computer gremlins

[elemlab]

Hi. I teach computers at an elementary school and am having problems with our new computers. Some of them will not boot up at all. I push the power button and the light comes on, I can hear the power supply fan running, but the hard drive makes no noise and does not light up. The CD_rom is getting power, I tried booting from floppy, nothing seems to work. They did work when we first got them. Sometimes, if I let them set for a week or two they will begin working again and have no problems. The computers in the lab were put together by the same person...I heard something about stickers melting inside of them but do not think much of that. I cannot open the case for fear of voiding the warranty. However, another computer from the library starting doing the same thing. I opened it up, reseated the memory, the cooling unit, etc...still no boot. The power supply fan comes on but I do not see the fan on the cooler coming on. Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks,

BK

One more thing. Computers built by another individual are having their power supplies go out, smoke and all, within weeks of each other in a separate building. Five have gone out so far. Any ideas?

[tjaymadison]

Seems like the first thing to do is have a licensed electrician inspect your electrical service. Not a handyman or the custodian, either. To have five power supplies "burn up" within a few weeks is highly unusual and probably not due to defective parts. Are the systems plugged into surge suppressors, or right into the wall outlets? I guess in a school setting, you can't absolutely rule out pranksters either. Good luck. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

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"When I nod my head, hit it with the hammer."
(Moe, holding nail, to Curly, holding hammer)

[mjc]

I second the vote for the electrician, also if the power supplies have a voltage seltection switch make sure it is set to the proper voltage.

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/highrise/11/index.htm)

468th Rule of Aquistion: Debugging of software is foolish, there is much profit in updates and upgrades.

[elemlab]

Thanks for responding. I agree, it does sound like something is messed up with the electric, but it seems strange that only those certain computers are blowing their power supply. They are scattered throughout the buildings among computers from other builders, but only those are going out. They are plugged into surge strips. Will the electricity have any effect on those computers that are getting power but will not boot?

Thanks again for your responses,

BK

[Randy_tx]

PHONE THE PERSON WHO BUILT & WARRANTS THESE UNITS TO COME OVER IMMEDIATELY! You should have a technician look at these ASAP...preferably the person who built them. He may have "cut" costs to get the bid.....and you are paying the price for inferior workmanship or parts. It doesnt seem at all unusual to me to see that many power supply's go out if all of them were from a "cheap" batch!

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Will XP save Me ?

[tjaymadison]

I have to agree. That was probably a pretty good order for that supplier, and they should stand behind their work, although their first line of defense will most likely be "bad" power, so that should be checked anyway.

Do as mjc suggested also. Many (but not all) power supplies have a slide switch, usually red, on the back near the power cord receptacle. It can be moved to select the correct source voltage, either 115 or 230. If it's set incorrectly, that could be the problem.

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"When I nod my head, hit it with the hammer."
(Moe, holding nail, to Curly, holding hammer)

[Beeker]

I'm no power supply expert, but I would sure agree that it sounds like you have a batch of bad power supplies. I do know that power supplies have some pretty large high voltage capacitors in them and I know that cheaply made ones could be "leaking" into other components of the supply and thus disrupting the entire array. It can take days for them to discharge, at which time your power supplies could be in a sort of "reset state" which would cause the computers to boot (until the capacitors started leaking again and causing a chain problem). I couldn't agree more about having them serviced (replaced). Perhaps you could get hold of a known good working order power supply and try hooking up the computer in the library to it and seeing if the problem stopped.

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Beeker
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I can fix that, but I'm gonna need some duct tape, an old car battery and a butter knife.

[bassvax]

Totally left field here, but...there's a story about an old building used by one of the local tech schools that was not grounded properly...The tech responsible for the training computers spent about 3 months working on this one...turns out that a T-storm whacked several of the computers in one of the wings (computer courses) and then 3 months later it took another T-storm to recreate the "phenomenon" resulting in another wing being hit this time.
Just adding some wood to the fire... http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

Edit: Supposedly today's building codes require grounding considerations-FYI

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One of these days I'm gonna cut you into little pieces...

[This message has been edited by bassvax (edited 04-24-2001).]

[elemlab]

Thanks so much for all of your responses. I will tell the tech department to contact the supplier and cite your opinions. I had no idea that the power supply could stop the computers from booting up(if someone has time...would they explain just how that happens.) I learn something new everyday on here. Thanks again.

BK

[mjc]

Of course the most obvious way of stopping it is a compleately dead power supply, no 'juice' no boot, but a power supply supplies several differant voltages, and if one of those voltage lines is defective then whatever needs that voltage to run (12v line runs things like CD drives) won't work and in many cases no boot.

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/highrise/11/index.htm)

468th Rule of Aquistion: Debugging of software is foolish, there is much profit in updates and upgrades.