Pc failure to boot

**loanrangiel** · 07-10-09, 01:53 PM

This morning after my pc booted up my said she heard a sort of breaking noise from the case and now it wont boot uo, i just get the hdd led on but nothing. Ironically i was going to buy a new larger hdd on the way home today, now using seagate disk wizard i will setup the new hdd and hopefully copy all the data across but not sure how dead it is and if this will be possible at all

**Woodstock** · 07-10-09, 04:32 PM

did it smell as well ? sound like PSU or motherboard burnt out ... could get cheap generic PSU and see that fixes it ..

**loanrangiel** · 07-10-09, 04:43 PM

Originally Posted by Woodstock

did it smell as well ? sound like PSU or motherboard burnt out ... could get cheap generic PSU and see that fixes it ..

Hopefully its either of those as i have spares.

**Zero Alpha** · 07-10-09, 04:59 PM

It is possible for a faulty hard drive to stop a computer from booting. Disconnect the hard drive and try and boot the computer without it. You'll soon know.

**loanrangiel** · 07-10-09, 05:12 PM

Originally Posted by Zero Alpha

It is possible for a faulty hard drive to stop a computer from booting. Disconnect the hard drive and try and boot the computer without it. You'll soon know.

I'm hoping i can at least get the data off it if it is the hdd, it has never made any noises and doesnt get moved at all.

**loanrangiel** · 07-10-09, 06:21 PM

This is what i have found thus far, got home and turned the power off at the wall ready for open heart surgery, then had a quick thought that i should turn it back on to see if the psu fan is spinning- and it booted up fine ?
This leads me to think that maybe the psu is playing up as after being away for 3 days last week and having the mains off for that period it took a couple of goes for it to boot up. I'm going to make a backup of the hdd just in case.

**PaulD** · 07-10-09, 06:49 PM

Had any lead-up symptoms - random shutdowns?

**Philquad** · 07-10-09, 06:49 PM

its not the psu
leave the mains on next time

**loanrangiel** · 07-10-09, 07:04 PM

Originally Posted by PhillTheQuad

its not the psu
leave the mains on next time

That was only last week, for todays problem the mains has been on for about a week.This morning after it booted and opebed thunderbird then the pc froze completely and had to reboot but it wouldnt.

**Philquad** · 07-10-09, 07:25 PM

well ok, could be psu
could also be
bad os, xp?
bad motherboard (leaky caps)
bad hard drive?
bad ram?
if you have the spares, start swapping
if not, a new reinstall is the cheapest
got another psu? then swap it, you'll soon know
trial and error sadly