power outage, pc won't boot(asked a million times, I know)

[McCallister1]

Sorry fro asking a question you all probably get a lot. I tried searching threads, but all had some small difference in problems than mine has. I had a power outage at some point & my PC won't work properly now. Here are the specifics:

-Sony Vaio pcv-rs520
-the computer was in standby mode when it happened
-hardware seems to power up when I hit power button(fans run, hard drive seems to at least spin or whatever HD's are supposed initially do. no clicking from HD either)
-I cannot even get any type of load screen to come up at all. It is black from the start & stays that way. The only time I get anything onscreen is when I hard kill the PC and it gives the "no input" message so the screen does function I assume.
-The beep I normally hear when I start the computer does not happen
-I tried plugging the PC into a different jack, no success. I turned off the surge protector for a bit, no success.
-disconnected the 2 disc drives and floppy & started PC. Still nothing.
-no smells or any type of burned look on boards.

Sorry I am not familiar with PC's, but hopefully this can help narrow down what it may be.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Indigo]

Leave the PC unplugged and hold in the power button for 30 seconds. Then let go, plug the PC back in, turn on.

What happens?

 

[McCallister1]

Thank you for trying to help. I did as you suggested. When I unplugged it, I pressed and held the power button and it seems to clear out the bit of stored power. After 30 seconds, I tried starting it up again, but still the exact same problem.

 

[Indigo]

How is the PC connected to your house's power?

 

[McCallister1]

The power cord is plugged into a power strip/surge protector and that is then plugged into the wall outlet. I tried different plugs one the power strip as well.

One thing I do notice is that when I would turn on my PC before, I could hear the fans "winding" up & I became accustomed to the particular pitch the fans made. It sounds as though the fans are not running/spinning as fast as they had since the sound pitch seems lower now. Would that mean it could be the power supply partially working, but not enough to get the PC completely up and running? Just grasping at straws here now I guess

 

[Indigo]

Unplug it like you had, hold in the power button (again) for 30 seconds, then before you plug it in to turn it on, reset the CMOS/BIOS jumper, or pull the battery for at least 5 minutes.

If that doesn't help, you got zinged somehow from the sound of it, power outages can also introduce dangerous spikes, and contrary to popular belief, surge protectors don't last forever. Depending on the power in the area, if the strip had been exposed to several "events" in the past (with or without you knowing) its ability to protect your system could have been depleted when this last event occurred.

 

[McCallister1]

I tried as you said and nothing. When you say "zinged", I assume you mean my hard drive may be fried? Thanks again for trying to help me.

 

[Indigo]

Hard drive itself? Likely not. Power supply and possibly motherboard? Maybe.

Invest in a good UPS, and you can minimize problems like this. If you spend $10 on a power "strip" (and they're actually power TAPS for that price) then you get what you pay for in this area. I'm not saying yours was, but it's sure acting like it.

 

[McCallister1]

Thanks for all your help og. I have been real busy so the computer just sat for a while. I decided to pop out each stick of my RAM & it seems as though one went bad from the outage because now my computer runs with just the one stick. Time to invest in at least a Ex. HD at the minimum until I upgrade this PC & then I will for sure be making sure I have a sufficient surge protector. Thanks again.