computer will not boot!!!

[rising-damp]

hi, another problem!.

i have a computer that has worked flawlessley for years, all of a sudden it wont turn on.

for a while it would do several power cycles and then turn off, but now it turns on but will not load the post screen or anything.

the computer does not respond to any keyboard commands, ie ctrl+alt+delete which would usualy restart the comp at bios stage.

allso the hdd makes a seriese (spelling?) of clicks for about 30 seconds then is silent, it does this with out ide cables connected aswell.

oh, my bios is by american megatrends (its an old one)

thanks

rising-damp

[Cup of Squirrel]

An old one aye? Let me put this in an experts term:

You PCs buggared

[rising-damp]

thanks but bo thanks, i said he bios was quite old ie 4 years but it is still a perfectley good computer and works well for what i use it for, if i wanted to know weather its buggered i would ask, i know its buggered thats why im asking for help in fixing it, thanks any way m8!

rising-damp

[Puckdropper]

Sounds like your hard drive may be dead... Have you tried booting the computer w/out the hard drive in it? Also, how's your CMOS battery holding up? Some computers don't like to work with a dead battery (Macs are normally the ones like this, but others may too).

[rising-damp]

i have tried with other hdd's no hdd's etc
i will try the batt thing, thanks

rising-damp

[Cup of Squirrel]

Hehe nps

This could have been caused by one hell of a virus. Its happened. But in the state its in now I cant think of any way to help you :/

[dlh6213]

Couldn't hurt to try another power supply if you can get a hold of one without buying it.

[aquarius]

Try one of these boot disks first to see if you can get it to boot up:-

http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

If not then open it up and re-seat the CPU, Memory and give it a clean by blowing the dust out.

[Puckdropper]

I don't think a virus would infect the computer in this way. If a virus can write to the Flash BIOS, computing as we know it is unsafe!

If you don't have another power supply, but have a volt meter, you can use the meter to determine if the voltages are correct and stable. On the drive power connectors, put the positive probe on the colored wire and the negative probe on the black. You should get a reading of either ~12 volts or ~5 volts depending. If it's not stable, then your PS is no good. You will have to have some load (a drive) on the PS to test it that way.

[rising-damp]

thanks for the suggestions but i still have had no success, i have an identical compter so i am going to swap out cpu, memmory, power supply, hdd etc. il let you know how i get on.

rising-damp

[Cup of Squirrel]

Thats the scary thing about programming, anything is possible :/

But if this is a virus then they must have gone through a wholeload of 100101010010...

[jifiii]

I had a problem with one of my HD, with what you were saying it was make a series of clicking sounds, well I jsut replace the HD and it worked fine after that.

[guitarcase]

If the POST doesnt load either then your BIOS battery may have run out..its this tiny circular battery on your computer motherboard, you may want to try replacing it...

[reigningscorpio]

Can someone please come up with a solution to this, I have the same problem, actually I've had it quite a few times, (I play with a lot of cpus for long time) the only way I have fixed them before is to try, try, quit for a day or two, try again, and it works!!!! ??? I would really like to know why this is. And please, if you don't know, don't answer.