HP will not boot?

My sister's computer will not boot. It starts up, gets into the bios, and then just turns off. It seems like the power supply is good (at least there is still a light lit on it).

Any ideas how I can start troubleshooting this?

 

Could also be the fact that it is overheating. Is the CPU fan even spinning up when power is applied to the unit?

 

It might also help to know the circumstances under which this occured. Have any recent major upgrades been done? Any lightning storms in your area prior to the failure? Did she notice any unusual glitches before the final failure to boot up?

It is of great help to the folks here to know the specifics of your hardware - what model HP does your sis have? . . . please post back with any added info you have about your sister's computer.

 

OK, I removed everything from the MB other than the hard drive, memory, and power supply, no help.

I swapped out the memory for a stick I know is good, same problem.

I was going to swap out the power supply, but my Ultra power supply will not plug into the HP MB.

I even disconnected the Hard drive, and it would still shut off.

Specs on the system:

Its an HP Pavilion 500
System #: P9859A
Serial #: KR23701981

Likely to be the MB or power supply at this point?

 

Hard to say at this point. My wife has a 500 series Pavilion - and I've never had any problems with it. It does sound like either the board or the PSU - but since you don't have another power supply to switch out and test, I'm not sure how to advise you.

Except:

Have you tried pressing the F10 key while the computer is booting (like when the HP screen or the diagnostic screen pops up) to see if it will go into an option menu that will let you try and boot into safe-mode? Most HP's also have a hidden partition that can be used to perform a repair or complete re-install of the operation system, in the event this is a viral or mal-ware related problem.

Or, If you can get into the BIOS set-up screen itself (I think by hitting the F1 key while booting - been a while since I had to on an HP), check to see if the system is "seeing" the harddrive, CPU, memory, etc.

sorry I couldn't help further. Anybody else have some ideas?