PC wont power up - flashing DRAM LED light

[psychocandy]

4 main reasons for not getting past POST - CPU, MB, RAM, PSU. Check your mobo manual if it has a facility (even a simple LED blink sequence) that would indicate at which part of the POST it fails. If it doesn't have any you need to start from the easiest to the hardest to rule out. Before you begin remove all unnecessary PCIe cards just in case:

RAM - just remove all the DIMMs and only install 1 (or the minimum amount needed according to your mobo manual also follow it in regards to which slot to install it there are often rules on that). cycle all of the DIMMs 1 by 1 until you find a working one, if none works, they are most likely not the source of your problem so move on.

PSU - You said that you already tried another PSU, I guess you used one with equal or higher power output and confirmed working, not some dusty old crap laying in the attic.

CPU - You can try to re-seat it and replace the thermal compound, but this is unlikely to rule it out, the only sure way to rule it out is to borrow a compatible CPU from another system yours, or a friends.

MB - visually inspect all of the capacitors for any sing of bulges on the top and/or leaks. This is the most often fault of MBs especially 3+ y.o. and used with low quality PSU. If all of them look OK, you should (and by the OP already did) reset the BIOS by either reseating the battery or pressing the dedicated button/short pins. If there is no improvement as with the CPU you have to look to temporary swap it with another.

If you don't have the capability to execute some of the above and it still fails - bring it to a PC repair shop for diagnosis.

If you fail to bring it up after all of the above steps, it's likely that more than one component or the whole system is fried. Best course of action is to buy new one, then try the old parts 1 by 1 on a working system to see which ones are working and either sell them on e-bay or give them away. I wouldn't try to use components that where part of a system suffered multiple components failure for a new system.

RAM - done that.
PSU - brand new one off amazon.

CPU - hmm dont have another.
MB - done a BIOS reset. No difference. Looks ok to me.

Since both MB and CPU are old anyway I think replacement is going to be the best bet.

So any recommendations for ATX MB and CPU?

[eek]

RAM - done that.
PSU - brand new one off amazon.

CPU - hmm dont have another.
MB - done a BIOS reset. No difference. Looks ok to me.

Since both MB and CPU are old anyway I think replacement is going to be the best bet.

So any recommendations for ATX MB and CPU?

Budget and purpose of the computer?

[psychocandy]

Budget and purpose of the computer?

Don't want to spend loads. Don't play games so just something for general use/business/web really.

Looking at AMD FX ranges - AM3+ slot cpus and corresponding mobo. £100 for cpu, £75 for mobo.

[northernladuk]

Why not just shell out 400 quid for a new Dell or something and have another 5 odd years of trouble free computing?

[BR14]

Why not just shell out 400 quid for a new Dell or something and have another 5 odd years of trouble free computing?

+1

[eek]

Why not just shell out 400 quid for a new Dell or something and have another 5 odd years of trouble free computing?

+2. It's really not worth building a machine for your requirements...

[WTFH]

£250 you can have my old Dell with 1TB of HDD, enough ram for Win10 and a fully legal copy of MS Office Pro 2013 (not sure how many people on here have ever actually owned one of those)

[psychocandy]

£250 you can have my old Dell with 1TB of HDD, enough ram for Win10 and a fully legal copy of MS Office Pro 2013 (not sure how many people on here have ever actually owned one of those)

Got plenty of HDDs spare, plenty of spare RAM and a subscription to O365.

[eek]

£250 you can have my old Dell with 1TB of HDD, enough ram for Win10 and a fully legal copy of MS Office Pro 2013 (not sure how many people on here have ever actually owned one of those)

I suspect that once you've sold on that copy of MS Office Pro 2013 it won't be a legal copy...

[sal]

Don't want to spend loads. Don't play games so just something for general use/business/web really.

Looking at AMD FX ranges - AM3+ slot cpus and corresponding mobo. £100 for cpu, £75 for mobo.

AMD (pre-Ryzen) is tulip, lack of built-in GPU takes the price of a low end system on par with core i3/i5

Just get a cheapo second hand laptop with busted screen and "dock" it, or:

Why not just shell out 400 quid for a new Dell or something and have another 5 odd years of trouble free computing?