My computer died! Anything I can do?

If your data is your primary concern, you can buy an external hard drive case for less than 20 bucks, and take out the hard drive and use it to attach it to another computer as a usb drive.

It's also pretty darn easy too and may not even require any tools (and if it does it's usually just a screwdriver).

Good to know about the data retrieval, I'll give that a try.

Do you think the computer itself is dead? Is there anything I can do to revive it?

I know it's getting power but the power button on the front is usually lit up (blue) but it's not now and the computer doesn't do anything when I push it in. Have tried unplugging and plugging it back in. Also tried a different wall socket. No sound of the fan, or the drive moving. :/

Take a lamp or something and plug it into the outlet you're using. If you're using a surge suppressor, plug it into the surge suppressor. That'll make sure you've got a working outlet.

Next, unplug the computer from everything for at least five minutes. Then plug everything back in and try it again.

Some possibilities:

No power at the outlet. (Circuit breaker or GFI tripped)
No power from surge suppressor. (Breaker tripped or turned off.)
Bad power cable.
Bad power switch on case.
Bad power supply.
Bad motherboard. (I think this is unlikely.)

As Robert said, the data on your hard drive should be retrievable one way or the other.

One really simple thing to check... there is likely a power switch on the power supply itself. Make sure that is on also. Do you get any beep codes from the motherboard when you turn the power on? If you are not seeing any sign of power from the power supply (fan, lights, etc), you might be able to just replace the power supply.

Ok, so this gal is not as helpless as she thought


Taking apart the computer casing was simple enough but boy was it dirty in there! I suppose that's what having five cats will do!

So yeah, through trial and error, I isolated the problem to the power supply unit (PSU) Go me! I found a website which had pictures for my unit and gave step by step instructions on how to replace it.

Ordered a new one off the web and receieved it yesterday. The hardest part was getting into the small space under the floppy drive to remove the connection to the CPU and replace it. (that made me nervous as heck and now my fingers hurt!) Some he-man must have put those connectors in. They were tight!

Took one connection out at a time, matched it up with the new PSU connectors and plugged them in as I went along. Easy. Next thing I knew I was ready to to turn it on. Guess what? *dances* Everything worked perfectly. Even the floppy drive which had gone south about a year ago works now.

Thanks to you all for your help! You gave me the confidence to do it on my own.

WELL DONE YOU ((mm))!!!!!!!!

Excellent news.

DIY FTW!

Bought a new one!

Here's a kicker....

At some point the connections on my DVD player unit came loose so I couldn't run any DVD's or CD's on it. Just haven;t had the notion to tinker with it to fix it.

The computer began acting wacky requiring shut downs and other sorts of mischief. I backed up everything I needed to. Good thing.

Bad thing. The hard drive went caput and wiped everything clean. I now have a big tower thing sitting here useless for the time being until i find the boot disks and wonder if I really want to hassle loading ALL of the programs I had on it. *sigh*

I wanted to upgrade to a great gaming computer someday but wasn't expecting to so soon.....