Assessing the Situation

First, establish exactly what the problem is. Recognize that the first symptom you notice may only be part of a larger puzzle. For example, the odd little extra noise you hear when you start your PC may signal a straining hard drive. But the straining drive could be due to something else, such as a fan that has been clogged and barely functioning for a long period of time, causing a heat crisis for more than just the drive.

By looking not just at the most obvious symptom, but at what else may be related to it, you can keep your eyes open to more complex possibilities when assessing a problem situation.

Tip 

Once you’ve established that there is no immediate danger, try again to turn on the PC. A failing power switch, for example, might require you to press the power button firmly two or three times before you get a response.

What You Can Determine

When you press the power button, what do you get? Pay close attention. What you hear or see—or don’t hear or see—can influence what you do next.

You may need to remove your PC cover first to tell exactly what is or is not happening when you try to start the PC. Remove the cover using the steps described in Chapter 2, “How Your Hardware, Operating System, and Applications Work Together.” Don’t forget to have the power disconnected for the actual case removal and during any time you have your hands inside the unit. (You will, of course, be wearing your anti-static grounding wrist strap.)

If the PC appears to be completely dead, meaning you have no indication anything is happening when you try to power up the PC, look first at the power considerations discussed in this chapter. If the PC makes some of the usual sounds of booting up but you see no display, check your hardware connections. A loose connection between the monitor and the PC can account for this. This is also a smart time to analyze any changes you made to the PC in the session before this occurred. For example, adding hardware that is either not working or not installed properly could produce this result, especially if what you added was a new adapter in one of the available bus slots on your motherboard.

If the PC tries to boot and you see a display but the PC simply hangs there, going no farther in the boot process, it’s time to try the alternative booting methods discussed in this section.

Are you hearing lots of beeps? If this is coming from your PC rather than from something attached to your PC such as a printer or scanner that is fussing because the boot process is stalled, it’s likely that the beep codes built into your motherboard’s BIOS are alerting you to the type of problem the PC is having. Different makes and versions of BIOS have different beep codes, where four beeps alert you to one situation and six beeps tell you about another. Chapter 2 explained how to determine your make and model of BIOS. Once you know this, you can check the BIOS manufacturer’s web site using another PC to see what your beep codes mean.

Note 

This is an ideal time to review the basic PC bootup process described in Chapter 2. You might get clues there regarding your current situation.

Tip 

Have you had recent problems starting your PC? For example, did the PC not always respond the first time you pressed the power button? This can indicate everything from a bad power connection (where the wires coming from the motherboard to the power switch have been damaged or are no longer properly connected) to improperly installed or connected hardware to a failing power supply.