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So your PC finally died. Not all is lost! Don't waste thousands of dollars on a new PC when a $30 fix will do! Find out how!
The unthinkable has happened. You were almost finished typing up an important paper due tomorrow at work or school, and your PC shut off and won't turn on any more. This is a common scenario that happened to everyone at one point in their life. The following steps will show you how to properly diagnose your PC and find out exactly what is wrong with it. Before you begin, you must keep a cool, and calm head. Everything can be figured out logically. These steps should work for all personal computers including, PC's, Mac's, and Linux machines. - To start must assume a few things. You have not yet messed with the insides of your computer and/or disconnected anything. We don't want to disconnect anything at all at this point. The simple reason is because it worked fine in this setup just a little while ago. Therefore, there is nothing wrong with the connections. The problem is component failure. This guide will tell you how to tell which it is. NOTE: BEFORE YOU BEGIN. You must pull out and disconnect all PCI cards and IDE cables. The reason is because a lot of times, an old 56k modem or faulty hard drive can keep your system from starting up properly. Now would also be a good time to make sure the REST of your cables are all plugged in properly and in the right positions. 1) First step.... try to turn your PC on. Either of the following steps will happen. a) system powers on, you see the lights turn on at the front of your TOWER and you hear the fans spinning, but nothing shows up on the screen, AND YOU HEAR SOME BEEPING....this is a NO POST issue...go to step 2 b) system powers on, lights and fans go on, BUT NO BEEPS....this is a NO POST issue... go to step 3 c) system powers on, you see and hear the lights and fans working, you might have seen some text or picture on the screen, but then everything turns off.... this is FAULTY POWER issue....go to Step 4 d) system does NOT power on.... this is NO POWER issue....go to Step 5
2) You hear beeping and nothing shows up on the screen. The beeping is coming from the motherboard signals out through the system speaker. These beep codes can help us diagnose the problem. a) 1 single beep -> means your computer is working fine! If you still don't see anything on the monitor, check to make sure the monitor cable to the PC and power cable to the outlet is properly plugged and turned on. Try re-adjusting the monitor brightness and contrast to see if someone messed with it. Also try replacing your videocard. If you don't know how to do this, go to our guide on how to build a computer. b) 3 beeps -> something is wrong with your graphics device. Either your videocard is bad or got loose and isn't making proper contact with the motherboard. If you have a motherboard with the VGA graphics integrated into it, you might have a faulty motherboard. Try pulling out the videocard and re-installing it. If this fails, try installing another videocard. c) Constant beeping -> this means your system can't read the memory. Either your ram is bad or your motherboard can't read the RAM. Try replacing your ram stick. IF you have more than 1 stick of RAM, try pulling out 1 piece at a time and alternating your RAM so that only 1 piece is in at a time. Chances are, only one of your sticks is bad. If changing the ram doesn't work, you have a faulty motherboard. Faulty motherboards are actually very common. They have so many little parts and components built into them and that means more ways to fail and become defective.
3) Your system turns on but you get No beeps -> either you don't have a speaker installed, or your system is not posting up. You can check to see if you have a speaker installed by looking at the bottom right of your motherboard and seeing if it's connected to a round little metal speaker usually attached to the bottom panel of your case.
a) You DO have a speaker connected and you still don't hear anything. It could mean bad a bad CPU, MOTHERBOARD, RAM, or even POWER SUPPLY. Start replacing the POWER SUPPLY first, then RAM, then try CPU, then try MOTHERBOARD. Good luck! b) You DON'T have a speaker connected. Ouch! In this case, you are just going to have to assume it could be anything. Try steps 2b, and then 3a. 4) So your system turns on and then off. This could mean a number of things. Below are the steps to check for and diagnose for all possible causes. a) Your CPU could be overheating and the motherboard has an auto-shutoff feature once your CPU reaches a certain temperature. Turn on the system and see if the CPU HEATSINK-FAN spins. If it doesn't, go make sure the fan is plugged and/ok buy a new CPU heatsink-fan. If it DOES spin, take off the CPU heatsink-fan and make sure there's enough thermal grease between the heatsink and the CPU and it's making contact with the CPU. If you do have to put more thermal grease, DON'T PUT MORE THAN 1 SMALL DROP! So many people keep putting a little extra "just in case". This is WRONG because too much grease could leak onto your motherboard over time or even cause air pockets inside which will heat up the CPU even more. b) You have a flaky or bad power supply. Replace the power supply and see if that does anything. c) You have a bad motherboard. Replace it and see if that does anything. 5) Your system doesn't turn on at all. This is actually one of the easiest problems to figure out. Either your power supply is bad, or power cable is unplugged. OR, the switch in the back of the power supply is in the wrong position. Keep in mind that "|" means on and "O" means off. Could also be a dead motherboard, OR that the main ATX cable coming from the power supply is loose.
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