From: friesian on
On May 19, 6:19 pm, Bruce Chambers <bchamb...(a)cable0ne.n3t> wrote:
> fries...(a)zoocrewphoto.com wrote:
> > My parent's computer has stopped working. It is on, but is not doing
> > anything (the monitor is not receiving a signal). It will not reboot
> > or even shut down via the buttons on the front.
>
>         Is there any fan activity?  Can you hear any hard drive activity?  If
> so, it may need a new video adapter.  If not, from your limited
> description, you'll need either a new power supply or a new motherboard.

The fans run, but the hard drive does not. I just got home from work,
so I haven't had a chance to work on it yet. But I have it here, so I
can work on it more. I suspect it is probably dead. But I will try a
few things before I give up.


>
> > I was planning to redo their hard drive soon as it was orginally
> > partitioned into 4 sections of 10GB each and the C drive is basically
> > full while the other drives are not.
>
>         10GB is too small for the system partition, as you should be able to
> see from it's being "basically full."  Make this partition at least 20gb
> in size.
>

I don't know why the guy set it up that way. It is only a 40 GB hard
drive, so I would have left it as one drive. As it is, I installed all
the programs to the other 3 partitions to keep the C drive as empty as
possible, but it fills up with updates and drivers and whatever. A lot
of it only shows up when looking at hidden files. I was planning to
reformat it as all one drive. Thankfully, I got most of it backed up
on my external drive. It is a TB with 250GB available, so I figured I
could copy their whole computer and save it as a backup for a good
year or more, so any files not returned to the computer would still be
saved somewhere just in case. So, I'm glad to tell them that most of
their files are still safe and accessible.

From: Leythos on
In article <f1e36bbe-a276-4ced-a207-
587661e1c5ac(a)u3g2000prl.googlegroups.com>, friesian(a)zoocrewphoto.com
says...
> On May 19, 6:19 pm, Bruce Chambers <bchamb...(a)cable0ne.n3t> wrote:
> > fries...(a)zoocrewphoto.com wrote:
> > > My parent's computer has stopped working. It is on, but is not doing
> > > anything (the monitor is not receiving a signal). It will not reboot
> > > or even shut down via the buttons on the front.
> >
> >         Is there any fan activity?  Can you hear any hard drive activity?  If
> > so, it may need a new video adapter.  If not, from your limited
> > description, you'll need either a new power supply or a new motherboard..
>
> The fans run, but the hard drive does not. I just got home from work,
> so I haven't had a chance to work on it yet. But I have it here, so I
> can work on it more. I suspect it is probably dead. But I will try a
> few things before I give up.
>

If the fans run, but the HD does, but you also mentioned that you get no
video, so that seems to indicate that there is either a bad power supply
or the motherboard is bad.

Can you borrow the PSU out of another computer to test with?

--
You can't trust your best friends, your five senses, only the little
voice inside you that most civilians don't even hear -- Listen to that.
Trust yourself.
spam999free(a)rrohio.com (remove 999 for proper email address)
From: friesian on
On May 20, 3:52 am, Leythos <spam999f...(a)rrohio.com> wrote:
> In article <f1e36bbe-a276-4ced-a207-
> 587661e1c...(a)u3g2000prl.googlegroups.com>, fries...(a)zoocrewphoto.com
> says...
>
> > On May 19, 6:19 pm, Bruce Chambers <bchamb...(a)cable0ne.n3t> wrote:
> > > fries...(a)zoocrewphoto.com wrote:
> > > > My parent's computer has stopped working. It is on, but is not doing
> > > > anything (the monitor is not receiving a signal). It will not reboot
> > > > or even shut down via the buttons on the front.
>
> > >         Is there any fan activity?  Can you hear any hard drive activity?  If
> > > so, it may need a new video adapter.  If not, from your limited
> > > description, you'll need either a new power supply or a new motherboard.
>
> > The fans run, but the hard drive does not. I just got home from work,
> > so I haven't had a chance to work on it yet. But I have it here, so I
> > can work on it more. I suspect it is probably dead. But I will try a
> > few things before I give up.
>
> If the fans run, but the HD does, but you also mentioned that you get no
> video, so that seems to indicate that there is either a bad power supply
> or the motherboard is bad.
>
> Can you borrow the PSU out of another computer to test with?
>
>

I think it is probably the motherboard. And they were pushing the
limit of it anyway. So, I decided to get a newer used computer for
them. I found one that is a bit newer, much larger hard drive, faster
processor, etc for $115. It also has an LCD monitor, so they'll have
more room on the desk. I just picked it up this evening, so I will
install the software and copy their files from my external hard
drive. I should have it ready for them by morning.