Topic: PC wont start

[greenking]

For those that remember me.......... Hi 
For those that dont....................... You havent missed much 

I still thought of you guys first when i have a problem,

I have decided to go back to using my PC after using a laptop for the last couple of years but....... yesterday when i powered it up it obviously needed several updates after all this time so it came up in the bios to press f2 to continue booting and get updates. nothing happened.
Me thinking the keyboard doesnt work turned the pc off by forcing it (holding button in)
Got another keyboard today but now my pc does nothing more than show a flashing amber light on the front. No beeps, whirring fans or anything else.
Its an old dell pc running vista with a pentium4 processor.

If someone can point me in the right direction where to start that would be great, if not maybe i'll use the tower and salvage what i can and start building a new one   

[Simon]

Hi Graham, good to see you!   

Many of our PC experts have long since departed, but I'll have a think and see what I can come up with.  Do you have a Windows recovery CD, and if so, have you tried booting with that in the CD drive?  It may not work, as your BIOS may not be set to boot from the CD, but it might be worth a try.

[greenking]

That was a quick reply, I should have known you'd still be here  good to see you and hope you are well

I have no disc, I wasnt ever going to go back to pc again as laptops are some much easier and convenient but i've been playing a big pvp game for the last few years and the more they add to it and make the game even bigger the less my laptop can handle it. I thought a pc woild run it better and its easier to add more memory to a pc if i need to. Is it possible and easy to add more memory to a laptop do you know

[daveeb]

That was a quick reply, I should have known you'd still be here  good to see you and hope you are well

I have no disc, I wasnt ever going to go back to pc again as laptops are some much easier and convenient but i've been playing a big pvp game for the last few years and the more they add to it and make the game even bigger the less my laptop can handle it. I thought a pc woild run it better and its easier to add more memory to a pc if i need to. Is it possible and easy to add more memory to a laptop do you know

hi GK

like you i've pretty much given up on desktops but I seem to remember you could get this issue if the bios battery is dead (cr2032 coin battery). It should boot regardless of the battery state but the date, time etc would be wrong however it wouldn't take long to stick a new one in, on the mobo, just in case.

[Simon]

I'm pretty sure you can install bigger or additional memory in a laptop, and I believe it's fairly easy to do yourself.

But, is it actually memory you need, or storage space?

[Clive]

I've certainly added more memory to a laptop without any problem.  But in all honesty, I think you may be throwing good money after bad because Microsoft is hell bent on ridding the world of any computer on an old operating system. 

[GillE]

Just a thought.  You could try to start the computer with no USB devices attached.  I have a computer which won't start up if I have a TV stick or external storage device in a USB socket.

[Clive]

The other thing you might try is to start it up in safe mode which will prevent all peripheral devices and drivers from loading. 

[sam]

Could be a power unit failure, try booting without the battery in but just the mains.