whats it mean when my computer does this.

There may be a problem with one of the drives; often if there is an excessive load (or not enough), the PSU won't power on.

For minimum configuration, you need only the RAM and a video card.

If you don't have a keyboard hooked up, the computer should beep at you (you might have to plug a speaker into the mainboard if it doesn't have a built-in one), the same if there isn't a monitor hooked up.

If that doesn't happen, then you might have a short from the mainboard to chassis, or there is an internal problem on the mainboard.
 
You have not mentioned whether you changed the CMOS battery. As I already said, that is the only thing that would have deteriorated over the non-use period (unless you got an infestation of those spiders that caused the Mazda car recall!).

If there are no further suggestions that work, you are looking at a new motherboard. At that point you have nothing to lose changing the battery. I can't find a definitive answer as to whether a PC should boot without one. I would have thought that it should start OK but at this point I cannot confirm that every PC will.

The disadvantage of changing the battery is that you probably did not bother to copy the BIOS settings and those will be lost when the battery is removed (assuming the battery is still working). You would have to go into the BIOS and sort the settings out.
 
Frankly I googled and look for this battery but can tell what exactly it is on my board. I don't really want to just start unplugging things either.
 
Take the little watch style battery out and look on it for the type. Go to any computer store or look on ebay. Replace. That is probably all you needed to do.
 
I'll do this tonight when I get home.

Is there an explanation as to why though? How is that battery causing everything except for my "accessories" to work?

Assuming this is the right one, I removed what looks like a circular battery, on it reads

CR2032
+
newsun
3V
Lithium cell japan STD
 
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merfolk smash said:
I'll do this tonight when I get home.

Is there an explanation as to why though? How is that battery causing everything except for my "accessories" to work?

Assuming this is the right one, I removed what looks like a circular battery, on it reads

CR2032
+
newsun
3V
Lithium cell japan STD
Click to expand...

You can find CR2032 button batteries at any *mart; usually somewhere near the camera department.
 
merfolk smash said:
....Is there an explanation as to why though? How is that battery causing everything except for my "accessories" to work?
Click to expand...
The battery maintains the BIOS settings (not the basic BIOS which is flash memory and is never lost) and the Real-Time Clock (RTC) when the PC is completely powered down. During boot POST, once the power supply has been verified as working OK, the "Power OK" signal from the PSU latches the "PSU On" (from the On button) in the run state. That in turn latches the "Power OK" signal high and the main power is turned on.

While the "Power OK" is low, the CPU clock is suppressed. Once high, the clock is allowed to run and a pulse is sent to the CPU to continue to boot. As far as I know, if the CPU clock is not working, it will not stop the boot. Not being a MB designer I don't know if some MBs are designed so that if the battery is low the PC won't boot.

The battery should be changed every so often (which is why you should manually record your BIOS settings). If your PC is screwed, that's a good time to change the battery regardless. It may not help your problem but it's only a couple of bucks.
 
Nanobyte said:
The battery maintains the BIOS settings (not the basic BIOS which is flash memory and is never lost) and the Real-Time Clock (RTC) when the PC is completely powered down. During boot POST, once the power supply has been verified as working OK, the "Power OK" signal from the PSU latches the "PSU On" (from the On button) in the run state. That in turn latches the "Power OK" signal high and the main power is turned on.

While the "Power OK" is low, the CPU clock is suppressed. Once high, the clock is allowed to run and a pulse is sent to the CPU to continue to boot. As far as I know, if the CPU clock is not working, it will not stop the boot. Not being a MB designer I don't know if some MBs are designed so that if the battery is low the PC won't boot.

The battery should be changed every so often (which is why you should manually record your BIOS settings). If your PC is screwed, that's a good time to change the battery regardless. It may not help your problem but it's only a couple of bucks.
Click to expand...

Thank you for this, I'll do my best to pick one up in the near future.

Also note, while pulling the CMOS battery out I noticed a three prong plug next to it (three prongs in a horizonsl line sticking up for a plug to be plugged into, it says something regarding CMOS printed onto the MB, but the plug that's plugged into it has no wires attached to it, and the plug is only a two prong plug.

Does this make any sense
 
merfolk smash said:
....while pulling the CMOS battery out I noticed a three prong plug next to it (three prongs in a horizonsl line sticking up for a plug to be plugged into, it says something regarding CMOS printed onto the MB, but the plug that's plugged into it has no wires attached to it, and the plug is only a two prong plug.

Does this make any sense
Click to expand...
That will be the clear jumper to clear the BIOS while powered down without removing the battery. Typically used if the BIOS password is corrupted.

I note again from my earlier post that changing the battery will return the BIOS to default so you will have to reconfigure on the first boot. If the battery is already flat, you've lost the BIOS settings anyway.
 
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