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My desktop PC doesnt't turn on after I shut it down by using the power switch. If I don't use power switch to turn off the PC, it will turn on properly.

Also, when I try to turn it on the mouse lights up but the fans don't spin and there are no lights illuminated on the front of the computer.

To test this problem I removed the power cable 3-4 times for 10-20 seconds, and sometimes by doing this the fans start spinning and the light on the front of the PC turns on. There is no display for 5 seconds, then the manufacturer name appears, and the PC starts beeping every 2-3 seconds.

I suspect this is because of the HDD not being properly connected. After some time a black screen or Windows logo appears with no dots spinning. After this I restart the system and the same problem persists.

In another test I hit the case which moves the wire and HDD so it is detected and the result is that the system boots smoothly.

Also, the hibernate function fails to load when I do that, and all my work is lost. This process eats up nearly 30 min of my day.

thanks @Kalamalka Kid for rephrasing.. i have very little experiences with these technical things

MONISH MONNAT
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2 Answers2

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There is no display for 5 sec then the manufacturer name pops up and the PC starts beeping every 2-3 secs..

The beep code pattern is the first step to investigate. Sometimes it's as straight forward as reseating the GPU or RAM modules.

The beeps are diagnostic beep codes that are part of the power-on self test (POST). There are a variety of hardware "things" that can trigger these beep codes, such as the CPU, GPU or a RAM module(s) being poorly seated/failing/missing, power supply issues, etc. Motherboard/computer manufacturers typically include the beep codes and their descriptions in the manual.

One quick thing you can try is to unplug the power cable (as you've already done) and press the power button a few times while the computer is off and unplugged. This discharges the capacitors. Sometimes this can fix wonky boot issues.

However, I would advise against "hitting the case" as a troubleshooting method. This can knock other things/cables loose and you might end up causing a completetly new issue without realizing it. In addition, internal HDD's aren't (usuallly) as robust as laptop HDDs in terms of tolerating impacts.

I think Kalamalka Kid is on the right track and I agree that you should try using a different SATA cable and/or SATA port on the motherboard.

Since you're zeroing in on the HDD, try unplugging the HDD completely (unplug the SATA cable from the motherboard-side, and unplug the power cable from the hard drive) and see if the computer still beeps or has trouble getting to the point where it says it can't find a boot device or tries booting from the network (PXE boot) etc.

  • If you're still hearing beep codes with the HDD unplugged, that still doesn't guarantee that the HDD is without issues; an intermittenly failing HDD (that isn't triggering POST beep codes) and poorly seated RAM (that is triggering POST beep codes) can exist simultaneously. If you have the means, test the HDD using a different computer.

You can use a tool like CrystalDiskInfo to see if the drive is reporting any SMART errors (that is, if/when you can boot into Windows). If you do see SMART errors, it might be time to replace the HDD.

Paul π
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Since the issue seems to be hardware related there are a few issues that come to mind (bad cable, loose connection, failing HDD). I would suggest a few things to troubleshoot your problem:

Test the cables

Trying out some new cables for your HDD could help since physically hitting the case to jiggle the wire seems to give you a positive result.

If your HDD is external it should be easy to replace the cable to test this, however if it is an internal HDD, you will need to open up the case and replace the SATA cable that connects to the motherboard.

If replacing the SATA cable that connects to the motherboard does not work, you can try connecting to another SATA port on the motherboard to test if the issue is with the SATA port.

Clone your OS

If your issue persists after all of this it might be indicative of a failing HDD, in which case your best option is to clone your data onto a new drive and test again.

Kalamalka Kid
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