So my PC is dead

[Dottonedan]

Ok. So my PC is now dead.  I had my wife's IT person (from her work) go over it with my wife on the phone and then had my guy (Pierre) go over it with me on the phone and no go. This is about the 3rd time it's just crashed and now it won't re- start at all.  Both IT guys say take it to BEST BUY or some place to give it a once over. So, what do I do now?   Well, I look over at my dusty Mac and say. hmmmm, I wonder if it runs?  It was hit by the same power outage in fact, many times over the years.  BING!  It's on.  Up and running again. It's a little slow but a good product.

[Frog]

The last time I had a breakdown was the power supply after a power outage, and then it came back on (with no surge protector).

But it was pretty easy to diagnose as there was no power!

What are your symptoms? (not that I can offer much if Pierre can't help) but someone else may out there may get a clue.

[Dottonedan]

Lights and sound come on the PC.  No lights on the key board or wacom. No connection on he monitor. Light is on on the monitor but says (no signal).  Basically, the PC does not power up all the way. My external hard drive does have a light one. All lights coming from the pC are on. PC makes a running sound, but no connection.


Checked all connections, restarted in multiple ways. Un plugged the power cord while on (I guess that can re-set things).


Still nothing.

[mk162]

do you keep your computers on a UPS, you should.  Hard drives are very prone to damage to electrical surges.  A good UPS will clear that up.

[inkbrigade]

do you keep your computers on a UPS, you should.  Hard drives are very prone to damage to electrical surges.  A good UPS will clear that up.

or a laptop

[mk162]

laptops suck.  they just don't have the usable life of a desktop.

[Dottonedan]

Don't know what a UPS is, but I do have a good surge protector. Well, I thought I did.

[Im-Magic]

Sounds like the Power Supply. There are two different voltages that come from a PC Power Supply. If you take just the square box (The CPU) to any tech they could tell you in seconds.

[inkbrigade]

A ups is an acronym for an unintruptable power supply. Usually the power strip ones suck. You want to buy one from trip lite or apc.

Check provantage.com

Also laptops are great. I do everything on mine and I'm not tied to a desk.

[Evo]

Both IT guys say take it to BEST BUY

My suggestion is do not EVER listen to another piece of advise from these IT guys, and for the love of all that is good and just in this world, DO NOT TAKE IT TO BEST BUY. They are barely more qualified to fix it than the greasy kid at the local McDonalds. You will end up paying out the ass for a repair or buying a new machine, there is no in-between with them.


Take it to a local PC repair place. An independent shop. Look on Yelp or some such site for reviews of the service.

It sounds like you have a motherboard or power supply issue. Posibly something as simple as the motherboard battery, or who knows. I bet it's a much more simple fix than Best Buy would make it out to be.

[Evo]

do you keep your computers on a UPS, you should.  Hard drives are very prone to damage to electrical surges.  A good UPS will clear that up.

A UPS is great if you are working on a file and want to save your work before the computer shuts off, but they are not essential for surge protection. (although most UPS's are good for that too)

UPS's can get expensive, the cheap ones are finicky and the batteries in them have a relatively short lifespan.


Just buy a good power strip that has built in surge protection, Costco usually has them for about $20-$30 or so. Look for the one with the highest joule rating you can find without spending a ton of cash.

The one under my desk is the crazy multi-media kind, it was widened spots for wall wart transformers and you can run TV cables through it to protect a TV from spikes as well.

[jsheridan]

+1000 on stay away from best buy. It's all a gimmick to get you to buy a new computer, nothing ever gets fixed.

[Fluid]

Major Bummer.   If you need help with anything other than IT give me a shout Dan.

If you can get into the system, try removing Illy. Might be the problem    JK but in all seriousness, if you need any help Dan, let me know.

[Chadwick]

I would guess power supply as well.
Of course, that's me sitting here not able to look at the machine.

Fixed one computer where the power supply had died ( a cheap pos ).
Unfortunately, when it died it took out the motherboard as well.
Salvaged cpu, ram, etc, and just switched the board out.

Pull the power supply out ( if you feel up to it ) and get it tested first.
Make sure to discharge yourself of static before you go poking around inside.

[mk162]

A good UPS will last years, I have had much better luck with those than a regular surge protector or suppressor.  In the 8 years I have been running a UPS, I have not had 1 hard drive fail.  Before that about 1 a year would go down.