Ask her if she ran any disk cleaning software before this happened. I hosed my OS on a Compaq with Windows Cleaner Pro. Of course, it still posted, so...Destructionator XIII wrote:I am currently working on a computer for a friend which won't seem to do anything. I turn the power on, and the fans spin up, and I can hear the hard drive start spinning, but that is it.
No beeps, nothing output to the monitor (it just remains in sleep mode). Buttons on keyboard get no result.
This suddenly happened, I've no idea what caused it. I already tried pulling all unneccessary hardware, but same thing.
Any other ideas what I can to to fix this?
More than likely the motherboard is fried. You can tell if you open it up and the capacitors are swollen or leaking. Still, you can fish for monitor problems.
Plug in the recovery disk to see if that boots. Highly unlikely if it's not posting to begin with, but anyway if it lights up, find out if the system has since been upgraded; eg: XPSP 1 to SP2 before trying to repair anything. You can't repair SP2 with and SP1 recovery disk.
Plug in a monitor that you know works, and inspect the cable. See if the computer boots on its own, then, plug in the recovery disk that should have come with the computer.
If it's still bust, then check with Compaq's help forums to see if this has ever been an issue elsewhere.
Don't play mix and match with a used power supply out of concern for the motherboard capacitors, but if you have good measuring equipment and know how to test it I suppose you ... well, never mind. If it were mine I'd risk it, but not on someone else.
I suspect you are likely looking at a new motherboard, and the power supply is probably to blame for frying it.
If the computer is not too old, you can probably find a match for the processor fairly easily. If you replace the motherboard, you must also replace the power supply, or you will likely just fry it again.