This is my scenario:
The PSU is making a whining noise. It's a very high pitch noise, load enough to make it easy to hear it. It had been doing this for a while. I thought that I would buy a new PSU and replace the current one, as soon as possible.
I gave the computer to someone. When I had set it up I thought I'd change some BIOS settings:
- I turned on the feature which warns if the CPU temperature goes to high and I set it to shutdown the computer if it goes a fair bit higher than the warning. The temperatures (CPU etc) where at nice levels so it was simply a precaution for the future.
- I turned on the feature which shutdowns the computer if a fan stops working. I suspect that this was a mistake.
After rebooting the computer only starts for 1-2 seconds and then shutdowns. I suspect that it's detecting a broken fan, most likely in the PSU.
I'm not sure if the fan actually is broken, as the PSU is of the silent type which doesn't spin up the fan unless it's necessary. I can't remember if it always started the fan for a while when the power is turned on or not. At least now the fan isn't moving at all until the computer shuts down again.
I have some ideas on what to do:
- Buy a new compatible PSU and plug it in. Since the current one is making that high pitch noise it's most likely at the end of its life anyway. So even if it's not the cause of the computer not booting it's not a waste of money. Still, the computer did work even though the PSU was making a noise. On the other hand, if the PSU breaks it might take other components with it when it goes which would make the ordeal even more expensive.
- Reset the BIOS somehow. I can't get into the BIOS menu as the computer shuts down before that. I think there are two pins on the motherboard I can connect together to reset the BIOS, but I have to check the manual.
What do you think I should do?