Pc runs for 5 sec then shuts off, help

[Tannerm]

Its an HP Pavilion Elite m9340f. I click the mouse to turn on pc from sleep mode when it did this bullshit on off on crap. Basically, it starts up for 5 seconds (nothing happens on moniter, stays asleep), then shuts off for about 5 seconds, Then starts up again. Continues doing this on off on crap till i hold down the power button... This is the first lick of issues ive had in the ~2 years ive had it. I cant figure this out for the life of me...

[Tx Redneck]

Have you opened up the case and cleaned out the dust from the HSF lately?

What happens if you try a cold boot?

[Tx Redneck]

Any luck w/ this?

[Tannerm]

No sorry, I havent been on the boards recently... Started night shift and it fucked all my shit up. So far nothing. Outside of a good dusting and new power supply, its still actin a fool.

[Stunter Bob]

Im willing to be its the motherboard.
I had the same issue happen to my pc and it ended up being a bad motherboard.
You can probably pick up a cheap Azus board for around 80 bucks.

[Tannerm]

Ya but how proprietary is HP? Can i use any run of the mill MB or must I use HP's brand?

[Tx Redneck]

What's the make and model? Some use a standard mATX board.

[Tannerm]

HP Pavilion Elite m9340f

[CJ]

pull your ram and see if it signal beeps. If it doesn't your mobo shit the bed. If it does, replace only one of the dimms, and swap them out each time. From there remove peripheral cards and try to boot it each time. Should help you chase down the issue. What you are describing could be a shorted power switch, however not if it's looping. I would first trouble shoot the mobo as described above and move from there.

[Tx Redneck]

CJ, I worked on one right before Christmas that would beep w/out ram, ram tested fine and I tried some other known good ram just to rule out any odd chance that it would stop working w/ the ram that it worked w/ prior. Tried a known good PSU and everything else but the processor and I wasn't gonna tear down one of my machines and harvest my C2D to rule out the proc.

@ power up, it would go to a sleep state(pulsating power light) w/ all fans on and no display. The customer decided on me recovering all their data and took their 18month old Gateway FX doorstop home.

I'm pretty sure it was the mobo but didn't rule it out w/ 100% certainty.

[CJ]

CJ, I worked on one right before Christmas that would beep w/out ram, ram tested fine and I tried some other known good ram just to rule out any odd chance that it would stop working w/ the ram that it worked w/ prior. Tried a known good PSU and everything else but the processor and I wasn't gonna tear down one of my machines and harvest my C2D to rule out the proc.

@ power up, it would go to a sleep state(pulsating power light) w/ all fans on and no display. The customer decided on me recovering all their data and took their 18month old Gateway XPS doorstop home.

I'm pretty sure it was the mobo but didn't rule it out w/ 100% certainty.

It's not so much a definite diagnosis as it is an easy trick to rule out things. It's more geared at the event the motherboard doesn't beep - which would verify it's almost certainly toast.