Author Topic: Power issue? (Read 1013 times)

clum · « **on:** September 09, 2005, 16:07 »

I have my girlfriends PC in front of me, its a compaq evo desktop to which i added windows xp as an upgrade from 2000.

It may be coincidence - but the power now seems to be, well not there!

a flashing light appears on the front of the box when the power button is pressed and nothing else happens. I have jiggled all the appropriate cables that i can see, in and out of the box..... I am aware that earth should be present at all times and so dont think i have done anything to upset the unit in that way. could it just be windows xp playing silly buggers? I need to get her files from the machine somehow, any suggestions?

thanks
callum

Simon · « **Reply #1 on:** September 09, 2005, 16:42 »

Are you saying you get no fan noise, no beeps, no monitor, nothing?

clum · « **Reply #2 on:** September 09, 2005, 16:47 »

yup....dead..... sounds like a power box ...No?

next question is how to find a new one, as the hp site has no referance to the part #. Or can i get the info from the HDD some how?

Sandra · « **Reply #3 on:** September 09, 2005, 18:15 »

Compaq used to use their own kind pf power supplies but I thought that they had started using standard ones over the last few years.
You will have to open the case and have a look at the connectors and see if its a standard PSU or a special Compaq one. Compaq ones have a connector to the on/off switch at the front of the case which isnt there on standard ATX PSUs.

The easiest way to recover data from a hard drive is to add it as a slave to the master drive in another pc and transfer to the master or to an external USB drive.

clum · « **Reply #4 on:** September 09, 2005, 19:58 »

Hmmm... too late!!
It's worse than i thought, the hard drive, which is what i wanted, (the information), is corrupt. I took the HDD out and plugged it into a similar system, hey presto, empty!

It seems that all the info is gone, all that remains is a few system files. Or even the windows folder contents - that is what it looks like.
How can this be!? All that survivees is the win folder contents?

Could this be a compatability issue with the hard drive and new pc i have shoved it into?

clum · « **Reply #5 on:** September 09, 2005, 20:00 »

Ooooh sandra, your signature pic is working again... :wink:

Sandra · « **Reply #6 on:** September 09, 2005, 22:56 »

Did you stick it in as a slave or as a master ?
XP wont pick up the operating system if its trying to boot from it in a different pc 9 times out of 10, even if its a similar mobo cpu.

Didnt know my sig was missing for you Callum, its always been there as far as I know