| Author | Message | ||
     Rick_a |
My computer at home took a dump. Apparently it died in its sleep last night. Last night it shut down normally like any other time...wasn't doing anything strange. This morning it shows no sign of life...won't turn on. We've had it for a couple years. What are the usual culprits? We've checked all the simple stuff. The same thing happened to our last one. It's an E-Machines, BTW. | ||
| Wile_ecoyote |
Lightening last night? Might have fried it while you slept. Do you have a surge protector? The cooling fan might have been blocked allowing the heat to build. My .02 worth. Dude your gettin a Dell! | ||
| Reepicheep |
Power supplies are the most common thing to fail. You can probably get a new one for $20. Not other good ways to test them, unless you have another machine laying around with the same supply and can swap them. If not the powersupply, its probably the motherboard. Look at the larger electrolytic capacitors on the motherboard. They look like little beer cans, and are aluminum bodied with plastic sleeves, probably 1/2 to 3/4 inches tall. Are any bulged out? Are the tops convex? Are they "lifted" off he surface of the motherboard? White crusty stuff somewhere? I've lost *way* too many motherboards to blown caps... the caps go, so input is unfiltered, and some other semiconductor then takes it in the shorts. I tried repairing one, it was a waste of time and money. | ||
| Froggy |
Any lights or sounds? Beeping or fan noises? Flames shooting out the back (happened to my own about 3 or 4 times)? I would gladly stop by and take a look at it for you, but you are in the wrong corner of the country  | ||
| Snowscum |
Power cord probably fell out. | ||
| Barker |
buy a mac | ||
| Brinnutz |
Macs die too | ||
| Oldnslow |
My money's on the power supply. | ||
| M1combat |
PSU would be my guess... Try opening the case and unplugging the power from the hard drive and CD-Rom. Try the power button. Take out the memory (5" long sticks, side by side) and try again. Take out all of the expansion cards and try again. Keep doing this. If you get to a bare motherboard (leave the 20/24 pin power plug plugged in) then it's either the mobo or PSU. Do you get a green LED on the mobo? If not it's almost certainly the PSU. Dell has great deals on good computers. | ||
| Rasmonis |
If you press the power button and get nothing - no light no sounds, the fan does not start, check your power cable (swap with the monitor cable). If it still doesn't work, chances are you need a new power supply. The next thing to check would be the capacitors like reepicheep said. | ||
| Rick_a |
No Lightning. Have a surge protector. The only sign of life is the green LED on the motherboard. Tried putting the jumpers in "reset" and "recovery" positions, but it's a no go. None of the capacitors are bulged or otherwise damaged physically. Power cord is good (already checked all the simple stuff). M1 I'll give that a shot, thanks. Thanks everyone for your suggestions. My wife thinks it's software related (similar thing happened to a family member), but I'm not convinced. I've had a hard drive crash bad on another computer and was able to recover it through the bios and reformatting it. I've never seen a software issue completely cripple a computer but I don't know that much about 'em, either.
Don't I know it. Right now I'm supporting four (including a baby) on a small paycheck. I'd need a real good payment plan. | ||
| Froggy |
Hey rick, its possible your power button is broken, try following the wire for it to the motherboard and then disconnect it from the motherboard and use a screwdriver or something to jump the 2 pins. | ||
| Rick_a |
I've jumped that and the reset switch, too. Thanks. | ||
| Reepicheep |
Pull component by component and try re powering up as each is removed. It's rare, but I have seen bad ram or a blown CPU do exactly what you describe. It could still be the power supply as well. You can slap a DVM on the leads to your drives and look for the +5, + and - 12. More often then not though, your symptoms show a blown motherboard, with possibly a blown CPU. Post details on exactly what type of machine it is (CPU and motherboard)? You might only be $150 or less from a replacement motherboard with equivalent processing speed. | ||
| Mikej |
Got a relative who's computer just did the same thing. Same relative who picked up a computer virus of some sort last year that the repair place she took it to got infected bad. My Guesses: 1. bad power supply or blown fuse or fusable-link someplace. 2. new nastier type of virus that somehow gives symptoms of a blown power supply. Probably called the *-plague or something. | ||
| Reepicheep |
It's not likely a virus, you have not even loaded the OS when things are crashing. In theory a virus could have destroyed the BIOS, but that would be staggeringly rare and a pretty difficult attack to pull off. | ||
| Mikej |
I'm jus' sayin'  (but I suspect the next big wave of viruii will be attacking before security software can start up, just speculation on my part though as I listen to the rumors of fleas whispering in the corners....) | ||
| Rick_a |
I tried disconnecting components 'till down to the motherboard with the necessary connections in place. Still a no go. I found a bunch of stuff on Consumer Reports about these computers. Apparently it's pretty common for the power supply to zap the motherboard with a death blow. The motherboard is an Intel. Now, can the hard drive contents be recovered?
Even then you'd expect for at least the power LED on the front panel to come on. | ||
| Froggy |
Rick, assuming the power supply didn't zap the drive, it can be recovered no problem. Just put the drive in another computer and you should be able to access the files like normal. | ||
| Reepicheep |
Or buy one of those 3.5" usb external drive enclosures. $25-$35, and handy to have around after the fact. Just pull the drive from the dead computer, slap it in that enclosure, and hook it up with a USB port to another machine. If it's a laptop, you have a 2.5" drive, a desktop will have a 3.5" drive. Each has different size connectors, and they make external USB drive enclosures for both, just get the right one. If you get it wrong, there are passive cables that will convert one to the other for another $3 to $15. | ||
| Rick_a |
Thanks a bunch guys. I appreciate all the input. This computer will not go to waste...it will make a fun shotgun target  |
