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Resolved Question

Computer is dead

Aug 17, 2011 5:55AM PDT

I am not sure about all the details of my computer, but it just started not turning on. When I push the power button the light comes on briefly and than won't turn on. I used another power supply thinking that I might need to replace that, no luck it did the same thing. The only other thing I think is wrong is the motherboard is bad. Is there a way I can either check it myself or is there something else I could do? I only bought it last year and I would hate to loss the stuff on my drive. Fortunately I did back up my other drive (D: and EHappy but didn't get the C: drive backed up. Since I did want to reinstall my windows 7 I was going to do that anyways but I hadn't gotten as far as to back up that data. Is there a way to do that if nothing else goes right for me?

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Best Answer

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Typical results for...
Aug 18, 2011 11:44PM PDT

Similar problem as yours are often repeated here on the forum. Search and google if you need to just to cover all bases.

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Thanks
Aug 19, 2011 7:05AM PDT

Thanks, I'll have to get my hands dirty and look for them. I guess after I rule everything else out and I do find some bad caps than I might as well try and fix it. after all if it's already broken than I can't break it any more and I might even get lucky and save the head ache of buying a new mother board. Thanks guys.

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Answer
First we save the files.
Aug 19, 2011 12:02AM PDT

1. We can put the HDD into almost any USB enclosure and look for our files on another machine.

2. We never lose files because we can reinstall 7 on another blank HDD. HDDs run from 20 to 99 bucks so if your files are not worth that much, then you can re-use the old HDD and move on.

3. TROUBLESHOOTING the system. When I see this issue I will inspect for bad caps but I will also strip the machine down to just 4 parts and test these 4 parts on cardboard to remove the case as a source of trouble. The parts are motherboard, power supply, speaker and CPU+Heatsink+Fan (HSF).

If the 4 parts won't power up I am looking at what parts are bad.
Bob