Computer won't start .....

[MikeJett86]

So this morning I left for school and left my computer running fine, it was doing it's usualy wine and groan from the fans, but i had gotten to live with them. When I hit the mouse to wake it up and nothing happened. I looked down at the tower and the hard drive LED was on and the CD Rom LED was on, just shining non stop. The fans were running because I could hear them. I tried hitting restart, no response. I tried hitting the power button and nothing happened. So I unplugged it and plugged it back in and started it up. Same thing. no picture on the screen, no POST beep. So I opened the box up and looked around, it's really dusty so i think i'll vacume it out tomorrow. But I tried removing all of the PCI cards, video cards, drives/etc to see if i could get a beep, nothing. So now I'm sitting here with my ipod looking at my dead computer that holds all of my music and various time waisting applicaitions. Can someone please offer some suggestions of fixing my computer? I'm looking for a short term fix (1-6 months) because I'm about to go to college and will be either building or buying a new computer.
Thank You
MikeJett

[Paleo Pete]

it was doing it's usualy wine and groan from the fans, but i had gotten to live with them.

When fans whine and groan, it's for basically the same reason wheels squeak, doors creak and groan, and the car makes that knocking sound...something is wrong and needs to be fixed.

In this case, it's all that dust inside you mentioned. That does two things.

1. Acts as a blanket. Dust holds heat in so the fans can't do an efficient job of cooling.

2. Clogs up heatsinks, resulting in the same thing, heat problems.

3. Gets inside the fans and gums up the spindles and bearings, slowing the fans down so they can't move enough air, again causing heat problems.

OK, so I was holding up THREE fingers to fool you... :D

Heat is the root of the problem, it sounds like motherboard or CPU has died, or power supply is weak and overheated. Video card could have gotten too hot and fried its chipset.
I'm afraid it's time for some serious troubleshooting and probably some repairs that will be more expensive than a $10 fan...First thing is to clean the dust out, then you'll probabaly have to check the CPU in another motherboard or take it to a shop that can test it for you.

Same for power supply, with lots of dust and heat, chances are it can be dead, to test it you'll need to try another one or try that one on a known working motherboard.

Also check the video card in a known good system. Just long enough to get a picture is all you need, no need to boot into an OS and have to install drivers.

Be sure you use a GOOD heatsink and fan to test your CPU if you try it yourself, a fan that barely spins will not cool it enough and could toast it entirely. Use heatsink compound, either the factory gunk or a thin film of something like Arctic Silver or other CPU heat transfer compound.

Once CPU, motherboard and power supply are tested, we'll go from there.

[Kumaiti]

I have a similar problem. However, sometimes the computer starts ok (the POST goes ok) and then a little latter it hangs and for a while it doesn`t work.

The fans are working, the computer is opened and I work in a quite cold room. I tried a bare-bone boot and still the same happens. I took out the processor for checking (I couldnt try it in another computer, thought...) and I think I messed with the cooling goo between it and the heat sink. Is it possible that only the lack of cooling goo is enough to make the processor don't work ??

Thanks.

[MikeJett86]

okay ... so as I was vacuuming out my computer I removed the processor to get to the cooling fan better and after taking off the fan noticed a mark on the processor it self right below where the fan blows on the chip (I have a PIII Slot mount) so I was wondering could this possibly mean that it's fried? thanx

MikeJett