Any pointers, before I start.....

[johnny_t]

For my home computer, I have a reasonably cheap and cheerful eMachines 210, which is about 30 months old.

Last night, when shutting down, I noticed that it appeared to be closed down, but the machine was clicking and the hard-drive light pulsing on and off, as well as a light on the USB modem. This eventually slowed down and then stopped.

My son was playing on it today, and the computer went dead but with the lights pulsing as before, though it wouldn't stop this time, so my only option was to take the kettle lead out.

Now the computer is completely dead. Won't power up, won't do nothing. Its as if it has no power to it at all, so I am going to start with basic stuff like fuses, both internal and external, but has anyone else got any tips as to how they'd start the fault-find on this ... ?

 

[Igorian]

Sounds like the PSU is dead or one of the powered devices has died, leaving a short circuit. Try unplugging all USB devices and then remove power to all drives (leaving only power to motherboard). Now try powering up.

Also see this thread.

 

[2scoops0406]

Any pointers before I start ..... That could be a very sad developers "joke"

 

[Igorian]

Hello Ed. Where have you BIN 2?

 

[2scoops0406]

Hello Ed. Where have you BIN 2?

0 1 knows. The answer of course being the 0x0 tower (of London).

 

[johnny_t]

Well there was a dead PSU, but unfortunately not the whole problem. The computer gets power now, but doesn't start up.

When it is powered up, the hard disk light pulses away, but the hard disk is not doing anything (you can feel from the case that there is no action inside), so I swapped out the hard drive and the same thing happens. I also tried a graphics card in a spare slot, but nothing doing.....

It is one of those computers where almost everything else is on the motherboard, so it looks like a motherboard swap next. Yippee !!

 

[Igorian]

It looks like you may have been very unlucky, however, it might be worth powering up without any drives connected and all cards removed (ie, just the board and video connected. Also, reset the bios at the jumper or by removing the battery for a short time.

 

[ali68]

I had the same problem, new PSU powered up but nothing else, I removed the processor and refitted and the machine then booted up. Had no probs since.

 

[johnny_t]

Thanks for all the tips, but I handed it onto a friend who knows much more about computery-stuff than me, and it was pretty much all buggered. However, after changing the PSU, motherboard, processor as well whilst we were at it, reformatting the hard drive and reloading the OS, its all working now

Actually, it means I've now got effectively a whizzy new 2.8GHz computer for £130, so I'm fairly happy.