Oh crud, my computer refuses to boot, and I'm hopelessly inept at computer hardware.

Muzzmuzz

I have a two year old computer, custom built. Every few months, the computer screen goes blank (ranging from a sickly grey, to a dull orange), and when I try to reboot, it won't. The CD drive keeps whirring every few seconds, as if it were reading a non-existant disk,and I don't even get to hear the reasurring 'beep' Also, the monitor acts as if it's not connected to anything. When it happened before, I would simply remove the cover, blow out the dust, and wiggle a couple wires, and after a few tries, it would boot up, as if nothing were wrong.

Last night, it decided to freeze and refused to boot. Unfortunately, this time, nothing I do, whether its gently wiggling a wire, or making sure that everything is connected. I've almost gotten to the point of sacrificing a child to the Old Gods in order to get it to work. Any tips, or any ideas on what is wrong? As I said before, I'm a ditz when it comes to hardware, but I can follow step-by-step, instructions.

Donovan Puppyfucker

Sounds like your hard drive is kaput?

TychoCelchuuu

When you say it refuses to boot, what precisely do you mean? When you turn it on, what happens? Is it the "no beep, monitor acts like nothing is happening" thing? That doesn't really sound like a hard drive issue, because that's failing to get even to the BIOS. You can unplug your hard drive just to be sure. It sounds like maybe some of your RAM could be acting up. Try taking out all bu tone stick of RAM, trying to boot, then repeating the process for all of your RAM.

Ruckus

Sounds like the motherboard might be cooked.

Good news: Your harddrive is likely intact, so you probably haven't lost any files.
Bad news: Unless you can find a motherboard that matches your current CPU and RAM, you're going to need to buy all three new.

phoo

Because we don't know what is happening here, I'd also replace the power supply. If the motherboard is cooked, we don't know why it died and a bad PSU can definitely be responsible in some cases. Testing them with a volt meter does not always show the problem.

tsmvengy

Yeah I would guess PSU, that's been the cause when I've seen similar issues.

Skeith

I had something similar happen, but not the orange screen thing. Try a new PSU first-- if that doesn't fix it it's most likely the motherboard. It's also less of a pain in the ass to change out than a motherboard. Maybe you could try asking the person who put it together if they have a spare.

tsmvengy

Or depending on what brand PSU you have it may still be under warranty, send it back for a new one.

nescientist

One thing I would try, that doesn't require buying/borrowing hardware, is clearing your CMOS. There's probably a jumper for this, and if you have your motherboard manual you can follow its instructions, or you can unplug the computer and pull out what should look like a watch battery on your motherboard (there may be a little clip that you have to get at with a fingernail). As always ground yourself by touching something on the case before pawing at your motherboard with your statically-charged mitts. Leave the battery out for a minute and then put it back in.

If this solves your problem it may only be a temporary solution, since something has to be amiss for that to become necessary. Usually some BIOS setting or other (ie overclocking with the power of wishful thinking), but it can also be a hardware failure. When I had a machine that required this "fix" on a periodic basis, it turned out I had a faulty PSU. I only realized it when one day I popped the case to do this and found that my 20-pin connector was now an 18 and a half pin connector with bonus melted plastic.

phoo

Although I don't have alot of experience with it, the PSU could be having undervoltage as opposed to overvoltage. Most PSUs these days are multi-rail, which sounds nice, except they aren't true multi-rail and if too much power is drawn from one of the rails, it can cause a problem. No real way to know which connector goes to which rail either. If you have a super power video card or cards and the mobo on one rail, it could be a problem. I usually buy a PSU with just one rail to avoid this, so I do not know exactly what pattern this issue would look like.

I find it unlikely that resetting the CMOS would fix (or conversely cause) an issue like this, unless of course you've been tinkering with low level settings in there recently.

If this is a power supply issue, especially if it is overvoltaging or the wrong frequency, you should definitely keep it away from your hard drives until you determine the problem. It could absolutely fry them and then you'll lose your data too.

Muzzmuzz

Thanks for all the help guys, it`s much appreciated. Had a friend that was more knowlegable than I about such things take a look. Turns out, certain components were fried, and replacing them would be too much of a expense/hassle for me to replace the parts. Besides, it was a great excuse to splurge and purchase a brand spanking new gaming computer, which runs so quietly now.


Now my old husk of a computer lies on my dresser, looking pathetic. Any ideas on what to do with it? It doesn't have any personal info more critical than my email address/password, and that's already been changed.

phoo

There's nothing wrong with saving the hard drive. it can be put in your new box for extra storage room. You always think you'll never fill it all, but it always ends up chock full.

minirhyder

You can strip it for parts and eBay it, or bring it over to Staples to have them recycle it.

Skeith

Might as well hang on to the drives, and get one of those SATA hubs (looks kinda like a toaster). Extra storage and backups are always a good thing.

Irridan

Skeith wrote: »

Might as well hang on to the drives, and get one of those SATA hubs (looks kinda like a toaster). Extra storage and backups are always a good thing.

Seconding this. If you don't already have a backup, use the old drive to set it up.

azith28

Just remove the hard drive and trash/drop it off at staples. you could probably ask your friend to plug in your old hard drive into the new box and you can still access it just as extra storage.