Windows XP forum: desktop won't wake up

What do you mean, booting up in sleep mode?

What happens when the computer is switched off, then you turn it on? Do you see the BIOS POST (Power On, Self Test), reports displayed on the screen? If so, any errors reported?

What happens if you boot up into the Safe Mode list of options?

Make and model computer please, with specs and anything else that may be relevant.

Mark

Here is what happened initially~ I had the desktop on and the power went off...I am assuming it was in sleep mode when the power went out...when the power came back on, I turned on the computer and left the room, when I came back the screen was black, I moved the mouse and it did not come on...thinking it might be a monitor problem, pushed the power button on the monitor and it turned green and the went back to red....I unplugged the monitor and plugged it back in...that is when I noticed the yellow sleep light on...I tried to turn it off with the power but off nothing happened...had to turn off at power strip...

When I turn it back on the cpu fans begin to whirl and on the monitor and it lashes the AOpen logo and then flashes on the screen the message "no signal detected" and then the power light goes to red...the yellow power light it lit up on the CPU tower...there is Nothing else..nada! No errors, no text, and can't boot up in safe mode...pushing F8 does nothing upon turning it on:(

I have tried several times to get it to power on correctly all to no avail.

I tried unpluging the power cord and holding down the power button for 30 secs to reset something or other I read about on the internet...that didn't work either...

My monitor is AOpen, my tower has a BioStar label on it and I use the Windows XP operating system...I can't tell you anything else about it because I can't remember anything else about gigabytes, memory or anything...

This is an older computer...prolly about 6 yrs old and has had some repair work in the past when it would not boot up properly, it would continually go thru the boot up process...repair guy said it had some hard drive issues...he had to do a recovery I think, as when I got it back a lot of things had changed and he had saved my documents, email stuff and my quicken program...which I desperately need since I've filed for a tax extension...so I'm in quite a pickle now cause like a lot of ppl I don't have my files backed up properly...urgh!

Hope someone can help me:(

anything else for you to try. You have done what most here would suggest, disconnect from the mains, press and hold down the Power On button for 30 seconds.

When there is absolutely no response from the system, no BIOS, no POST, (Power On, Self Test), or no maker's logo if you do not see the POST messages, then I can't even offer you the Ubuntu LiveCD method we use to boot up into Ubuntu Linux OS from a CD to see if that sees the hard drive, and if so, to enable you to copy off your personal files and so on.

I take it you have no backups?

That power failure may have fried the PSU, power supply unit, but don't take my word for that as my technical knowledge is slim.

In fact I can offer a way forward to allow you to get to the files as I've just seen this is a Desktop.

Open the case, disconnect the hard drive and pull it out, then go get some external USB hard drive enclosure, or even a set of USB to IDE/SATA conversion cables as shown in Amazon.com, connect those to the hard drive, and plug in to the mains, then connect that to the USB port of any other computer you have, and see if the hard drive is still working. If so, you can use Windows Explorer to find your files and copy them off.

But other than that a dead system like this needs repair shop repair.

Sorry.

Mark

Is the monitor connected? It could be loose. Sound rediculous but it's typical.

Well Mark, it's a good thang I'm a "Jill of all trades", cause I think I'm gonna try that...I am also a tight wad ...lol....I'd rather try that than take it to the repair shop for them to have it for wks on end and then charge me tons of money:)....It won't be the first time I've repaired something myself to save money....used to be trial and error but now that we have a world of information at our finger tips, it's amazing what one can do themselves if they just try...already looked it all up with Google and it looks simple enough, thanks to your few pointers! And it looks more like what I'd want to spend on this ole piece of junk....Junk that I desperately need the files off of!

Thanks so much,
Michelle

The reply to my post by jessimimi may well be relevant.

And in fact you mentioned it yourself. May be it's not the computer after all but the monitor? You said that the display flashes the AOpen logo, then goes to 'no signal detected' immediately.

I had similar myself a few weeks ago. My 2nd monitor, (dual monitor setup), was working fine then suddenly went black. The difference was the indicator light on the monitor was a steady green to show the signal was still getting through, but after doing all the tests I could I decided the monitor had failed and got a new one.

Do you have a spare monitor yourself? Test that monitor on this Desktop, and at the same time test this monitor on another computer, just to eliminate possibilities. Or friends, family, to test? It would be a shame to not do that first.

Strange I didn't think of it earlier.

Mark

Monitor, but considering the power light is yellow on the cpu, indicating sleep mode, then I'm pretty sure it's not the monitor...already ordered hard drive enclosure and conversion cables for less than 20 bucks and educated myself thanks to youtube on how to remove the hard drive:)

and let us know how you get on.

Mark

will do so...thanks so much for your advice...
Did manage to download some of my quicken info onto my laptop after I fixed an issue with it...stupid thang was telling me I was not an administrator...had to set up a new admin account and then it would let me download my backed up files on it...just not the most recent work done on desktop but better than no backup at all....still hoping the hard drive on desktop is not fried and I can transfer from it to laptop.

Good news...got my external hard drive case and removed the hard drive from my desktop...thanks goodness for google and youtube, hooked it up to laptop and found my files on the hard drive from my desktop...it was not fried, but I think it has some issues, however I was able to save all my documents and even transfer my itunes and quicken program files...what a lifesaver you guys have been ....not to mention a couple hundred dollars...just wanted to let ya know and to say thanks,
Michelle

and you're welcome.

Thank you for reporting back.

Mark