Question Desktop will not turn on

[AARRGGHHH]

I had a minor problem with this recently, I had to keep on pressing the power button to get it to turn on. The next time I tried to turn it on, it would not turn on. No lights, no fans, nothing. Maybe it’s a power surge issue or maybe it’s a coincidence, but now my 50 inch Samsung on a different circuit breaker, and a light dimmer switch also will not turn on.

I’ve looked at all the obvious stuff like the wall plug and the power strip and the power cord. No issues. There’s no power switch on the back of the PC. Looking inside, I tried a gentle tug on the wires connecting to the power button, and they seem securely connected.

So, what do I check out next? The power supply seems like the next step to me, is there a way I could go about testing it with an electric meter?

Also, after the power supply, where should I look next?

It’s a Dell Inspiron 560 with CPU, RAM, GPU, SSD and eSATA upgrades. All of that has been working fine for at least three years.

Thank you

 

[punkncat]

If you have multiple items across different circuits not working you may wish to have an electrician out. For instance, if a squirrel got in and damaged one leg of your service, it can cause strange things to happen.

You can check a PSU with a meter but you need pinout and confidence in knowing what you are doing. It will only show if (expected) power is coming to the pins, no necc. the amperage.

If you have having issues across the household, I would probably attempt to take PC to friend's house to see if it will power up properly there before digging in. Considering that the system is now running on being 13-ish years old I certainly would not suggest going to great lengths to repair it.

 

[AARRGGHHH]

Considering all the upgrades I made to it, repair is definitely my first choice. I’ll check around and see what an electrician would charge. A squirrel or other rodent is possible. I had an outdoor cat who used to eat rats as a snack, unfortunately she’s not around anymore.

In regard to the power supply, how exactly would I go about testing it? I assume I disconnect one of the connections to the motherboard and test that. But which connection should I check and which slots should I probe?

Thank you very much

 

[cAllen]

https://help.corsair.com/hc/en-us/articles/360025085372-How-to-Test-a-power-supply-unit

https://www.lifewire.com/atx-24-pin-12v-power-supply-pinout-2624578

 

[AARRGGHHH]

Thank you.

Just to add to the weirdness of the situation, I plugged it into an outlet in the kitchen while I’m working on it. Pressed the power button, and it turned on. I went to put it back together and put it under my desk, and then thought “maybe I should make sure it turns on again first“ it won’t turn on again. Unplugged, plugged it back in, etc… still won’t turn on.

Also, the green light on the back of the power supply unit came on the first time I plugged it in (when it worked). Now, it sometimes turns on but usually does not turn on. I never paid any attention to it before, what exactly does that indicate?

Thanks again

PS: The green light behind the power supply unit just blinked on once. With the power cord disconnected.

 

[AARRGGHHH]

All 24 sockets on the molex connector tested correctly. I had to remove the D Drive power and data cords to get at the 24 pin connector, when I plug the molex back in it started normally. Repeatedly. I reconnected the D Drive externally to my laptop and the laptop is having trouble reading it. I thought everything was done except for trying to recover data from D.

So this evening, I try to turn it on, it won’t turn on. I unplug it for about 20 minutes and then it turned on. I’m going to try to back up my C Drive tonight before it gets fried. Any thoughts on what’s causing all this?