Its not the battery. A pc will run with a dead battery. Its really tough
to tell exactly what you need simply because a lot of things can cause a pc
to not start. I'm not familiar with your model. What lights do you mean?
No beeps? No fan noise? No hard disk grinding?
Early in my computer career I replaced several power supplies without
results, before I realized that other things within the pc could be causing
the trouble.
There are several pc components that, when they malfunction, the pc will not
show any signs of life. This is a standard precaution taken by the power
supply, OR, the power supply can be defective. One of the symptoms is that
the power supply has stopped outputing sufficient watts. The sudden surge
in power demand, when the power switch is turned on, results in one of more
devices not getting enough power to start. This overload stops the pc from
coming on at all. If you cycle the switch between on and off several times
and suddenly the pc starts, this is a possible cause.
I don't know exactly about Packard Bell, but most pc's use one or the other
of two popular types of power supplies, AT or ATX. They are pretty generic
except for their total power rating in watts. All you need for a
replacement is the same type as the original of the two popular kinds, and a
power rating for the replacement that is the same or higher than the
original. Something like 200 or more watts would do fine.
If your comfortable with the insides of the pc, the first thing to do is
assume everything is in running order, just its not all connected anymore.
This can happen from a build up of dirt and the heat the dirt and dust can
cause by impeding cool airflow. A technician would disconnect everything
except the essential ram and the video card from the motherboard, and try to
turn the pc on. You should get a picture, then a lot of beeps, probably.
From that point you start reattaching things one at a time, and try again.
Keep doing this until everything is reattached and working (in which case it
was probably a little corrosion in a connection) or you find the bad part.
If the pc is really dirty inside with lint and dust, you could try removing
the cpu and reinstalling it, if it is a ZIF socket style, just to be sure
there is nothing in contact with the pins on its underside. I have seen
dirt in there causing your problem with those type sockets.
Tom Turak
-----Original Message-----
From: Diane Sweat [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, August 27, 2002 2:11 PM
Thanks for your response. Could this be a battery
that has died instead?? Any suggestions where to find
Packard Bell power supply?
--- Joe Lore <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hi
>
> Sounds like the power supply went to sleep
> permanently....
>
> $10-35.00 depending where you get one and who does
> it should fix you up.
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
From: Diane Sweat [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, August 26, 2002 12:59 PM
>
>I have a Packard Bell Platinum 5600 computer. This
old computer has been a real workhorse & I've had very
few problems with it. Lately tho, whenever I shut
this computer down, it had a hard time re-starting.
This weekend, I shut it down (always used the start
button)I could not get the computer to re-start. The
lights blink, but that is all that happens. No noises
from the CPU, no display, nothing. Since it was
working just fine when I shut it down, I feel that
this is a hardware problem of some kind. Any help out there?
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