Re: system won't boot - but various lights on

OhioGuy wrote:
I'm trying to set up a new system for my Dad. Note that it is not a PS/2 system, but you guys were so helpful with the issues I had with the model 60, that I was hoping I could bounce a couple of ideas off of you.

System is 100% new, except for the case, which is about 4 years old. I replaced power supply with a new Antec Earthawatts. Motherbord is an Asus m2a something or other. (I'd look, but I'd have to wake my kids up) Video is onboard ATI 690g, and also has onboard sound and lan, etc. No cards installed on the mboard.

I had tried getting it set up a few weeks back, but the cpu heatsink had become dislodged during the drive up. Somehow, the Seagate hard drive died, and I needed to get it replaced under warranty.

After installing that, I tested the system at my place. I booted up using Hiren's Boot CD and the Ultimate Boot CD, and ran various processor, memory and hard drive burn in and testing programs - a minimum of a couple of hours testing each component.

Everything passed, so I installed Windows Vista. It booted up, and the system ran fine. Since Vista was rather new to me, I poked around in there for an hour or so, and during this time the system did not exhibit any issues.

After getting up here to my parents' place, I first opened up the case and made sure that the heatsink was still in place. I also checked all of the internal cables, memory and such.

Then I hooked up all the necessary cables in the rear - video, power, printer, mouse, keyboard, sound, etc. I had the rear power switch in the off position. Strangely, I then noticed that some of the lights on the front of the unit were on. I double checked the power switch on the back, and sure enough it was off.

Everything is coming from the same outlet, and the same power strip. I switched the power strip off, and the lights went off. I then put the computer's rear power switch in the on position, and switched the power strip on. Same result - several lights on. (this includes the hard drive light, one of the two optical drive lights, and the light on the front of the internal card reader/front USB)

I then pushed the front power switch on the computer, and got absolutely no change. This seemed very strange to me, because the system had booted up fine at my place. Of course, then I realized I hadn't had any rear USB items hooked up, so I proceeded to unhook all of them.

Lo and behold, there were no more lights strangely on when everything should be off.

It was very late, and I had to suspend my investigation at that point, to resume later this morning. However, it seems that this issue may have something to do with the external devices hooked up to this system.

My plan is to hook these back up, one at a time, and see if/when the issue resurfaces. Hopefully I can isolate it to a single device, or perhaps a single USB port.

Has anyone ever run into an issue like this before - where a system boots up fine, but not after things are hooked up to the back of the PC? If you've especially run into the lights issue like this, I would especially like to hear your thoughts on what might be going on.

Thanks!


I have had a problem with an external hard drive connected to the USB port on my computer when booting. If I remove the cable the computer boots fine and I can then plug in the external drive and it works fine. The first time this happened I replaced the drive under warranty and for a short time this behavior went away but then came back. I am assuming the problem is either with the circuitry or with the BIOS. Since its working I haven't spent much time diagnosing it.
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