Of PC no-start condition and browser session information

[CudaMan]

The sitch:

- Main computer won't boot (built it myself in early 2020). The PSU tries to start but only gets as far as emitting a little click and getting the PSU fan going for half a second. No motherboard lights come on, no power to the case fans or anything else.
- My PSU passes the paperclip test (not a guarantee it's good, I hear)
- I have about 237 unbookmarked Chrome tabs open on that computer that I want to keep (ah the joys of ADHD)

So where is Chrome browser session data stored? As a file on the hard drive? In RAM? I have Chrome set to resume where I left off.

Trying to figure out my diagnostic next steps, but suspecting the worst (mobo fried itself).

For now I'm going to see if I can put my old computer's PSU in. It's 550W instead of the 650W I've been using on the newer PC.

(Ryzen5 3600, 2070 Super, old ASUS sound card)

[dodint]

If you have Sync turned on in Chrome you can login on another computer, go to History (Ctrl+H), select Tabs From Other Devices, and they should be listed there.

[Kchrpm]

- I have about 237 unbookmarked Chrome tabs open on that computer that I want to keep (ah the joys of ADHD)
Head asplode.

[Tom Servo]

On windows, at least, it looks like the current tabs are stored in

C:\Users\your username\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Sessions

It's not in totally human readable format, but I can see URLs in there. Hopefully that would be enough to recover if you hadn't already turned sync on to sync your browsing data to your google account.

[JoeW]

Bad ram could cause non boot. And bad CPU.

[Rare White Ape]

Yeah just open it and give it a clean, and make sure that all the major components are secured. This could solve your issue without needing to pay $$$.

From there if it doesn't fix it then do some deeper troubleshooting.

[CudaMan]

Getting back to this 5 weeks later...

(237 tabs is probably an exaggeration. Probably). :lol:

I bought a new PSU on sale, an EVGA BQ 600W bronze. This one fires up and gets the case fans going but the mobo 'BOOT' diagnostic light stays on after it tries to post. There's no monitor output to get into BIOS. I did previously remove the CMOS battery for a while to reset the BIOS, I forgot to mention that.

The only difference as far as what's hooked up now is the PCI-E soundcard, this new PSU didn't come with the little 4-pin connector that my old sound card uses.

Be interesting to see where this goes.

[Yw-slayer]

Did you have chrome browser sync turned on? In Edge (nojt sure about Chrome as I don't generally use it but it can't be THAT different), you can at least look at the last few opened tabs on other synced devices.

[CudaMan]

I fixed it. :? I started by unplugging the easiest, least-consequential part to unplug - the 2nd storage drive. The computer booted up fine. Turned it off, plugged the storage HDD back in, and it booted again and is still working.

Seems like PSU was the culprit but not sure why the hiccup when I first tried the fresh PSU.

Oh and all my tabs are here. :cool: Chrome says it can't update and suggests I re-install, which also gives me fear of losing my tabs progress, so I won't.

[Tom Servo]

This should work, I just tried it locally. Right click to the right of the "+" sign for a new tab, way up in the upper right (on my computer, it's the line of tabs, then a "+", then a small space followed by a down arrow and then the usual three Windows controls). One of the options should be "bookmark all tabs." Hit that and make a new folder for them. Then go into the Bookmark Manager and in the upper right of the page, there's a three-dot hamburger menu, one of the choices in that is "export bookmarks".

[Yw-slayer]

WIN

[JoeW]

It doesn’t make sense that you couldn’t get to the bios settings screen because of a storage drive issue. Typically if it’s a drive problem causing it not to boot you should be able to go into bios and change the boot drive default etc etc.

[FaultyMario]

This should work, I just tried it locally. Right click to the right of the "+" sign for a new tab, way up in the upper right (on my computer, it's the line of tabs, then a "+", then a small space followed by a down arrow and then the usual three Windows controls). One of the options should be "bookmark all tabs." Hit that and make a new folder for them. Then go into the Bookmark Manager and in the upper right of the page, there's a three-dot hamburger menu, one of the choices in that is "export bookmarks".

Awesome!

It works similarly on FF. But you have to right click on the ">" symbol to the left of the new tab icon to select all tabs and then you can bookmark them.

[CudaMan]

Yeah that's very convenient! Great tip.


It doesn’t make sense that you couldn’t get to the bios settings screen because of a storage drive issue. Typically if it’s a drive problem causing it not to boot you should be able to go into bios and change the boot drive default etc etc.

Yeah likely unrelated, I was trying stuff.

[Rare White Ape]

Have you tried…

Buying a Mac????????11111eleventyoldmeme