My computer is unable to start when I press on the power button. When I press on the power button, everything doesn't run except for the processor fan and the power supply fan which only run for 1 second then it stops. It seems like there is no power connected to the system. Even I have tried a new power supply, it does the same thing. When I look at the motherboard, a green light is on. This is confusing me because if there is no power connection, the green light on the motherboard can't be on. But if there is connection, then why system doesn't run. I am suspecting either the processor or the motherboad has gone. But I am not sure at all. Your helps is highly appreciate. Thanks you so much. Gateway 500SE Desktop PC P4 1.6Ghz 512Ram Window XP Pro

This is the XP forum. General hardware link is at the left. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and his wife will never forgive you.

sounds like your having some difficulties. i would take a look at your mother board and look for the pin that facilitates amount of voltage that is being sent to the processor. there could be a problem of not enough power or too much power. if you have a blank screen when u turn ur pc on, check for RAM. Make sure your ram is working, PC wont boot or even start without any ram inserted into the ram sockets of ur MB. if thats not the case then check for some BIOS beep Codes. or purchase a diagnostic slot card to diagonose any problems within the circuitry of the mother board. i assume that the CPU gone bad and its dead as a rock, even so the fan would conitue to spin even though the CPU were to die out. i would highly recomend removing the CPU and resocketing it in place and checking up on the jumpers on your mother board for any configuration erros that could be causing any hectic problems. if none of these help i would think that there is a shortage somewhere in the mother board to where the motherboard itself may need to be replaced.

What make of motherboard is it? and how old? Some older motherboards have a known faulty capacitor problem. These capacitors leak after a while and initially cause intermittent booting problems before giving up eventually causing the PC to fail to boot up. Were you experiencing intermittent boot ups prior to this? If you were, Google for faulty motherboard capacitors and you will find more on the subject. ___________________________________________ ☺ When everything else fails, read the instructions.

Buy yourself a cheap volt meter and check the power output on each leg of the power supply. One leg, like +5 volts can be good and another,+12 volts, can be bad. Thus the light but no action. Larry

classic example of a faulty cpu fan.