Was trying to resurrect an old desktop for my wife's scrabooking hobby to run a gizmo called Wishblade. It's an old PII 350 running W98SE. Not really having any problems, cleaned off some old programs, added a wireless network card, put on some of her programs.

When I was all finished I went to shut it down so I could dissassemble it and carry it upstairs. Computer said it was OK to turn off the power, which I did.

Noise stopped (fans, hard drives) and the monitor went blank....BUT the lights on the front panel of the computer stayed on (green on light, hard drive light, turbo light).

Pulled the power plug and the lights still stayed on.

Pulled the CMOs battery and the lights stayed on.

So there is no power to the computer but the lights are staying on. I'm hoping that this is just a bad PSU. The fan in the PSU did not run when power was reapplied, but the computer would not respond to the on/off switch or the reset button either.

Time to upgrade or just a PSU swap out??

Thanks

If the fan in the PSU didn't spin up then I would have to say that it went south.

The CMOS battery isn't going to get voltage to the LEDs, and if the power cord is disconnected the only other source for voltage is going to be the capacitors in the PSU. It only takes 1.5V to light up those LEDs, my question is how long did they stay on? If it is still unplugged, and you still have the LEDs lit when you read this, we will need to call Ripley's.

Lights stayed on for quite a while, several minutes. I pulled the power cords to the motherboard and the hard drive. Some lights went out but not the hard drive activity light. Then it finally went out.

Now when I plug in the power cord the lights come up but no activity. Still does not respond to the on/off switch, but when I pull the plug the lights go out immediately.

Thanks,

Do you have an extra PSY that you can try in there to see if it really is the PSU the problem...

No, wish I did, would have made this call for help much easier. It's an old system and a replacement PSU shouldn't run me more than $30 to $60. So I might just go this route. Have to pull it anyway and I might just have someone look at it to see if it's bad.

If the fan in the PSU isn't running it is as good as toast.

Thanks to both of you....I have a place to start, and to keep my fingers crossed.