Computer won't start-up, BIOS won't post, screen is black. Any ideas?

[SeventhSandwich]

Accidentally left my tower on over the break. Came back to see the screen working, but mouse and keyboard were unresponsive. I turned it off, and now whenever I start up my computer, it powers on briefly and then powers off. Then, it tries again, and the disk appears to start spinning but there's no beep, BIOS doesn't post, and nothing shows up on my monitor.

Any advice where to start debugging? I suspect this is a PSU issue, but I don't have a PSU to test with. Has anyone encountered something similar to this?

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[Darth C3P0²]

It might be that something overheated or maybe the hard drive just wont work even if it is spinning. You could try contacting someone about it

[Køtt]

do you get any intro while it's powered on like your motherboard logo or whatever shows up and then it goes to a black screen and powers off?

[SeventhSandwich]

do you get any intro while it's powered on like your motherboard logo or whatever shows up and then it goes to a black screen and powers off?

Nope

It might be that something overheated or maybe the hard drive just wont work even if it is spinning.

no clue. overheating seems like a plausible answer, but I doubt that would have killed my HDD

[Køtt]

hm

try resetting your cmos jumper, it's this little blue plug you see on your motherboard



if that works then you might need to change the clock afterwards

[Nonnel]

computer machine broke

[SeventhSandwich]

hm

try resetting your cmos jumper, it's this little blue plug you see on your motherboard

I did that. My computer powers up without turning off, but still no beep and nothing goes to the display. What should I do now?

[SubDaWoofer]

I did that. My computer powers up without turning off, but still no beep and nothing goes to the display. What should I do now?

check the display

[SeventhSandwich]

check the display

That's definitely not the problem though, because I would still hear my motherboard do the normal beep sound when it posts.

[Conan]

if you think overheating could be the issue, check the thermal paste maybe?

[Metario]

if it wont startup/post check the gpu
else it's dead, jimbo

[Insert Name Here²]

Change the video plug from the graphics card, to the motherboard's rear IO and see if that fixes it.

If not, then take out all your ram sticks until you're left with one, and try it in every slot per ram stick to see if that fixes anything.

Reseat every single one of your components, plugs, cpu and all.

If none of this works, it's a PSU issue

[TableSalt]

If none of this works, it's a PSU issue

huh ive never heard of that playstation

[Goth77]

Sounds like the motherboard is fried. Many times, the power supply will be delivering power and the fans may run and the disk attempt to boot but if components of the main board are burned out, its usually forgeted

I had a slimline tower where the mainboard got so hot it started smoking. The ungodly scent! I was able to save the video card and processor, and the obsolete phone-line card in it - the mainboard was done for though and it had about all the symptoms you described here : fans running, hard drive appears to boot, but no display or even beep after post - I reset the jumpers and flashed the bios to be sure, but I knew it was cooked

You can probably salvage some if not all of the old parts from your PC, and buy a motherboard replacement for a whole lot less than an entirely new tower. If you have a spare tower laying around try swapping out parts on it to see what parts might still work!

[Kearn]

sounds like either motherboard or CPU

pull the gpu out and try using the bare minimum RAM and see if it will post off the integrated graphics

it doubt its a PSU failure because a. i wouldnt expect it to try to boot in the first place and b. youre liable to have a knockon effect with a dead PSU frying other things down the line and itd probably be pretty obvious if the PSU died

if you have another motherboard or cpu with the same socket you can eliminate one or the other