So my PC is dead....

[Harsky]

I turned on my PC and the fan was running..... but the PC is not working. Nothing. I'm trying to look on the bright side and hope that the hard drive is still okay. Now I took the HD out and am thinking of getting something like this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BRAND-NEW-USB-IDE-Ex...1QQcmdZViewItem

But if I put my HD into that, will it really show up what was on my HD (provided that it's still okay) as if it was on my old PC?

 

[lookout]

I wonder how you reply back here?....

if you took your hd out and the computer up to bios - your computer fine and your hd could be dead?
if you took your hd out and the computer didn't boot - your computer in poor power and your hd still alive.

 

[legendofphil]

It will show up as a normal drive in windows (or whatever your OS is).
All your data should be on it, unless it needs to format the drive to work, which is unlikely.
I just bought a NAS enclosure and it only works on the USB side

, so its going back.

 

[shaunj66]

Make sure your hard drive is IDE before buying a IDE USB enclosure. You might need a SATA one depending on your HDD.

If you HDD failing is the reason for your PC "not working" then putting it into the enclosure won't magically resurrect it.

What is the actual problem when booting your PC? Does the computer even POST? Do you hear any beeping? (Assuming your internal speaker is connected).

 

[Critical_Impact]

That should allow you to retrieve your files but it wont fix the problem if theres something wrong with the hard disk or the motherboard/cpu/ram. I dont know how experienced you are but i'd suggest taking out a stick of ram, seeing if it boots, then take out all the hard disks, then cd roms, etc untill it boots, basically try to eliminate everything.

I'd say it'd be the power supply or graphics card that has died or you could even try reseting the cmos by pulling out the cmos battery and see if that helps.

 

[Harsky]

I AM POSTING THIS MESSAGE THROUGH THE POWER OF MY BRAIN! Just kidding. My wireless router is still working and I'm posting this through my laptop. Anyways, I took my HD out of the PC and turned it on..... absolutely nothing. Not even the fan is working. Although BEFORE I took the HD and I turned it on, it sounded REALLY abnormal almost the equivalent of a car engine doing trying to start up but can't. It wouldn't even boot to the bios. All I'm just trying to do at the moment is try to back up as much files onto my laptop before finally submitting it for repairs.

 

[Athlon-pv]

power supply fan spinning ?

If so it might be your mainboard/cpu.
If you have a manual for the atx powersupply u can (i can be mistaken so you have to double check) connect the green wire to the black (on the PSU). and turn the power on.

Have to verify (google) that the green wire is the fan (ofcourse have to disconnect it from the mainboard).

If you have a spare HD to install windows on (if you need to replace mainboard and dont have the same brand) or another computer to connect it to (on other ide connector) you can see the data.

Once you try and use windows from your old HD windows will do weird stuff

maybe someone here tried that before

 

[thieves like us]

do you get any lights or any other indicators when attempting to power up the pc? if not, and as you stated, your psu fan is not spinning, you've probably blown the psu.

even without a harddrive, you should still be able to get the pc to power up and get into the bios screen. if you've had a recent power surge, there's a good possibility that you've damaged one or more components other than the psu, so I would be careful and as one of the other members suggested, remove unnecessary components to try and determine what is still good and what's not.

in a semi-related note:
I tossed in a new hdd last night and installed RC1 of vista. pretty nice looking with its glass-like semi-transparent window frames and the aero interface.

 

[Athlon-pv]

if its only the PSU thats rather cheap to replace

Make sure u get a good brand

.

Btw If mainboard or cpu is dead PSU fan wont work either

.

 

[sandreezy]

yeah your motherboard is fried, your PSU is brokin, or your HDD is dunzo. 1 of 3 is your problem. if your bios never came up good chance is that your mainboard is fried. your battery on your mother board does nothing but keep track of time for the system clock, and hold your bios settings, so if the battery died, your bios will still come up

and yes you will be able to back your files up with the device you linked. all that thing does is take your IDE or whatever SATA drive and turn it into a USB or firewire connection, so you can connect it to another PC as a mass stoarage device. FO SHEEZY!

 

[Harsky]

On closer inspection, I realised that the reason the fan wasn't turning was because the power plug was plugged into a mains that wasn't turned on. Anyways, the problem is still the same. Fan keeps whirring in a broken engine kinda way. NO indicator lights turn on. BTW, I never thought a situation like this would get me into so much trouble with my family. Mainly my sis for the loss of MSN and mainly from my dad who assumes that because I use the PC most of the time, I have the brainpower to fix it. I can't rule out one of my dad's theory that the Netgear DG834G wireless modem router could be to blame.

 

[fischju_original]

shouldnt you be posting this on like....the maximumpc.com forums? i doubt its your HDD at all, the bios would still work....if you have more than 1 stick of ram take the second out and replace it with the first, try all combinations. does it beep when starting? every pc has 1 beep if its works at startup

test your pcu outside of your pc (google it or ask at maximum pc forums while your there)

 

[Psyfira]

I know virtually nothing about hardware, but the dodgy-sounding fan makes that PSU sound a little suspect...

I can't rule out one of my dad's theory that the Netgear DG834G wireless modem router could be to blame.

Much love for the wild guess debugging.

They try so hard, bless 'em. Just tell him that the router works for your laptop so it isn't broken.

 

[Athlon-pv]

You should do things methodicly, check which fan , your computer could have up to 4 fans or more.

Open the case see which is stumbling, CPU, PSU, VIDEOCARD, check your computer before you start it. You can see the CPU and PSU fan unless you have some stupid case ....

Some videocard fans are crap. When you pull out the videocard you should hear beeping from the mainboard if you turn it on again (does not start without it).

Dont forget solving computer hardware problems is on 1 item per try fix only , if you try todo things all at the same time you never back track the problem.

 

[Harsky]

Well I went out and bought the IDE kit to connect my HD to the laptop and it works so it's safe to say that the problem is NOT the HD and something else. Me and my sis has pretty much teamed up and we're gonna split half the cost to buy a new PC. I think £500 would be good enough but can a decent PC be bought with that?

 

[djgarf]

if building your own pc then u will be able to have a really nice pc for £500

 

[Athlon-pv]

new mainboard is like really cheap to buy

, maybe ask a mate who done this before if he wouldnt mind taking a look at it , since it is obvious your to scared to look at the pc

.

 

[Kyoji]

Dont buy anything right now, its a weird time. The industry is transitioning from socket 478 to LGA 775, DDR2 is becomign standard, along with PCI-e x4 and x16 slots. AGP is out, so if you have an AGP card, stay where you are. Wait until the end of the year, or early next year when Intel comes out with its Quad Core chips, then snag a Core Duo for cheap.

 

[Harsky]

Well, I think it wouldn't hurt to try and gain experience in trying to fix it myself. Anyways, can someone summarise? How do I know if it's the fan or the mobo that's the culprit? The fan whirrs but the lights which normally tell when the PC is turned on or not doesn't work.

 

[Kyoji]

Remove the HD, any PCI/AGP cards, disk drives etc from the mobo. Boot it up, and if it beeps, take note of how many beeps it gives you. If it doesnt beep, take the RAM out, and see if it beeps. If it still doesn't beep, your mobo is brok'd.