Computer help/Opinion

[Serena Vox]

Okay guys, I just gone done ranting in my blog about my computer, but I'll go ahead and shell out the details.

About a week ago, I left my computer sitting for about 30 mins and when I came back and clicked the toolbar, the screen distorted and nothing could be clicked/typed. I rebooted manually and it was fine. Two days later, I was right at the computer when it did it again, this time it rebooted itself. I performed things like disk defragmentation and whatnot on it and it was fine up until yesterday.

I turned it on like I normally do, checked this place out and then put it into standby for about an hour tops. When I came back, I tried to get it out of standby and it would not respond. I had to manually shut it down (holding in the power switch) and then I turned it back on. The problem was, the OS would not start up.


Basically, here is what it looks like;
I turn on the power and the power light is on, no problem, the light on the disk tray flickers once, that's normal. But the computer does not start up, although the fan begins to run (and continues running.) but it doesn't do anything. I don't get any kind of screen except for the default. Which is basically the screen that I have when the monitor is on WITHOUT the tower being on.

I called Technical Support yesterday (and once again today) and they think it's one of two things; some sort of virus or a hardware failure. For them to come out and fix it, it would cost $349, to take it in the store and fix it, would cost $200 (plus tax).

I've had quite a few problems out of my computer before, but never anything this major. I am considering just keeping my money and buying a new computer (or laptop.) instead of bothering with getting that troublesome thing fixed.

Opinions? (Regarding the decision, OR the problems.)

By the way; my OS is Windows XP and my computer is about 2 years old (It's a gateway.)

 

[Liesje]

If it's a desktop, the first thing I'd do is open it up, get all the dust out (use canned compressed air or a 3M vacuum, NOT a normal vacuum they cause static electricity). Blow out the fans REALLY well and the heat sink. Remove the RAM, make sure there's no dust or dirt on it, and re-seat it.

I fixed a desktop last week with these exact symptoms. The inside was coated in dust and it was gunked all over the RAM modules so when it tried to boot, it acted as though it had bad RAM.

If that doesn't work, I'd want to know if the computer is POSTing. Take out all the RAM, try to turn it on. If it is POSTing, then it should beep at you b/c it should recognize there is no RAM. If it does, but when you put the RAM back in, it doesn't boot, I'd get new RAM. Generally, if the hard drive is bad, the computer will POST and try to boot, then you will get an error about a corrupt OS, or no boot device found, unmountable boot volume, etc.

What color are the lights when you turn it on? Do any of them blink? Are there any beeps? It could be a video card/driver issue but generally with that you will get beeps and/or blinking lights that correspond to the problem.

 

[Serena Vox]

I was considering doing that exact thing, actually. I couldn't get the screws out of it though, they were too tight. I am going to try to get my friend to help me with that when I go home tonight. I know there's a lot of dust in it because I can see a lot of it on the fan in the back. And I do mean quite a lot.

As for the lights, there is one below the power button (The power button is a blue light, the light below is orange.) that usually flickers off/on when the computer is thinking throughout the entire time that it is turned on. It no longer does that. It flicks once when I turn the power on (along with the green disk tray light) and then it just stops. It also flicks again when I hold the power button in and turn it off. But nowhere in between. No noises except the fan running and no beeps.

Thanks so much, I'll see if I can't get that done tonight and I'll have him check the RAM too.

 

[Liesje]

Could be a power supply issue to. If you get in there to clean it out, unplug the power supply and plug it back in. However usually if it's dead, you won't get any lights or fans.