# help! Computer won't wake up



## steelhead1 (Nov 17, 2008)

Running XP. Computer won't come out of sleep mode. When I hit the space bar to bring it up, the fan and hard drive light kick on for a second and then back off. I shut the thing down using the power button and same thing when I try to turn it back on - fan and hard drive start to work and then turn off. If I continue to hit the power button, eventually the thing stays on but is not sending a signal to the monitor. The fan continues to run but the hard drive light goes out...

What to do?

Thanks in advance!


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## sneekypeet (Nov 17, 2008)

I had a similar issue on an old rig, I just ende up telling it not to sleep/hibernate in the power options, then just turned off the screen when i wasnt using it!


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## JoshBrunelle (Nov 17, 2008)

Have you tried resetting the BIOS? might want to give that a go, also might want to reflash it if you can. I had a similar problem on a very old rig that ended up being my mobo crapping out on me.


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## steelhead1 (Nov 17, 2008)

I'd love to be able to turn off sleep/hibernate but I'm getting no signal to the monitor...


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## FR@NK (Nov 17, 2008)

Could you list your system specs? are you overclocking?

I've had that happen before on a system that was heavily overclocked. I had to remove the memory and the CMOS battery for afew days and it started working again.


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## sneekypeet (Nov 17, 2008)

steelhead1 said:


> I'd love to be able to turn off sleep/hibernate but I'm getting no signal to the monitor...



Sorry I needed to reread the original post. I say as suggested above try resetting the CMOS durring shutdown and see if it will respond


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## steelhead1 (Nov 17, 2008)

Gateway GT5034, AMD Athlon 64x2, XP

I did remove the ram and reinstalled but not the CMOS battery. Where can it be found?


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## ntdouglas (Nov 17, 2008)

Towards the bottom of the board. Its a round flat type. Look around, you'll find it.


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## steelhead1 (Nov 17, 2008)

OK, Found the battery, removed it along with my RAM and still no luck. When I try to turn the machine on it revs and then stops immediately. As i mentioned before, if I continue to push the power button or space bar I can get the machine to stay on after 3 - 5 times. However, same problem - no signal to monitor. The fan continues to run but I don't think the hard drive is...


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## Thrackan (Nov 17, 2008)

Any upgrades done recently? Maybe your Power Supply is loaded to the max.

As far as the CMOS reset is concerned: You need to pull out the battery, set the CMOS jumper (if there is any) to the reset pins, wait a few minutes, power on, power off, set the jumper and battery back and power on again.

Also, hibernation takes up some disk space. Maybe your disk is running full.


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## steelhead1 (Nov 17, 2008)

Sorry - you lost me with the CMOS jumper and reset pins


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## Thrackan (Nov 17, 2008)

If you still have your motherboards user manual, you should be able to find pages concerning the layout. You can find out where the jumper is and which position you need to set it to.

Here's an example:


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## jaxxxon (Nov 17, 2008)

Will it boot up into safe mode? If so press F8 and now select the option The last working config and boot up.


If it dosen't even get that far, reset BIOS like they said above.  If that dosen't work it's probably a power supply problem.


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## Mussels (Nov 17, 2008)

Immediate opwer ons and then off (with lights/spinning fans) indicate that a safety feature has kicked in. Examples would be a bad PSU's overvoltage protection, or a CPU's overheating protection.

Check to make sure the CPU heatsink is attached, the fan spins, and its not full of dust - and swap with another PSU if you have one.


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## Thrackan (Nov 17, 2008)

Mussels said:


> Immediate opwer ons and then off (with lights/spinning fans) indicate that a safety feature has kicked in. Examples would be a bad PSU's overvoltage protection, or a CPU's overheating protection.
> 
> Check to make sure the CPU heatsink is attached, the fan spins, and its not full of dust - and swap with another PSU if you have one.



I had the same symptoms when my RAM decided overclocking wasn't an option by the way.


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## steelhead1 (Nov 17, 2008)

At the risk of letting all of you my lack of computer knowledge...What is overclocking?


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## Thrackan (Nov 17, 2008)

steelhead1 said:


> At the risk of letting all of you my lack of computer knowledge...What is overclocking?



Overclocking is generally running stuff (graphics card, processor, RAM etc.) at speeds they aren't officially specified to be capable of.
My DDR2-800 RAM wouldn't run at DDR2-900ish speeds, which does make a little sense of course


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## newtekie1 (Nov 17, 2008)

If it is a Gateway, chances are he isn't overclocking.

My first guess would be a bad power supply, if you have an extra one laying around, or in another computer, try swapping it out.


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## steelhead1 (Nov 17, 2008)

Started feeling that this problem was over my head so I brought to a repair person. He swapped the power supply out and said that the same symptoms were still present. He said it was most likely something in the mother board and it needed to be replaced. As I stated early, I don't know a lot about how these things operate but I'm snot so sure I need to be replacing a mother board...Thoughts?

Thanks!


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## Mussels (Nov 18, 2008)

steelhead1 said:


> Started feeling that this problem was over my head so I brought to a repair person. He swapped the power supply out and said that the same symptoms were still present. He said it was most likely something in the mother board and it needed to be replaced. As I stated early, I don't know a lot about how these things operate but I'm snot so sure I need to be replacing a mother board...Thoughts?
> 
> Thanks!



its not impossible. i'd actually forgotten until just now, but i have a pentium 4 PC brought to me by my housemate, which kept shutting off around 2 minutes after powering on. despite it being extremely uncommon, it was the motherboard in that PC too.


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## Thrackan (Nov 18, 2008)

Could be unstable vregs or capacitors on the motherboard. Doesn't seem all too unlikely if the PSU is not the killa.


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## steelhead1 (Dec 1, 2008)

*I'm back....*

OK...Just let the computer set for a few days, plugged everything back in and wouldn't you know I've got a signal to the monitor and maybe I'm back up and running. In my efforts to try to get the thing running I took the battery out of the CMOS. Now i need to reset it but need some help. Anyone willing to walk this novice through it?

This is what I'm getting on the screen...

CMOS checksum error - defaults loaded
Warning! Now system is in safe mode.
Please re-setting CPU Frequency in the CMOS setup

So, looks like I can press F1 to continue or F2 to enter setup.

Thanks so much in advance for help!

Craig


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## Mussels (Dec 1, 2008)

press F2, go in, save and exit. done.


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## steelhead1 (Dec 1, 2008)

Thank You so very much! Off to buy external hard drive to back everything up....

You guys are great!

Craig


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## steelhead1 (Dec 5, 2008)

*Next problem to solve...*

Ok. Computer seems back to normal. I did buy a Maxtor mini 4, 320 GB exernal hard drive to back everything up. However, I'm getting an error #1603 and can't seem to install the software. Spent much time with the techs from Seagate but they tell me it's an OS problem and they've done all they can. They walked me through several different things to try but none worked. Told me I'd have to contact microsoft. I'd rather turn to you guys for suggestions...

Thanks in advance!

Craig


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## DR.Death (Dec 5, 2008)

http://consumerdocs.installshield.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=Q111019&sliceId=1 there is some info on the error for you


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