Hardware problem

I turn on a old 98 box and the CD Rom and Power light just keep on flashing. Sometimes it turns off in 5 seconds but most of the time it just keeps on flashing... no beeps nothing on screen that's all.... Power Supply?

There's certainly something wrong there!

If your using an ATX power supply, it could be that your power button is slightly 'stuck' and therefore causing the PC to switch off again. It's a soft-power off function of all ATX power supplies.

On the other hand, you might not have a problem with the power button, but the actual power supply itself. The easiest way around this would be to replace the power supply and compare the results.

Before you start digging into the power supply, I'd suggest you disconnect all hdd's, cdroms, FDD and leave only the minimum amount of peripherals connected to your motherboard, switch the PC on and see what happens.
If it works fine, then switch the PC off and start connecting each peripheral back on to it, each time, checking to see if the problem arises again.

This will surely help you narrow down what's causing the problem!

Keep us up to date with your progress!

Cheers,

I turn on a old 98 box and the CD Rom and Power light just keep on flashing. Sometimes it turns off in 5 seconds but most of the time it just keeps on flashing... no beeps nothing on screen that's all.... Power Supply?

If you are not getting any sounds when the computer is powered on that certainly means that the power is not reaching the motherboard of the computer & hence any of your hard-disk etc ... so there has to be something wrong with the power supply or the power button :roll:

As Chris suggests though it could be one of the peripherals dragging the supply down and making the power supply constantly reset itself. I had exactly this problem on a PC and it was the DVD drive that was the culprit. With it disconnected, the PC worked fine. With it plugged in to the power connector, exactly the problem you describe. I replaced it and the machine worked fine

I agree with Chris and the bishop. I've recently had the same problem on an older type PC. It definately sounds as if somthing is drawing too much power from the supply. I would suggest, as has been mentioned before, disconnecting your CD and then powerup the PC. Working this way you should soon see what is causing the problem.

I don't know how many times you guys have saved my butt, thanks a bunch, I just put in a used beefier power supply and it works great, but if I disconnected CD rom it wouldn't boot up but it woudl get to post.
bazaar stuff if you ask me thanks so much everyone Chris you rock. (everyone else too but he responded first.
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