My Computer Died Tonight

[Vulcan1600]

Thankfully I didn't install the full Dark Edge like I was thinking of doing!

Tonight around 9:00 my computer froze on me, thought at first it was the wireless mouse battery died. Nope, I had to force shut the computer down, and when I went to power it up, I can hear the fan running and it was looking in the DVD drive but the computer didn't come back on. I have determined that it's not a video problem. My hope is it is power supply is gone or going and it can't power up the hard drive. But, it could also be hard drive too, and if that's the case, I've lost a LOT of valuable data because I had no backups. So, I'm on my son's laptop computer for now. It might be a few days before I have any answers. CK was telling me if it is the hard drive there's ways of getting the data off of the HD. I wonder how much that would cost if it is hard drive.

The computer is less than 2 years old and is a Vista 64. What odds do you think it's power supply vs bad hard drive? Maybe I should start a poll.

 

[Vitticeps]

Are you getting any errors? Will it even boot far enough to get to the bios splash screen? If you can't even get that far it's probably the power supply. If it boots to the bios splash screen then fails to load the OS, it's probably the hard drive.

If the fans are running and the hard drive is spooling up, it's probably not the power supply. Still could be but at that point it's more likely either the hard drive or a RAM stick failing. Don't rule out bad RAM, they can fail just as easily as a hard drive and just as easily cripple a PC. You could try removing one stick and rebooting, then put that one back and try another, and so on till you've either ruled them all out or found your problem.

 

[texasPI]

That sucks! I just replaced the hard drive on my laptop and desktop yesterday. My laptop started making funny noises from the hard drive bay and I bit the bullet. I needed more space on my desktop so I replaced both hard drives (RAID) in it as it is where I backup everything up.

Hope it's something other than drive failure...

 

[Dave12308]

This might sound obvious, but disconnect the hard drive and see if it gets as far as the text-based POST screens. If not, it could be the power supply, the motherboard, the CPU, or a host of other things. Hard to tell without doing a bunch of troubleshooting (and parts swapping, assuming spare parts are readily available)

I'm also curious as to how you determined it wasn't the video card?

I'm going to bed but will check this thread in the morning.

 

[Vulcan1600]

Are you getting any errors? Will it even boot far enough to get to the bios splash screen? If you can't even get that far it's probably the power supply. If it boots to the bios splash screen then fails to load the OS, it's probably the hard drive.

If the fans are running and the hard drive is spooling up, it's probably not the power supply. Still could be but at that point it's more likely either the hard drive or a RAM stick failing. Don't rule out bad RAM, they can fail just as easily as a hard drive and just as easily cripple a PC. You could try removing one stick and rebooting, then put that one back and try another, and so on till you've either ruled them all out or found your problem.

I'm not getting any errors. It doesn't boot to the bios splash screen. It does absolutely nothing, and I had the side of the tower off, and tried turning it on, but didn't appear there was anything at all from the hard drive. If it turns out it's RAM or power supply, I'll be happy. So, if the hard drive was bad, it would probably at least boot to the BIOS screen?

 

[Dave12308]

That sucks! I just replaced the hard drive on my laptop and desktop yesterday. My laptop started making funny noises from the hard drive bay and I bit the bullet. I needed more space on my desktop so I replaced both hard drives (RAID) in it as it is where I backup everything up.

Hope it's something other than drive failure...

HDD failure USUALLY will not cause a total failure to POST. It will simply cause the system to hang at the HDD detection phase, or Windows won't boot. The only time i've seen a bad HDD cause a complete failure to POST was when something went on the circuit board of the drive and caused a short circuit.

 

[Vulcan1600]

This might sound obvious, but disconnect the hard drive and see if it gets as far as the text-based POST screens. If not, it could be the power supply, the motherboard, the CPU, or a host of other things. Hard to tell without doing a bunch of troubleshooting (and parts swapping, assuming spare parts are readily available)

I'm also curious as to how you determined it wasn't the video card?

I'm going to bed but will check this thread in the morning.

It could be video card too. I know it's not the monitor is I guess what I should have said. Right now I have it plugged into the old WinXP laptop and it's working. And, you're right, it could be a host of things, but I pray it's not HD gone bad. If it turns out the HD is good, trust me, I will spend a day backing things up onto an external hard drive for any future problems.

 

[Vulcan1600]

That sucks! I just replaced the hard drive on my laptop and desktop yesterday. My laptop started making funny noises from the hard drive bay and I bit the bullet. I needed more space on my desktop so I replaced both hard drives (RAID) in it as it is where I backup everything up.

Hope it's something other than drive failure...

HDD failure USUALLY will not cause a total failure to POST. It will simply cause the system to hang at the HDD detection phase, or Windows won't boot. The only time i've seen a bad HDD cause a complete failure to POST was when something went on the circuit board of the drive and caused a short circuit.

I have no idea what you're saying, way over my head, but are you suggesting that it is probably not HDD?

 

[RinTinTigger]

Did you try booting a live linux or windows DVD...like...a LIVE OPERATING SYSTEM from DVD?

Recovering a HD drive can cost from 300 up to 3k € here, dunno the prices over there in the states, but guess it will be expensive anyways.

Try booting a live OS and check if you can still access the HDD. Maybe try the HDD in another PC, like one of your friends!

 

[RinTinTigger]

HDD failure USUALLY will not cause a total failure to POST. It will simply cause the system to hang at the HDD detection phase, or Windows won't boot. The only time i've seen a bad HDD cause a complete failure to POST was when something went on the circuit board of the drive and caused a short circuit.

Very much right!

Does POST say anything about the HDD?

 

[Vitticeps]

Almost certainly not the hard drive if it wont even boot to the bios splash screen.

Do the fans and lights (if there are any) come on? Can you hear the hard drive spinning?
If not, it's the power supply for sure. If they do, then it's probably either a bad video card or bad RAM.

My first guess would be bad RAM. Also the cheapest of the bunch to fix if that's the case.

A power supply would cost you $60-$100 for a decent one. Video card $100+ for a decent one. HDD $100+ depending on how large and speed (unless you want less than 250gig, then they can be cheap). RAM is cheap comparatively, about $50/2gig stick.

 

[kwatch]

You can try to clear the CMOS values to reset BIOS to fatory defaults. To clear the CMOS values, place a jumper cap on the two pins for a few seconds. Please check your motherboard manual for an instruction.

 

[Vulcan1600]

Thanks for all the advice. I'm fairly certain from reading your posts and talking to RinTinTigger, that it's either the mainboard or power supply. Other things could be RAM or video card too.

Vitticeps, the HDD did not appear to be spinning, I saw no lights emitting from it when I had the side cover off the tower, but the light did flash briefly on the DVD drive like always. But, never any BIOS info or anything on the screen.

Thanks everyone. Will see what the heck it is, but might be a few days.