Dead in the water!

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B. Newman

SGF, Supreme Grumble Framer
Joined
Sep 5, 2001
Posts
4,855
Loc
Kodak, Tn. USA
I was working right along this morning - checked e-mail, etc, then went on about my business...

In about 30 minutes I came back by the computer, and glanced over to see if there was any new mail. The screen was black - so ok, it's "asleep" and I wiggled the mouse, and nothing...

Wiggled it again - nothing...

The little green light was on the "box" but no sound.

My husband (system analyst) said to unplug the power cord from the computer, wait 30 minutes of so then reconnect. I did that, but still nothing. And this time, no green lights on anywhere.

The CD/DVD tray will come out and go back in, but nothing else works.

Any ideas anyone?
 
I'm sorry to say, usually that's bad.. :(
If you're turning it on and are getting nothing, no splash screen from the motherboard BIOS or anything, then something in the box has died.

If it were my box, I'd take it apart and start disconnecting drives one by one while turning it on each time till it actually came up with some text on the screen. If it's none of the drives, then I'd go with the memory chips. If all that fails, then it could be the motherboard or CPU or the power supply. But that's about the only way to know at this point. If you've waited 30 minutes you know it's not a heat issue (or most likely not a heat issue any more).
 
Mine did that a few months ago. Turns out it was the "memory card" gone kaput. Wasn't very expensive to be fixed.
 
How about the monitor? Is the monitor's power light on? Check the monitor cable at both ends, to make sure it hasn't come loose. You can even try a different monitor, if you have a spare.

Sometimes, if it was moved, a video card can be knocked loose. Sometimes all you need to do is unplug, open it up, and re-seat the cards.

When you power it on, do you hear a beep noise a few seconds later? Does the hard drive blink much in the first minute, to indicate it's booting up?

Mike
 
If it weren't for the lights being on last night I would go through this checklist
  1. Primary power interface? Is it plugged in?
  2. Is it on a GFI that is tripped?
  3. Bad outlet (seriously, I have had to replace almost all mine at home)? plug a working light into the outlet.
  4. Is it a laptop? Pull out the battery, wait and reinsert it. I pull the battery, make a pot of coffee then go back, that's usually enough time!
  5. Press and hold the start button for a few seconds.
  6. Do you hear the POST beep when you press the start button?
Awful question, please don't answer yes... was there a grinding, grumbling sound prior to the "issue"? If so it could be a bad or dying hard drive.
 
Monitor seems to be working. When I unplug and replug the power cord on that, it comes on, then says "no signal."

No sound when I power off then on, the CD light blinks momentarily, then no lights at all. (It's a desktop pc.)

And no, no sound before it went off. And the plugs are fine, as everything else is working.

One thing that has been unusual the past few weeks is when I come in, in the morning, it will appear that it has restarted at some point during the night. The "start up stuff" is showing, etc.

Now, my husband has been working in the downstairs of the building on wiring in plugs, so I know sometimes he has had the power off... but not everytime this has happened, has the power been off.

Is that a clue?
 
Unfortunately, it sounds like the computer itself. (probably the motherboard, or part of the power supply)

I suggest following Steve's advice (above), as well as re-seating the memory chips and all other cards. (with the unit UNPLUGGED).

If it's a dell, it will open right up with no tools.
 
My previous computer died cause the fan did....Had to get a tech to retreive my old files.Not worth fixing,just replaced it. L.
 
Just so you'll know... it was the motherboard. The guy replaced it and we were up and running in less than 30 minutes!

thanks all!

("Motherboard"... sounds an awful lot like "mothership." It is not a term that rolls easily off my tongue! :) )
 
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