I'm having a major issue with my PC. A red light has started blinking on my motherboard, and my PC won't turn on. There's no display, and my mouse and keyboard aren't lighting up – only the fans and lights inside the case turn on briefly. After about a minute, the PC restarts itself, and this loop continues. I've tried troubleshooting everything I could find online. Can anyone help me diagnose what the problem might be and what this red light indicates?
4 Answers
The red light on your motherboard is likely an error indicator, which could give clues about what's wrong. You might want to check your motherboard's manual for specific meanings. It would help to know what components you're using and what troubleshooting steps you’ve already attempted.
I faced a similar situation once. My PC kept rebooting, and it turned out to be the power supply (PSU). If you have access to another PSU, give that a try before deciding to buy a new one. It could save you some money and hassle.
So, you think the PSU is definitely the issue?
How old is your PC? If you use it heavily, it might be a dead CMOS battery causing boot issues. If your PC is around 3–4 years old, like you mentioned, that could be something to check on. I've seen this happen before when the battery wears out.
It's about that age, but I recently changed the motherboard. Would that affect the battery?
If this issue popped up out of nowhere, you might want to check your RAM. Sometimes one stick goes bad. Try pulling them out and testing each stick individually to see if the system boots up with one of them in.
Could you explain how to interpret the error codes from the light? I'm a bit lost.