HELP!!! My computer won't turn on!!

Please forgive me if this has already been checked or suggested, but have you tried replacing the ram? Bad memory (err ram going bad) is often the cause of problems like you're explaining. I've troubleshot hours upon hours of PC hardware problems during my years of doing tech support & replacing the memory was a common fix of otherwise misdiagnosed hardware issues.

danefex said:

Please forgive me if this has already been checked or suggested, but have you tried replacing the ram? Bad memory (err ram going bad) is often the cause of problems like you're explaining. I've troubleshot hours upon hours of PC hardware problems during my years of doing tech support & replacing the memory was a common fix of otherwise misdiagnosed hardware issues.

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Bad memory will always allow the computer to power on (either giving errors, or no POST).

Even if there's a dead short across the DIMM's power feed, the board will still start up.

Benm said:

I'm not surprised that a computer would last this long. ... The simply came with some analytical device, and those things are expensive investments.

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Of course when you have legacy hardware, you will want to just keep
things the way they are, but I don't think it makes much sense to
hold onto your old daily PC, on which you want to surf and maybe even
play some games.
Some people need a new PC every year, sure that's overkill, but
eight years is reeaally stretching it. Just my humble opinion.

Also, I don't overclock, and I had motherboard die on me after 3-4 years.

Well, in my business i consider the economical lifetime of a computer to be 2 or 3 years, after which is should be replaced by a newer model or taken out of service.

This is not because i expect the hardware to fail within those 3 years, but just because there are advantages with replacement that outweigh potential problems with holding on to older systems.

Sometimes the progress forces your hand though.. such as with a perfectly good HP laser printer that has to be scrapped because there are no windows 7 x64 drivers for it. Such things really annoy me - its wasteful economically as well as environmentally. I'm not one to push for legislation, but perhaps it would be good to force manufacturers of devices like printers to provide drivers for new mainstream OS's for a decade or so.

How come you couldn't make a dedicated printer-server for it from an old 32 bit machine running xp?

goninanbl00d said:

Bad memory will always allow the computer to power on (either giving errors, or no POST).

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Generally you are correct, however I've had POST test startups successful in some circumstances and others fail in others with the end result being bad ram... IMO there's no definite answer when taking this consideration into mind.

I just wanted to bring it to the table since I haven't read anywhere that he has tested or questioned the RAM already- which is the most frequently and commonly used piece(s) of hardware on the system when it's working.

I have a PC I've used to death in the past 8 years, and everytime I've had 'crashing' issues - - replacing the ram has resolved my problems alongside many others with similar circumstances

danefex said:

Generally you are correct, however I've had POST test startups successful in some circumstances and others fail in others with the end result being bad ram... IMO there's no definite answer when taking this consideration into mind.

I just wanted to bring it to the table since I haven't read anywhere that he has tested or questioned the RAM already- which is the most frequently and commonly used piece(s) of hardware on the system when it's working.

I have a PC I've used to death in the past 8 years, and everytime I've had 'crashing' issues - - replacing the ram has resolved my problems alongside many others with similar circumstances

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No POST means that the computer physically powers on, but nothing is displayed, and no beeps are heard.

If nothing is displayed, but beeps are heard, that means that the BIOS is working, and that the POST did happen.

Quite offtopic, but:

anselm said:

How come you couldn't make a dedicated printer-server for it from an old 32 bit machine running xp?

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I could, but the computer i previously used is serving as a media center in my living room now

I do have another machine thats still working, must be 7 or 8 years old by now. I could set that up, but that is a lot of clutter to just print some pages... and leaving it on 24/7 would probably cost more on electricity annually than replacing the printer would.