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1.
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Nothing happens when the machine is switched
on - even the lights on the front don't light
up
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Resolution
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First thing to check would be whether the power
supply cable at the back of the machine hasn't
been accidentally knocked out of the socket -
check by pushing it firmly back onto the socket.
If this is not the case, then check the fuse in
the plug - on rare occasions switching on the
PC can cause the fuse in the plug to fail. If
there is no problem with the fuse, then you may
need to take the lid off the base unit and ensure
that all the connectors are connected firmly into
the motherboard and components. If there does
not seem to be a problem and the machine still
does not boot, then the problem is probably either
a faulty motherboard or power supply unit (PSU).
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2.
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The lights on the front of the machine light
up, but the machine still does not start.
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Resolution
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If you switch on the machine and there are some
beeps, then this is an indicator of what could
be wrong with the machine. Generally the
problem could either be with the graphics card,
the memory or the cache memory. Your motherboard
manual may have the details of the beep codes
to determine where the fault lies.
If the machine still does not start and does
not beep, then it could be a cabling error inside
the machine. Check whether the cabling into hard
disk drives and CD-ROM drives are connected the
right way round. This is a common fault
when a new hard drive or CD-ROM drive has been
added to a system. The red stripe on the
ribbon cable should connect to Pin 1 on the connector.
Usually this is the side closest to the power
connector.
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3.
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The lights on the front of the machine light
up, and the machine starts showing the BIOS, but
then stops.
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Resolution
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If the machine stops before or during the memory
count, then there could be problems with the memory
- when the BIOS counts the memory it is also testing
it at the same time.
If the machine stops after the memory test then
it could be a component on the motherboard such
as the hard disk controller.
If the machine stops after the memory test and
there are clunking noises then it is likely that
the hard disk drive has failed or is very close
to failing.
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4.
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BIOS runs through its checks correctly, and
then the machine pauses for a long time before
booting into an Operating System (OS)
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Resolution
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The most common fault where this occurs is when
the BIOS is set to not have a floppy disk drive,
yet the boot sequence checks the floppy drive
first - either enable the floppy drive, or set
the boot sequence to check C: first.
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5.
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BIOS runs through all its checks correctly,
and then the machine stops displaying a message
similar to "invalid system disk" or "insert boot
disk"
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Resolution
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The first thing to check is that there is not
a disk in the floppy disk drive. If there
is, then remove it and restart the computer.
If there is not, then it could be that the hard
drive has lost some information and the chances
are that your Operating System (OS) such as Windows
98 will need to be reinstalled.
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