Computers are a PITA much of the time, (why on earth do I want to work with them..?!). Literally a week or so after my warranty expired on this machine (August) then it started acting up. Now usually when I switch the computer off I also turn it off at the back (thou not the mains) just to save on some power, but suddenly the machine decided that it didn’t want to turn on. The fans started it made whirring noises, but no beep. No sound to indicate that the BIOS was starting. Turning the whole machine off at the mains and then back on again seemed to fix it. It acted like this for a few days before finally I just stopped switching it off at the back, as it would 95% of the time turn on fine the next day.
That was until today. After about 4 or 5 attempts to switch it on and off it juts had no life.
I did send an email near the end of August asking the people who built the machien for me what they thought the problem might be. They suggested that I try resetting the BIOS and if that didn’t work then I’d need to replace the CMOS battery in the Motherboard. Due to project I didn’t get around to resetting the BIOS (and I just plain forgot last week.)
So you can imagine how I felt this morning when the PC would not turn on, and I knew that I hadn’t tried to fix it even though I’d had the issue for a while…Therefore I knew that the only real step I could take at this stage was to check the battery and replace it. To my surprise I discovered that the Motherboard uses a basic Lithium battery that a lot of calculators/watchs etc use. So it just goes to show that not all parts of the computer are mystical and magical! 😛
After the magic of Compressed Air in a Can worked its wonders on the dust, it was possible to see that.. well nothing looked wrong. Got the battery out (luckily not welded in) checked the voltage on the battery, which seemed fine, put it back in and tried to start the pc up… NO JOY!
To cut a long post short, I bought a new battery (unsure whether it would make any difference, but it was the cheapest way to check tbh), put the new battery in, plugged and switched on the machine.. and… BEEP. YES! the BIOS beeped!! Thank goodness for that.
So the machine is now on.. and I am a bit loath to turn it off.. I shall sort out resetting the BIOS soon I think. Hopefully that’s all that was causing the trouble… (and hopefully I’ve not jinxed myself there!)
Kaitharshayr's Musings 
FYI – the battery may have had a potential but it probably had no current output, happens all the time 🙂
Fair nuff, turns out it’s not the battery thou 😦 something’s up with the Motherboard. *sigh*
Hope you get it sorted soon! I hate computer faults, almost as much as I hate dealing with the condescending little twats at computer shops. (I do however like to make them cry, when they realize I do know what I’m talking about and exactly what I want… hee hee)
Chris just bought me a beautiful flat screen – ohh the joy! No more squealing screen, no more glare… I can sit here in the afternoon and clearly see my screen without having to shut curtains and still squint!! – what’s more it should solve 90% of my migraines.
(Can you let C know a decent email would be nice, lol. and that Breezy said his name the other day and got it right, she even impressed herself and had to repeat it several times saying, I said Caleb, I did it properly! I didn’t say Cabib like used too. LOL)
🙂
So far PC Specialist have been very helpful in telling me what I should do to try and figure out what the problem is, even though the machine is out of warranty. It’s very nice. 🙂
Flat screens are great, you suddenly have to get used to so much extra space for moving windows around on.. well I find that at least, I always work in windowed mode. 🙂 The only thing I find to be a slight pain on them is trying to watch DVD’s from the wrong angle, it can make very dark pictures. I hope the new screen does give you less migraines.
I’ll let C know. 🙂