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Recommended Book
The Winn L. Rosch Hardware Bible (6th Edition)
By Winn L Rosch
Que
Price: $1.62

Home » Other
What to Do If Your Computer Doesn’t Turn On
Author: Gabriel Torres
Type: Tutorials Last Updated: April 21, 2008
Page: 2 of 7
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Step 1 – External Inspection

The first thing you need to do is to check your PC externally. You will need to follow the steps below. Don’t try to turn on your computer yet:

  • Check if the main power cord is attached to the wall.
  • Check if the main power cord is firmly attached to the power supply (we suggest you to remove it and install it back again).
  • Check if the 110/220 V switch from the power supply is in the correct position, if your power supply has one.
  • Check if the on/off switch located on the power supply (on the rear side of the computer) is on the “on” position, if your power supply has one.
  • Check if the reset switch on the front panel from your case isn’t stuck. You can check that by pressing it; if you can’t move it that means that it is stuck and you need to release it using tools (small screw driver, open paper clip, etc).
  • Remove all external cables from your computer, including keyboard, mouse, printer, digital camera, iPod, etc, and all other external devices you may have attached to your PC like USB drives. Keep only the video monitor cable attached. So after this step the only cables that will be attached to your PC will be the power cord and the video monitor cable.
  • Check if your video monitor is turned on (it should have a LED turned on or blinking indicating that it is in fact turned on). If this LED isn’t turned on or blinking, check if the video monitor power cord is correctly installed to the wall and if it is firmly attached to the monitor.
  • Check if brightness and contrast settings from your video monitor are adjusted correctly (we’ve seen several times that the problem was that the screen was too dark and the system was working just fine).

After performing all these steps, try now turning on your computer. Is it working now? Great! If it isn’t, let’s see what you should do next.

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