Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Powering On And Off

Feb 27, 2004 11:55PM PST

Hello,

I have a Compaq Presario 2100 series with Windows XP installed on it.. i'm not sure if this is the right place to post this but i'll ask it anyway;

My computer will power on for about 3 seconds and then power back off.. and then repeat this pattern until you take out the power cord from the back..

Any ideas on what could be wrong?

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Re:Powering On And Off, but is it broken?
Feb 28, 2004 9:42PM PST

It's unclear if its broken or not. Some machines do that on shutdown and a review of the XP Shutdown Article two clicks from http://www.aumha.org/articles.htm would be helpful. But if it never boots, then disregard that and tell if its broken.

If under warranty, call it in.

If not, cry a little and try this. Unplug and remove any part you can. Reassemble and try again...

Bob

- Collapse -
powers on then powers off...repeatedly
Feb 18, 2011 8:52AM PST

I had the same problem with my 3 yr old HP Pavilion desktop. After putting it into sleep mode I could not wake it up. After powering it own manually it would not start up properly. It began to power up, but after about 4 seconds shut down. Then began to power up, then doff. It repeated this over and over. I tried to remove the power cord, all USB inputs, the keyboard, monitor, etc. Nothing helped. I opened it, cleaned the fans(which needed it) but still no luck. Finally, I replaced the lithium back up battery for the BIOS (CR 2032, in my case)and voila, that was it. I had to reset the date and time, but other than that everything was back. Hope this helps.