PC won't start ... Help Please!

Ally

My computer won't start It went through a phase where it kept freezing, then when I switched the power on, it would make a noise, but that's it .... the monitor would not come on or anything, it was like it was stuck or something. But now, it will not even power up!

Is there anything I can do? The lithium battery on the motherboard is working fine and the little LED light is on.

Can anyone help, is it fixable and most importantly, can the data on the HD be retrieved? I don't care if the PC never works again, I just want the data back from the HD

Or will I have to fork out a furtune and take it to a specialist? How much is it likely to cost and where could I take it to be fixed quickly?


I am on the old PC at the moment which is very slow, so sorry if I take long to respond to any questions!

Thanks all in advance !

electron_3

It can be a plethera of things but I supect the PSU Power Supply Unit.

Just take to an independent shop and ask for a diagnostic which is about £10 - £20.

Dont throw things away just because of a few problems I expect there isnt
anything majorly wrong with it really, a new PSU is about £15 and if you are
comfortable fitting it they are very easy to do.

Fitted by a shop will cost about £60 - £80

albertross_2

what model pc is it? Do you know if the hard disk is spinning..

Have you turned it off at the power socket?

Ally

Thanks ...that was quick! It's a Targa Visionary PC.

The HD is not spinning at all. Have turned it on and off in every way! Nothing is happening .... not a sqeek! It is just not responding at all .... it that a PSU fault? Or could there be something wrong with the HD? I am so worried that it is a HD fault, but would that stop it from powering up now?

Before it would power up (on Friday, this major problem started on Thursday night), the HD would spin and make noise, but it just wouldn't do anything!

electron_3

It may be that not enough power is getting to the HDD or the HDD is fried or the PSU is fried as the former and thats affecting the HDD, did you get any HDD warnings at all saying the HDD was becoming unstable.

And are you not backing up

Ally

Actually, just checked the PSU and it seems to be fine. When I turn the PC off from the back, the little LED light on the mother board turns off, when I turn the PC on from the back, the little LED comes back on. Does that mean that the PSU is working fine???

electron_3

The PSU may be powering up but some capacitors may be duff thus not
giving out power at the right levels to some other components.

Can you get into the BIOS and see if the HDD is being recognised
I dont know if you can get that far, I mean even into the BIOS.

Just try to start up and tap del or F2 (thatll be in a manual) and see
if the HDD is reading Okb, if so it could well be a duff HDD

Ally

electron wrote:

It may be that not enough power is getting to the HDD or the HDD is fried or the PSU is fried as the former and thats affecting the HDD, did you get any HDD warnings at all saying the HDD was becoming unstable.

And are you not backing up

I do not recall any message saying the HDD was unstable, but when starting up Norton would pop up a window about the C Drive ... saying something like 'initializing C Drive' ... not sure what that is about?

I am already beating myself up about the backup,

albertross_2

Could you plug your HD into the other PC.. just to see if it spins.

if you are not getting anything on screen at all, then something is failing before the HD boot sequence, so the disk and data may be ok. Unless you have been hit by lightning or had a major power surge

Ally

electron wrote:

The PSU may be powering up but some capacitors may be duff thus not
giving out power at the right levels to some other components.

Can you get into the BIOS and see if the HDD is being recognised
I dont know if you can get that far, I mean even into the BIOS.

Just try to start up and tap del or F2 (thatll be in a manual) and see
if the HDD is reading Okb, if so it could well be a duff HDD

Can't even get into BIOS mode. When I press the 'on' button, nothing happens ... only sound you can hear is me cursing

Does a duff HDD = all data lost? Or is it recoverable??

albertross_2

try unplugging the CD drive, hd, and any external components.

has it been moved recently?

does the monitor work on your other PC