Power Supply Problem?

Hello,

I'm doing a favor for someone, which can always have downfalls. They have an older desktop. The problem they were having is that the computer would sometimes just shut off, and now doesn't turn on at all. So here's what happened when I looked at it:
- Pressed the power button, everything would turn on. I would get prompt to boot in safemode, SM w/ networking, windows normal mode, etc. I chose WinXP normal mode.
- After that, the monitor went blank and just displayed that floating striped red,green,and yellow message that the monitor is working properly.
- The keyboard light was green. But then the power light on the tower stayed orange.
- I unplugged the machine, hit the power button again, and the light just went orange, nothing else worked.
- There is a little test button on the power supply with a light, hit that and it did not light up.

So, just looking for confirmation. Is this a definite PSU problem?

Thanks,
-Kramerica

 

After it shuts off on it's own, can you power it back up again? If so, then it could be a variety of problems. Try burning a memtest86+ disk, and see if you can run that. If memtest86 will run for a while, then it's probably not your PS.

If you still suspect a power supply problem, PS testers are cheap ($10ish), and are well worth the purchase if you plan on diagnosing any more PCs in the future

 

No, I can't power it up. When I try to press the power button again, the light on the tower just stays orange, nothing else in the machine starts up. Haven't had anything happen since that first short breath of life it gave me.

 

It is likely a power supply issue. It could still be a number of other problems though. Often a "short breath of life" is related to a dead CPU fan (the cpu can overheat and fail if the fan is dead for even a short period of time).

I'd pop another PS in there. Best Buy has a good return policy, if it doesn't help