Frakking god damn Computer! It's dead, Jim!

[Frontier]

...So I turn on my computer tonight.

Only it won't turn on.

It sounds on, but the monitor just blinks it's little indicator lights back and forth.

I think, "oh, great, the video card burned out."

Only then I can't get my computer to shut down -- normally accomplished when I have to do so manually by holding in the power button. Cutting power from the surge protector after holding the button in and nothing occurs, I try to boot up again. This time it sounds like it's starting, then just totally quits...



So I'm pretty sure it's dead. Which pisses me the frak off.

Just wondered if anyone had any other ideas? Heard the power supply, mother board, are likely culprits...

I hooked my old one back up and am on it right now. I can't stay here, though. I've gotten too used to Vista and Dual Core and ISB 2... which most of my user files are, thankfully, on my external drive so getting at them is no issue.

*Sigh*

I guess I can be somewhat thankful this occured today -- black friday sales could net me a replacement for under $400 if I play my cards right. As if I have $400 though...



Oh well. The computer that just died was free, after all. I got a years use out of it. Put off buying a new system that long. And now I don't feel the need to get such an outrageous new-new system. A $400 one will do me now, since I don't game anymore. Sigh...

I need a drink. A stiff drink. I just installed my new DVDR drive I got for my birthday, was having fun with that, had everything tweaked just right and... poof. Gone.

*Sigh*

 

[Admiral Bear]

Open up the case, and look inside. Turn on the power and see if any lights on the motherboard light up, or if the heatsink fan starts to spin. If you get neither, then either the power supply unit or the motherboard has died. The fan may have died, but in the absence of mobo lights, this is immaterial.

You could buy a replacement motherboard as a first cheap option. Take your PC apart and fit your CPU, heatsink, RAM and video card to the new board. If it all works, then you know what it was. If it doesn't, then try a new PSU with the new board. I don't know what component prices are like in the US, but you're looking at probably about $140 for a decent mobo and 500W PSU.

 

[DRMidnite]

Had much the same problem. As stated above, my mother board gave up the ghost.

 

[Philo]

I'd be surprised if it's the motherboard and not the power supply. You should see if the power supply in your old one is compatible and swap it in.

 

[Frontier]

The two are apples and oranges. Nothing is cross-compatible.

Ah well.

Time of death, yesterday, 11:50 PM.

Thankfully, knowing this would one day occur, I've kept all my user files - pics, music, videos - on an external HD. So I've still got them. I'm just absent some programs, some customized options, and my e-mail accounts atm...

...Which is how I just uploaded my X-Mas avatar. Sadly, any "naughty bits" are obscured by text, but I'm sure everyone can use their imagination.

 

[Kryton]

Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

 

[Frontier]

Hey anyone know; aren't there two types of hard drives? Cause I tried to swap them out, my new one into my old machine, but the connectors for the ribbon cables where totally different, and it got me remembering something about two types of hard drives, kind of like BETA/VHS?

 

[Kryton]

The two most common types these days are EIDE (old-style traditional HDs) and SATA drives...which have a MUCH smaller cable configuration.

I think there are converter cables you can buy...but these days I mostly just buy external HDs that are USB 2.0 compatible.

 

[Captain Intrepid]

My condolences. My computer just died too. The hard drive went kaput on sunday. I'm going to take it in tomorrow morning, fortunately it's still under warranty. Lets see how good Apple's customer service really is!

 

[Cutter John]

Remind sme of my computer death over the summer when it started to simply refuse to turn on when I hit the power button.

Replaced the power supply. Helped for awhile. Replaced the power supply. Also helped for awhile.

By the third time when I'd pretty much replaced every componet that was more than a year old, I discovered that it was a problem with my old POS computer case and a bad power switch. *smacks forehead*

Well, at least I have spare parts now.

 

[Frontier]

Well, thankfully, I have my old one here. I had given it to my sister, but within 3 weeks, it stopped working for her. She asked me to fix it, but at the same time complains her husband spends too much time on it and not doing anything else. So I "didn't get around to it" for a while. Anywho, turns out the video card had fried somehow. Bought a new one 2 weeks ago on e-Bay, $15, and boom, all is well. Good thing I'd not fixed it earlier, and just fixed it now. Good timing. Hopefully a good black friday deal will net me a new machine at a good discount.