it could be a bad
power supply?

Either a bad power supply or failing motherboard. You've eliminated
some causes with battery replacement and cleaning out dust and dirt.
Make sure that the CPU cooling fan is clear of ALL dust and dirt and
that it spins freely.

FYI, often when the power supply in an HP or Compaq computer fails, it
damages the motherboard too. CHEAPEST power supplies, often the Bestec
brand, notorious for poor quality.. Ben Myers

csar244 wrote:

This is kind of a long story...Please someone tell me what to do!
About 3 weeks ago my psu went out and I brought my PC to work to
have our IT guy fix it. He replaced it with a Rhino ATX 12v 450 watt
power supply (it had whatever the standard 12 v 300 watt for hp is).
My PC is a Compaq SR2180NX with Vista Home Premium.
Anyway, after he fixed it, it would come on, but now it will not
stay on! It will boot up and stay on for MAYBE 5 minutes and then it
will go blank. The power light is still on, but it will not do
anything. I have to hold the power button down for a few seconds
before it will go off. If I try to turn it on for the next hour or
so (sometime longer), it will only boot up to the start screen and do
the same thing. Sometimes the light will only blink and the fans
start to turn but they go off almost immediately. AgHHH! I have
tried everything. I have replaced the Bios Battery. I have cleaned
my DIMM. I have cleaned out all of the dust, checked my pins....I
don't know a lot about the "guts" of the computer so I am
asking for HELP! The other day I was able to get it to stay on for
almost an hour. I was playing solitaire and it shut off in the
middle of the game. This is driving me crazy. Do you think it could
be a bad power supply?

Yeah, I figured that was what happened.
I took it in yesterday and they pretty much confirmed it. He said
that the mother board has a short in it that is causing it to shut
off. It can't be overheating because the fans are not even getting
time to run. I am now shopping for a new computer.
Thanks!

On Nov 20, 8:26 am, (csar244)
wrote:
. Do you think it could be a badpower supply?

Obviously, he was speculating. He does not know. If there was a
short on the motherboard, then why did he replace the power supply?
He has list of components to replace. He just keeps replacing parts
until something works. It's called shotgunning.

Without numbers from a meter, everyone will just list replacing
this, then that, then the other thing. Answers based in speculation;
not based in facts.

Instead, know what has failed - what is wrong BEFORE replacing
anything. Your original problem could have been identified in 30
seconds before disconnecting anything with a meter. Reason for your
new problem would be definitive - no more "it could be this or could
be that" answers.

Don't forget to replace the power switch and CPU. Those too can be
reasons for your failures. Now you have completely replaced most
everything. That's what shotgunning does. Replace numerous perfectly
good parts. Get the meter. Measure VDC voltages on green, gray, and
purple wires before and as the power switch is pressed. Then measure
those voltages as the system should be turning off. To get replies
from people who don't shotgun, post those numbers here. Get an answer
without "maybe this or maybe that or maybe the other thing". Instead,
get an answer that identified the suspects without disconnecting
anything.

Since the original power supply was replaced without first knowing
what was bad, valuable facts were lost. Facts that might have better
defined what problem currently exists in the remaining computer. Or,
just as likely, the original power supply was never defective. Or
also likely, the new power supply is defective. A defective power
supply can still boot a computer. More reasons why we use a meter
before replacing anything AND use a meter again to confirm that new
supply is working. It is a power supply 'system' - is more than just
a supply.

csar244 wrote:

This is kind of a long story...Please someone tell me what to do!
About 3 weeks ago my psu went out and I brought my PC to work to
have our IT guy fix it. He replaced it with a Rhino ATX 12v 450 watt
power supply (it had whatever the standard 12 v 300 watt for hp is).
My PC is a Compaq SR2180NX with Vista Home Premium.
Anyway, after he fixed it, it would come on, but now it will not
stay on! It will boot up and stay on for MAYBE 5 minutes and then it
will go blank. The power light is still on, but it will not do
anything. I have to hold the power button down for a few seconds
before it will go off. If I try to turn it on for the next hour or
so (sometime longer), it will only boot up to the start screen and do
the same thing. Sometimes the light will only blink and the fans
start to turn but they go off almost immediately. AgHHH! I have
tried everything. I have replaced the Bios Battery. I have cleaned
my DIMM. I have cleaned out all of the dust, checked my pins....I
don't know a lot about the "guts" of the computer so I am
asking for HELP! The other day I was able to get it to stay on for
almost an hour. I was playing solitaire and it shut off in the
middle of the game. This is driving me crazy. Do you think it could
be a bad power supply?

