The Troubleshooting section here is not intended as a comprehensive guide to
troubleshooting computer systems, but rather as a quick checklist to point you
in the right direction.
OK, something has gone wrong. Let's run down the list of possibilities.
If you hit the power button and nothing happened:
Is the power cord plugged in? Is it plugged in the other end too? Check the
switch at the back of the case. Make sure that you connected the wire from the
case power button to the right connector on the motherboard. Make sure the power
connector to the motherboard is in correctly. Check the floppy power cable.
Double-check all connections. You did use the risers, right?
If none of this makes a difference, next step is to unplug everything from the
motherboard with the exception of the power cable, power button wire, video
card, memory and processor. If it still will not power up, it's likely that you
have one or more defective components. The most likely culprits are the
motherboard or the case power supply.
If the system turns on, but does not beep or begin to boot
up:
First, double check all connections and try again. Otherwise, the best thing to
do in this circumstance is to unplug everything from the motherboard with the
exception of the power button wire, video card, memory and processor, then test
it again.
If the computer successfully starts at this point, power off and reconnect one
component at a time until you find the problem. If you cannot get it to boot up
successfully, it is likely that you have one or more defective parts.
System turns on, beeps intermittently, does not boot up:
Check that your memory (RAM) chip is installed correctly. Remove it and
re-install it if necessary.
System turns on, gives a sequence of quick beeps, does not
boot up:
Check that your video card is correctly seated in its AGP or PCI slot. The AGP
slot especially can be unforgiving of a card that is a tiny bit out of position.
There are a number of other error codes indicated by patterns of beeps from the
motherboard speaker, but the two above are the most commonly encountered. For
more information, see our guide to Computer Error Beep Codes.
If you have got the system up and running, but are experiencing some problems
installing an operating system, here are a couple of common issues:
Your system freezes intermittently while installing the
OS:
Could well be a heat issue, especially with AMD processors or older Intel ones.
Check that the heat sink fan is spinning and that the heat sink itself is firmly
mounted and parallel to the surface of the processor. Assuming you are using a
stock heat sink from the manufacturer of the processor, it should be more than
adequate to cool the system if properly applied.
You are having problems fully installing the OS due to
errors copying files and blue screens:
Errors while copying the setup files, especially with Windows 2000 or XP, are a
common indicator of problems with your memory (RAM). It's possible it could also
be a hard-drive problem, but if you are getting blue-screens also, especially
any ones indicating that a 'page-fault' has occurred, it's time to pop the
memory out and haul it back to the store to be tested. And don't leave it there
for the night either.
