PC Not starting up

Lo.j

Hi

My PC has sort of died on me tonight. I switch it on and the monitor light goes green and then back to orange within a few seconds and displays the power saving message. The tower seems to be making all the right noises but there's nothing getting to the screen. I am sick with worry since I have a ton of pics of my children that I never got round to saving ( typical) and I am so scared I am going to lose them all.
Anyway, any advice would be gratefully received.I have already checked all the power leads and cleaned all the dust away.I have also tried it with my daughter's monitor and no joy there either.

Thanks in advance.

Cricri

Does the hard drive does any noise at all? If it sounds like it boots, it could be simply because your monitor is not connected correctly, or you need to push the graphic card back in its slot (which I would expect if you moved the PC for instance).

jmc160

Hi Lo. (lol, sorry!)

First things first, check the video cable - although if you've switched out the monitor then I'm assuming this has been checked.

Can you give us an idea of the pc spec?

I had this problem on a slightly older comp a couple years ago. In a nutshell, the motherboard had locked up. I opened the case, took out the CMOS battery and left it for 24 hours. Then put it back in & it booted no problem! But I did have to redo all my settings, as when you remove the battery, the CMOS "forgets" them.

By the way, you don't have to remove the battery if you have a "reset" jumper. Just short it and you're ready to go!

albertross_2

If nothing is coming on screen at all (and the cable is ok), it is unlikely to be the hard disk with your pictures on, if that is any comfort.

Possibly graphics card or psu, or motherboard, or cpu. The psu is the cheapest of those.. see if your CD drive opens.

Lo.j

:T Thanks for the speedy replies, much appreciated . I did move the puter tonight :rolleyes: but i took the back off a minute ago after reading the reply and though I don't know what the graphic card looks like or where it is, there was nothing loose.
Cables to monitor seem ok and i have tried different cables and a different monitor too.
The P is about 18 months old, IBM Pentium 4 can't remember the spec off hand , but it was fairly high for that time.
It is making the usual noises and on start up, when the light on the monitor is still green, the screen flashes with the usual IBM Thinksmart ( or whatever) for a second then goes to the power saving mode message.
The CD drive does open , I just checked, and thanks for calming me about losing my photos. That's all I am concerned about.The thought of losing all those memories was torturing me.

Thinking about the past couple of days, the prob might have been working away at it. Usually if left on for a wee while it powers down a bit ( and monitor goes orange )and comes back on with a wiggle of the mouse ( goes back to green). The past 2 days when it goes to orange, I have had to switch it right off at the plug and back on again.I was just too busy to take much notice ( OU essay week ! ).

Lo.j

Hi again
My PC is still under warranty so I should be able to get whatever is wrong fixed. However, the helpdesk said there will be no guarantee that they will be able to stop the hard drive being wiped.I realise this of course, and I know that the retrieval of my data ( pics of my children,family etc) isn't their problem. Does anyone think that I should try one of the data recovery companies that say they can usually get all your files off the hard drive before it goes in for repair? I know they are costly, but I'd rather save up and have no computer than lose these precious memories. Also ( forgive me for clutching at straws) is there any point in trying to transfer between my old computer and a laptop using the easy share type download ? I know this is probably a stupid question, but I'm past caring about pretending to be intelligent. A clever person would have had all her photos on CDs , wouldn't she?
Many thanks for any advice in advance.
Lo

dounome

just a thought but do you have access to another desktop pc in your house that you could swap the harddrives over with an perhaps access your pics etc that way, i dont understand why the helpdesk says it cant guarantee not wiping your hardrive unless they intend to format it which i dont think is necessary.

Lo.j

Thanks so much for replying, I do appreciate your suggestion.Yes I do have access to my daughter's PC but I would have no clue as to how to swap hard drives. Is that something that I would be able to do for myself? I am good at following instructions so I could maybe get some on the internet ? The helpdesk, I suppose since they didn't know what was wrong with it, said they couldn't guarantee that the drive would be wiped, and I am just scared to let it go without trying all possibilites first.

albertross_2

If it was my PC, I'd remove the drive and send it off without it in. The risk of them wiping it is too high.

You can either get a usb caddy to plug the hard disk into, or you may be able to connect it as a slave into the other PC, if you have the cabling. A slave will appear as another drive (D: etc, so you can just copy the files off in windows explorer).

Could you take the cover off, and look what type of connectors are on the hard disk? There are 2 type, ide/pata and sata.. see link below.



http://www.buildyourown.org.uk/pc-building/connecting/internal-cables/hard-drive/

Sorry about the wide pic, can't find any small ones atm

http://whitecanyon.com/esupport/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=130&nav=0

Lo.j

albertross wrote: »

If it was my PC, I'd remove the drive and send it off without it in. The risk of them wiping it is too high.

You can either get a usb caddy to plug the hard disk into, or you may be able to connect it as a slave into the other PC, if you have the cabling.

Could you take the cover off, and look what type of connectors are on the hard disk?



http://www.buildyourown.org.uk/pc-building/connecting/internal-cables/hard-drive/

Thanks for that reply, I appreciate it.My sentiments exactly, not a risk worth taking until I have no other option.
I had a look at the link you gave me. I haven't taken the back off yet tonight, but last night when I did I some cabling with connectors like the S-ATA pictures on the site you referred me to were not plugged in to anything. I don't know if they have come out of somewhere as I was moving it, or if there are usually some spare cables rattling about in there. Told you I was thick ! I will have a look now and see what the connectors look like. Thanks for the help again

Lo

hobo28

Lo.j wrote: »

Thanks so much for replying, I do appreciate your suggestion.Yes I do have access to my daughter's PC but I would have no clue as to how to swap hard drives. Is that something that I would be able to do for myself? I am good at following instructions so I could maybe get some on the internet ? The helpdesk, I suppose since they didn't know what was wrong with it, said they couldn't guarantee that the drive would be wiped, and I am just scared to let it go without trying all possibilites first.

Hi Lo.J

Firstly please please don't send your computer off before first getting the photos off. The muppets will almost certainly wipe your machine.

This is where a friendly friend who knows a lot about PC's is invaluable! If you don't have one, you can do the following:

1) Remove your existing hard disk. Open up your daughter's PC and unplug the wires which connect to her CD/DVD drive. Use those to connect to your hard disk and try it.

2) This is probably the safer way, buy a USB caddy as albertross suggests and put your disk in that. You can get them pretty cheaply nowadays. I'd recommend this one: http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=35057&criteria=IDE&doy=26m5

Its a lot more expensive but if you change your mind etc. you can return it afterwards to the shop for a refund.

If its an IBM, post the model number of the computer. It is usually something like XXXX-YYY and is stuck to the PC on the front (sometimes the back). We can better tell you whats inside the case then and even where the disk will be.