I completely agree with what you are
saying, BUT in my guy's defense, he did check the power supply before
he changed out. The old power supply LED light was on, but he did not
get any readings from it. The computer worked after that, but that
is when it started having the problem. It would work well for a few
days and then it would suddenly shut off. I thought that I was a
"sleep" problem so I would just unplug it (it wouldn't turn
off) and resart it. Progressively, it got worse to where it was
happeing everday. That is when I realized that it wasn't going to
sleep at all, but I had a real problem. I started visiting forums
and went to HP support and they told me that the power supply was too
big for my system. After doing some research, I found out that, it
didn't matter what the size. I could add a bigger graphics card or
whatever. That the 450W just meant that it was the max power that my
computer could use. ANYWAY, by looking at my wires, I only have
orange, red, black and green wires. How do these correlate with with
the purple, green and other colors that you mentioned. I'll see if I
can get a meter, but I am not very good at this kind of thing. I am
adding a pic of the new power supply and of the inside of my PC.

View the attachments for this post at: http://www.jlaforums.com/viewtopic.p...08804#17508804

On Nov 21, 10:57*pm, (csar244)
wrote:
I completely agree with what you are saying, BUT in my guy's
defense, he did check the power supply before he changed out.
The old power supply LED light was on, but he did not get any
readings from it. *The computer worked after that, but that
is when it started having the problem. *It would work well for a few
days and then it would suddenly shut off. *

He checked the power supply. Fine. He might have checked it out
using standard technical knowledge, or he might have checked it out as
so many computer assemblers do. IOW since we don't know why - don't
know what he did - then his conclusion provided little to work with.
That is the principle. To know something such as what he knew, we
also must know why. Without whys, little is known that is useful.

A defettive power supply controller can cause a power supply to act
defective. Did he know of other power supply 'system' components? Or
a connector problem is temporarily corrected by connecting a new
supply. Again, without numbers, nobody can be helpful.

Do not assume you know what those numbers will report. Definitive
information is necessary to fix intermittents. A most definitive fact
are numbers. Those numbers mean zero to you and yet may be crying
out, "Fix me." Others would understand that language. Later, those
numbers provide you with a useful conclusion AND a grasp of what the
system does - what those numbers are measuring.

As you have discovered, a "power supply too large" is typical of
many recommendations. Until we have numbers - especially when the
system is not working - then no one will provide a useful reply.
Without any doubt, question, or hesitation, have and be using a 3.5
digit multimeter.

If we have to replace the supply, you need the meter to confirm the
new supply works properly. Even a new and defective supply can boot a
computer - which many do not understand.

Industry standard supplies use industry standard wire colors. This
two minute procedure describes how to get useful numbers from each
wire both before and when the power switch is pressed. Also provided
is a diagram showing where those wires connect to the motherboard
connector - in case your supply uses a non-standard color scheme:
"When your computer dies without warning....." starting 6 Feb 2007 in
the newsgroup alt.windows-xp at:
http://tinyurl.com/yvf9vh
Connector chart to locate each color:
http://www.hardwarebook.net/connecto.../atxpower.html

Best time to measure orange, red, yellow and purple wire voltages is
when a CPU is multitasking to all peripheral - has all peripherals
drawing power simultaneously. IOW playing complex video graphics (ie
a movie) while searching the hard drive, while downloading from the
internet, while playing a CD-Rom, while soundcard makes noise, while
reading a floppy, etc. Now those voltages are ready to be measured to
three significant digits.

