Black screen and unable to turn off the PC?

Stéphane -  
 amazigh -
Hello,
My problem occurs when starting the PC. When I press the power button, the screen stays black. The processor runs, but nothing is displayed?! The worst part is that the reset doesn’t work, and neither does the power button! To turn off the PC, I have to cut the power from the back of the case. But the funniest thing is that after all, everything works normally when I turn it back on. It's actually an intermittent failure. More seriously, I've suspected my DVD burner has been playing this dirty trick on me for a few days now. I have two clues pointing me towards this issue: on one hand, just before the black screen appears, the PC sometimes makes a lot of noise, and judging by the blinking lights of my DVD and burner, it seems the PC is oscillating between the two drives (sometimes it even gets stuck at that point), and on the other hand, once the black screen appears, my burner doesn’t open while my DVD does.
If someone could enlighten me on the best way to resolve my issue, I would be very grateful. Thank you in advance.

8 réponses

biouman
 
Unplug your burner and use your computer normally; if it works fine, take out 40 euros or the receipt for your burner, which might, and hopefully is, still under warranty... if not, there's nothing left but to invoke the god of black magic.
3
Stéphane
 
Thank you for the advice. However, to disconnect the burner, should I remove the ribbon cable or the power supply? Knowing that my DVD drive provides power to my burner, which in turn powers my floppy disk drive. How can I disconnect my burner without causing too much mess, and what is the best method to achieve this?
0
ewano Posted messages 86 Status Membre
 
take off your tablecloth
0
charlie
 
Unplug all your peripherals, DVD burner, and diskettes
then restart
if it works, well then connect the peripherals one by one until you see where it's coming from.
0
Stéphane > charlie
 
Thank you for the advice. I will try to unplug all the peripherals, but for that, I have to wait for the PC to cool down. Indeed, when it is hot, the issue seems to disappear.
I increasingly feel that the peripherals are not responsible for the problem because this afternoon when I started the PC, the symptom of the problem was different from other times. This time, the processor wouldn't even start, or more precisely, it would begin to start and then stop. I had to unplug the computer to turn it off. It was as if I had power and then nothing, and so on. Could a faulty power button cause this, knowing that it doesn’t respond when I try to turn off the PC, nor does the reset button?
In any case, this intermittent and mutating issue is really frustrating.
0
Pascal > Stéphane
 
Hello,
this is due to a false mass, either from the power supply or from one of the peripherals. It's better to test and repair the failure quickly before a complete and irreversible crash of the whole system.
If you have some nice friends in your circle and this equipment is no longer under warranty (which is certain, given that you opened the case), try to test each of the following components on one of their machines, separately: motherboard, power supply, processor.
I personally bet it's your power supply, maybe not damaged, but insufficient for your configuration.
0
Stéphane > Pascal
 
Thank you for the advice, but personally, I can't see myself either disassembling my motherboard or my friend's for testing. Earlier, I started my PC without the peripherals and it worked. The problem is that I'll have to try several times to be sure that a peripheral is responsible for the failure.
The false ground seems like a good lead.
I don't know if it relates, but I had to intervene in the BIOS to "ignore" a very slight overvoltage in Hardware Monitor, specifically in the "+5 volt". Every time it started, it showed me "hardware monitor found an error" and the "+5 volt" was in red at "+5.4 volt".
0
Pascal
 
Hello,
As for the advice on testing the card and processor, etc... It was just a suggestion; we do it because we are NERDS (some of us still have machines running on 8086 chips that require a 320 KB system disk), so we've set up test benches to support it.
That said, if you have 5.4 volts in voltage, then focus your tests on the power supply; it seems like it took a hit (a possible cause could be a micro-power cut, even with an uninterruptible power supply, the break power doesn't trigger, and the returning current being 330 instead of 220, causes issues with the management system). Currently, your power supply has become unstable, plan for a quick replacement before major damage occurs (a sudden 12 volts could damage parts of your motherboard, your graphics card, your sound card, the CMOS); to test your power supply, just disconnect its cables from your motherboard and test only the wires providing +5v, -5v, and ground.
0
Stéphane
 
Pascal, thank you for your valuable advice. You reassure me in my decision to change my diet starting tomorrow before something bad happens. I've looked into the prices and they're relatively affordable, around 45 euros. I thought it would cost a lot more. At worst, I'll have surplus food if the problem doesn't come from there.
0
fafoimagne Posted messages 5 Status Membre
 
Hi, before buying a power supply, try resetting your BIOS.
You should have a way to remove the battery and move a jumper to restore the settings to default.
Check your motherboard manual.
Don't forget to unplug before handling.
Good luck!
P.S. You might have changed some CPU or memory frequency settings, or the motherboard might have a glitch.
0
Stéphane
 
I did it but it didn't help. The breakdown is still there.
Thank you
0
Stéphane
 
Finally, I installed a new power supply (price 25 €) and the problem seems to be solved since I haven't had a startup failure for two days.
Anyway, I wanted to thank all of you for your contribution.
Hi everyone.
0
ewano Posted messages 86 Status Membre
 
OK, see you later!
0
amazigh
 
When the power off doesn't work, just press the button for 5 seconds. All ATX cards work this way.
0
amazigh
 
Hello,
even by holding down the power button, the computer won't turn off. I even tried unplugging it! Nothing works, the screen remains black and the computer is still running!
0
Frcos
 
Hello
unplug the microprocessor. Wait 2 seconds then connect it.
0