Please Help!!! computer wont boot up

Sorry to hear this news :^(

The next thing is to unplug all of the cables except the mouse, monitor and power. Then try switching it on.

• If it boots it might boot to windows - shut it down in the normal way with the mouse. If it boots to a black screen with a warning about no keyboard or something like that then press and hold the power button until it switches off. Add the leads one at a time testing it after each addition - when it stops booting it is likely the last thing you attached is failing. Remove it and continue with adding the bits.
• If it still doesnt boot at all then its time for more drastic surgery.

Remove the power from the wall and take the side off the machine. As a general rule of thumb, lie the computer on its side with the sockets at the back of the machine at the bottom. then the side uppermost is the one to remove to give access to the insides.

With the side removed look at all the boards and see if any of the capacitors are leaking brown stuff or have blown tops. Here is a picture of some bad ones ...



If you see anything like this it is time for a new board.

If you see nothing like this it is worth removing the power supply cable from the main board. It is a long connector with about 24 wires attached. It has a clip in the side that needs to be pressed and then the plug can be pulled up. Its quite stiff and you do need to make sure the clip is pressed to release the catch. When it is off put it back in again. It will only fit one way. Replace the side, attach the mouse and monitor and power lead and see if it switches on.

Good luck - please let me know how you get on.

The next thing is Major surgery.

Take photos of the inside of your PC and make notes as you do this - we need to get things back to how they are now.

Basically you are doing the same as you did with the external devices attached to your machine. Remove everything you dont need. What you do need is a video output - some computers have an on-board video card so you can remove any add on ones. Remove all cards that are at right angles to your motherboard. Do not remove all of the memory - leave at least one stick in. Remove the data leads to the power hard drive and optical drive (you can leave the power leads in if you wish). DONT remove any wires from the motherboard.

Now try switching it on (with the power lead plugged into the wall). If it boots then add the parts back one at a time until you find a rogue one that causes the machine to stop booting. Hopefully re-seating things might help - corrosion of the plugs can cause this. However, if there is no boot in the disassembled state, then it is time for a new machine (or at least a replacement motherboard).

Unfortunately I need to go to bed now - been working all night. I will get back to see how you get on at about 3:00pm ... its now 7:15am.

Good luck. I hope it goes well.

Sorry to hear that things are still bad.

The only other thing I can think of it that the power supply might not be providing a "clean" supply. They are not overly expencive and it might be worth getting a new one (at least the same power rating). You may be throwing good money after bad, so it might be seeing if you can test this theory before you buy one - could you borrow one?

Hi. Just wanted to let yhou know I tried changing the power supply and it worked. It booted up just like nothing was wrong with it in the first place.

Thank you so much for all your help. I greatly appreciate all the time you've spent helping me figure this out. Thank you.

So glat it worked for you. Im sorry it took so long to get there.