The point is to establish power 'system' integrity (more than just a
power supply) before moving on to other suspects. Idea is to find a
problem before fixing anything. Fixing something before collecting
facts can exponentially complicate this problem.

Also useful are to check for some rare problems; easily identified.
For example, examine the tops of electrolytic capacitors on the
motherboard - especially around the CPU. All should be cylinders with
perfectly flat tops. Of course a CPU fan starts everytime. Rarely, a
defective fan does not start until pushed with a finger.

And finally, the power LED light can light even when voltages are
completely defective. The light only says a power cord is connected
and (depending on what that light does) that the supply does something
in response to a pressed power switch.

Meanwhile Compaq is from HP. Therefore the manufacturer has
provided only what responsible manufacturers provide - comprehensive
hardware diagnostics. Find them. They may prove useful later. These
diagnostics are often found on the hard drive, on a CD-Rom, and from
the HP web site.

On Wednesday, 19 November 2008 14:54:41 UTC-5, csar244 wrote:
This is kind of a long story...Please someone tell me what to do!
About 3 weeks ago my psu went out and I brought my PC to work to have
our IT guy fix it. He replaced it with a Rhino ATX 12v 450 watt
power supply (it had whatever the standard 12 v 300 watt for hp is).
My PC is a Compaq SR2180NX with Vista Home Premium.
Anyway, after he fixed it, it would come on, but now it will not stay
on! It will boot up and stay on for MAYBE 5 minutes and then it will
go blank. The power light is still on, but it will not do anything. I
have to hold the power button down for a few seconds before it will
go off. If I try to turn it on for the next hour or so (sometime
longer), it will only boot up to the start screen and do the same
thing. Sometimes the light will only blink and the fans start to
turn but they go off almost immediately. AgHHH! I have tried
everything. I have replaced the Bios Battery. I have cleaned my
DIMM. I have cleaned out all of the dust, checked my pins....I don't
know a lot about the "guts" of the computer so I am asking
for HELP! The other day I was able to get it to stay on for almost
an hour. I was playing solitaire and it shut off in the middle of
the game. This is driving me crazy. Do you think it could be a bad
power supply?

Originally Posted by

On Wednesday, 19 November 2008 14:54:41 UTC-5, csar244 wrote:
This is kind of a long story...Please someone tell me what to do!
About 3 weeks ago my psu went out and I brought my PC to work to have
our IT guy fix it. He replaced it with a Rhino ATX 12v 450 watt
power supply (it had whatever the standard 12 v 300 watt for hp is).
My PC is a Compaq SR2180NX with Vista Home Premium.
Anyway, after he fixed it, it would come on, but now it will not stay
on! It will boot up and stay on for MAYBE 5 minutes and then it will
go blank. The power light is still on, but it will not do anything. I
have to hold the power button down for a few seconds before it will
go off. If I try to turn it on for the next hour or so (sometime
longer), it will only boot up to the start screen and do the same
thing. Sometimes the light will only blink and the fans start to
turn but they go off almost immediately. AgHHH! I have tried
everything. I have replaced the Bios Battery. I have cleaned my
DIMM. I have cleaned out all of the dust, checked my pins....I don't
know a lot about the "guts" of the computer so I am asking
for HELP! The other day I was able to get it to stay on for almost
an hour. I was playing solitaire and it shut off in the middle of
the game. This is driving me crazy. Do you think it could be a bad
power supply?

Go to www.manualslib.com and download (for free) the troubleshooting manual for your computer. This will give you a guide to follow. Then download the diagnostic program (some manufactures have it and it would be listed in the manual). Check the voltages from the Power Supply at their connectors (without the power supply connected to the Motherboard). The manual will state the voltages. This will check both the Power Supply and if the PSU (power supply unit) has the correct voltages to the MOBO (motherboard). Then check the manual for checking the computer for symptoms and solutions. This should give you a system to troubleshoot and not easter egg hunting (we call it easter egg hunting, not shotgunning, but the idea is the same). All troubleshooting should be systematic. That way the system is thoroughly checked without missing an area.
hope this helps
falcon