Question My PC is booting up but my HDD light isn't staying on. Screen isn't responding due to that.

[Blade_226]

I disconnected my pc completely due to a storm. I recently connected my PC back after a day. Now it boots up but my HDD isn't responding. The light blinks red to show that it came on but it doesn't respond after that. My screen and keyboard don't respond. Can I get some help please?

 

[LORDPrometheus]

Hi welcome to the forums first of all.

Now as for your problem did you move the PC at all while disconnecting it or did you just unplug it?

Also did you make sure it was turned off before unplugging it?

 

[Blade_226]

Hi welcome to the forums first of all.

Now as for your problem did you move the PC at all while disconnecting it or did you just unplug it?

Also did you make sure it was turned off before unplugging it?

I did not move my pc an inch. And yes it successfully shut down.

 

[LORDPrometheus]

Did you turn off the switch on the PSU before you unplugged it?

 

[Blade_226]

Did you turn off the switch on the PSU before you unplugged it?

Yes. It was switch then power plug.

 

[LORDPrometheus]

Are you getting any sort of display or is it just a black screen?

 

[Blade_226]

Are you getting any sort of display or is it just a black screen?

It's a black screen. Absolutely no response. Keyboard doesn't light up either.
Thanks for your help btw.

 

[LORDPrometheus]

Anytime

Ok if you are not getting any response at all that suggests a power issue or something else on the more serious end of things. If it were a drive issue i would expect it to at least post and then crash. An in depth process of elimination would require you to have spare hardware to test in. The most pressing concern is a potentially bad power supply as that could cause damage if left as it is. If you have a spare PSU i would try that first but if not then the best course of action would likely be to find a computer repair shop near you and have them test it to see if that is at fault.

 

[Blade_226]

Anytime

Ok if you are not getting any response at all that suggests a power issue or something else on the more serious end of things. If it were a drive issue i would expect it to at least post and then crash. An in depth process of elimination would require you to have spare hardware to test in. The most pressing concern is a potentially bad power supply as that could cause damage if left as it is. If you have a spare PSU i would try that first but if not then the best course of action would likely be to find a computer repair shop near you and have them test it to see if that is at fault.

Thank you. I'll test it with another PSU. Also i forgot to mention. That this isn't the first time this happened. It happened twice before and i usually just took out the HDD and fiddled with the connecting cables and it booted up after several attempts. That doesn't seem to work now so i decided to post. Thanks for your advice.

 

[LORDPrometheus]

Thank you. I'll test it with another PSU. Also i forgot to mention. That this isn't the first time this happened. It happened twice before and i usually just took out the HDD and fiddled with the connecting cables and it booted up after several attempts. That doesn't seem to work now so i decided to post. Thanks for your advice.

Ok that is pretty important information. Do you know what model hard drive it is and how old it is?

 

[Blade_226]

Ok that is pretty important information. Do you know what model hard drive it is and how old it is?

It's a WD 1TB HDD. It's going onto 3 years.

 

[LORDPrometheus]

Ok WD drives usually last their 2-3 year warranty but at 3 years its pretty much rolling the dice. I would not be too surprised if it is a drive failure although the black screen would make it a strange one. Try starting the PC with the drive disconnected and see if it takes you to the BIOS. if it does then its a bad drive

 

[Blade_226]

Ok WD drives usually last their 2-3 year warranty but at 3 years its pretty much rolling the dice. I would not be too surprised if it is a drive failure although the black screen would make it a strange one. Try starting the PC with the drive disconnected and see if it takes you to the BIOS. if it does then its a bad drive

I did that. Still the same outcome.
The first time this happened, i did some research and heard about it might being the hdd. So i ran a check once it finally booted up and it showed 2 unfixable sectors and 2 pending sectors. I didn't take much into it because it's just 2 sectors and it never changed after that.

 

[LORDPrometheus]

Yeah definitely a dying drive but if removing the drive still led to no output that's concerning. I think my previous suggestion of going to a repair shop is back at the top of the stack I am sorry I cant give you an easy answer

 

[Blade_226]

Yeah definitely a dying drive but if removing the drive still led to no output that's concerning. I think my previous suggestion of going to a repair shop is back at the top of the stack I am sorry I cant give you an easy answer

No worries. Thanks. I think it's time to upgrade either way. I'm still sitting in 2010

 

[captaincharisma]

No worries. Thanks. I think it's time to upgrade either way. I'm still sitting in 2010

as a last resort i would reseat the ram in your PC (take it otu and put it back in) if one ram module somehow moved out of place then the computer can look and act dead.

and yes, you did tell us the PC wasn't moved but it is still possible even with an old PC such as yours

 

[Blade_226]

as a last resort i would reseat the ram in your PC (take it otu and put it back in) if one ram module somehow moved out of place then the computer can look and act dead.

and yes, you did tell us the PC wasn't moved but it is still possible even with an old PC such as yours

It booted up today. I suspected PSU. I connected the vga cable to the onboard stock GPU and it booted up. Properly. I shut down afterwards and plugged the vga back into the bought GPU. It didn't boot up. So now I just booted up on stock GPU and then switched the VGA once it booted up.
It's weird