Need help! MY computer is DEAD!

[La Chaton]

Right now I'm on the laptop because the desktop is dead. I turned it on this morning and was on and then I left to get breakfast but when I got back it was completely off, and so was my wacom tablet. So I turned it on and nothing happened. I've checked the power strip and connection in back of the computer but it's not working. The monitor and light that are on the pwoer strip are still on but not the tower. When I hit the power button NOTHING happens. No lights or sound or anything. Yesterday when I turned it on the fans were working way over time and my tame computer geek said it may have shorted something from over-heating. I'm going to open it up now but I don't even really know what to look for.

Any help or advice would be GREATLY appreciated. Does anyone think the memory could be lost? That would suck too because I was going to get myself an external drive for my B-day in two weeks. Actually it would be beyond sucking, I would lose all of my pictures and music that aren't backed up anywhere...

 

[BlitzR]

The hard drives could be fine, do you hear them spin on?
Could be either the power supply or the motherboard. You could try another power supply maybe, not sure if it will work.

 

[Lilleput]

Do you have fans in the case? If they don't turn on it's the power supply. If they do turn on it's the CPU / Mobo.

 

[Finagle]

AFAIK, no matter which PC component is broken the PC should start. Except the PSU or mobo.



If the monitor lights are on I'm guessing that there is power in the socket. My money is on the PSU.

 

[La Chaton]

Yeah, we've opened it up and we think it's the power supply, so I think we're going to replace it.

Thank you for everyone's suggestions, they're very helpful!

edit: Okay, wait, now my dad said I have to look into which one to get so we can go to the store later and buy one. He told me to write down all the numbers I find on the computer and see which one comes up as psu. What? Anyone have a better way? There are like 500 numbers on just the psu alone.

 

[Lilleput]

Yeah, we've opened it up and we think it's the power supply, so I think we're going to replace it.

Thank you for everyone's suggestions, they're very helpful!

edit: Okay, wait, now my dad said I have to look into which one to get so we can go to the store later and buy one. He told me to write down all the numbers I find on the computer and see which one comes up as psu. What? Anyone have a better way? There are like 500 numbers on just the psu alone.

It dosen't sound like a monster computer you got so anything modular with 400+ watts.

 

[Buba]

Yeah, if its no ultra rig and noise isn't a big concern, just go ahead and buy a standard PSU, 400-500 Watts ATX, if its no dualcore and/or doesn't have a powerful gpu 300 might be ok...

 

[Posmo]

Just to be sure that its the psu, you could try this: http://www.gideontech.com/content/articles/196/1
That way you can eliminate the motherboard from the equation, to see which one is broken. Although my money would be on the PSU

 

[Wizegui]

/\ I never realized people named their computer... The same thing happened to me unfortunately 2 years ago when I built my current rig. The PSU completely died, and the damn thing just wouldn't work. I had to eventually wait several weeks for my PSU replacement. After the PSU installation, all was well and nothing has went wrong since. Good luck, hope you can save your desktop.

 

[Posmo]

/\ I never realized people named their computer... The same thing happened to me unfortunately 2 years ago when I built my current rig. The PSU completely died, and the damn thing just wouldn't work. I had to eventually wait several weeks for my PSU replacement. After the PSU installation, all was well and nothing has went wrong since. Good luck, hope you can save your desktop.

Sure, we name our computers! Mine is called "7 year old dell piece of shit"
The only time I ver experienced a psu blowout was in one of the computer "labs" at our school. Some wiseass had switched the voltage knob thing at the back of the psu from 230V to 120V. I went on the computer, pressed the main switch, heard a bang, saw a flash and some smoke, and all the lights in the room went out !