Hi
I was away from home last week and got back to find my trusty PC won't start.
My son was the last to use it and says that he was playing a game when the screen went blue (BSOD?).
He tried to restart it. Apparently for the next few startup attempts it got as far as the windows 'there has been a problem....do you want to start in safe mode..la, la, la...' with the countdown timer.
The eventually even this did not appear so he gave up.
So then I got home and found that it doesn't even boot to the Bios now. Nothing, nada, nitche.
I can press the power switch and it comes on. The fans come on the case, Mobo and PSU, the hard drives give their customary wind up noises that seem fine.
But it doesn't get to the trusty 'beep' as the Bios comes in. There is nothing on the screen (the monitor doesn't even flicker or register any output to it).
The Motherboard green light is on.
My first diagnosis was that there was a problem with the PSU - the on/off switch and the plug socket in it were both loose and 'sparky'. There was a lot of dust so I figured this had shorted.
I bought a new PSU from PCworld -( !). This didn't fix it.
So I'm not sure what the next thing is - either the 'sparky' PSU has blown the M'board, or the CPU has gone...?
I'd rather replace like for like than spend on a new set of Mobo/CPU/RAM. Just can't squander that kind of cash.
So should I try buying a cheap CPU first to see if it's that, or M'board - off eB ay?
Spec is in my signature. What could it be?
Thanks.
I was away from home last week and got back to find my trusty PC won't start.
My son was the last to use it and says that he was playing a game when the screen went blue (BSOD?).
He tried to restart it. Apparently for the next few startup attempts it got as far as the windows 'there has been a problem....do you want to start in safe mode..la, la, la...' with the countdown timer.
The eventually even this did not appear so he gave up.
So then I got home and found that it doesn't even boot to the Bios now. Nothing, nada, nitche.
I can press the power switch and it comes on. The fans come on the case, Mobo and PSU, the hard drives give their customary wind up noises that seem fine.
But it doesn't get to the trusty 'beep' as the Bios comes in. There is nothing on the screen (the monitor doesn't even flicker or register any output to it).
The Motherboard green light is on.
My first diagnosis was that there was a problem with the PSU - the on/off switch and the plug socket in it were both loose and 'sparky'. There was a lot of dust so I figured this had shorted.
I bought a new PSU from PCworld -( !). This didn't fix it.
So I'm not sure what the next thing is - either the 'sparky' PSU has blown the M'board, or the CPU has gone...?
I'd rather replace like for like than spend on a new set of Mobo/CPU/RAM. Just can't squander that kind of cash.
So should I try buying a cheap CPU first to see if it's that, or M'board - off eB ay?
Spec is in my signature. What could it be?
Thanks.