Fruit Machine Chat

Lousy computer had packed up. Will not boot up.
Switches on, starts boot up sequence, DVD drive whirrs, light on near Smart Media card unput and it just sticks. Fan going, that's about it.


Very generic I know, but any clues bar buy a new computer?

Any beeps? (not bloops)..

JG wrote:Lousy computer had packed up. Will not boot up.
Switches on, starts boot up sequence, DVD drive whirrs, light on near Smart Media card unput and it just sticks. Fan going, that's about it.


Very generic I know, but any clues bar buy a new computer?

What is the LAST thing that it says during POST?

Listen carefully, is there a knock-knock-knock sorta noise over and over (might be hard to hear over the fan) ?

Sorry, doesn't start boot up sequence. No signal to monitor.

Basically you switch on,

1) DVD drive lights up and whirrs as if to acknowledge its existence.
2) Smart media slot green light is permanently on (never used to do this, may have stayed on briefly then gone off)
3) A little bit of hard disk chuntering (heads moving?) then just the fan plus I think spinning of te hard disk. No knocking at all.

take it too a computer shop

Open your computer up and unplug everything - right down to the CPU and RAM. Remove your CMOS battery.

Then, replace your CMOS battery, CPU and RAM only, and power up. This will eliminate any funny connection issues, and errors due to peripherals (which is unlikely since your system isn't even POSTing).

If you still get nothing, then you are luckless.

Cheers for the advice.

Trying to fix a bloomin' fruit machine, get it working and now my computer goes down. Lol eh?

CPU and RAM, check, can do.

Sorry, not as Cisco systemed computerlieratyfied up as some on here, pssst, "what does...whispering here......what does a Cmos battery look like? Do? Cheers. JG."

JG wrote:Sorry, not as Cisco systemed computerlieratyfied up as some on here, pssst, "what does...whispering here......what does a Cmos battery look like? Do? Cheers. JG."

It keeps the cmos memory. It's the big coin cell in a holder on the motherboard.

sounds like hard drive to me... if not lucky for you ( maybe ) my uncle is staying with me for a few days and he fixes them for a living... ill get him to do you a freebie if ya like 2morrow? if so pm me soon coz going to bed ill give you my number and see ya in the morning.

Cheers lads. WIll try this some time tomorrow.

JG wrote:Cheers lads. WIll try this some time tomorrow.

Er... I wouldnt remove the CMOS battery. You dont say how old the computer is, but if its old, you could be opening yourself upto trouble and is unlikely to fix this problem. Assuming its remotely modern, it will be a CR2032 button cell - avoid 'greasy' finger contact, but dont use metal tweezers either


You should disconnect all hard disk, floppy disk, media bay, everything from the motherboard and anything external such as USB sticks, external hard disks, USB powered Fairy lights and so on!

If you have a sound card, modem etc cards, then pull them out.

If its still fcked. Its more than likely dud memory (which should cause a beep, but this is on the assumption of an internal speaker), otherwise a moherboard fault.

Reseating the memory + CPU could fix the problem. If all of above doesnt work, knowing more about what the machine is would be useful.

If you have a spare VDU card, swap it over but I'm guessing you wont have

Cheers, despite my reply coming after yours red22, I didn't see the message. I did pop off to bed rather sharpish afterwards, so sorry for no reply.

It's a couple of years old, just a Celeron processor atm.

Will look at it soon....

Another addition. May throw some light onto the problem.

The problem first started when the computer powered down, seemingly of its own accord. Was playing poker and on here and click, no signal, whirr. Only a £5 stt, so not the end of the world and I was losing anyway.
Tried to restart failed. Then tried again, loaded up ok.
Now it's having none of it.

Will try looking at this Thursday, thanks for the feedback once again.

JG wrote:Another addition. May throw some light onto the problem.

The problem first started when the computer powered down, seemingly of its own accord. Was playing poker and on here and click, no signal, whirr. Only a £5 stt, so not the end of the world and I was losing anyway.
Tried to restart failed. Then tried again, loaded up ok.
Now it's having none of it.

Will try looking at this Thursday, thanks for the feedback once again.

Hours of FC and £5 STT Poker- computer probably felt like it was being treated like a twat and killed itself lol.


On a serious note. Reseat the processor and check the fans spinning on the processor heatsink. It probably aint and u've burnt it to a crisp :->

Lol Mark, acerbic as ever, the computer is working fine now thanks, I'll stick to £1000 heads up only from now on though, just to be safe.

The fans were all ok, three in total, PSU, processor and general keep everything cool fan.

Followed advice given, disconnected everything, bar the USB fairy lights 'cos they're pretty and risked removing the lithium battery, minimising contact with sweaty flesh.

All reconnected and booted up fine, so cheers, JG.