help! my computer fell and it won't get up

woodstock

woodstock

Final Approach
Joined
Feb 23, 2005
Messages
9,342
Location
Out of a suitcase
Display Name
Display name:
iTravel
I figured someone here would know about these things.

this morning my home computer was buzzing along just fine. used it, went to get ready for work, came back about half an hour later, monitor was on standby (light orange). not unusual, but when I moved the mouse to start it up it wouldn't. hmmmmm

turned it on/off, monitor would not stay turned on - light orange, went to standby. i.e. something is wrong wiht the computer itself.

so I had no choice but to turn off the power surge - flick the switch. the computer itself of course would not turn off without my intervention like that. at that point the computer light itself was green - but there was no hum. (I also have rad speakers - subwoofer, etc.)

turned switch back on, monitor went on briefly then orange light. cable modem working. turned computer on - nothing. click click. I also noticed when I flicked the surge protector switch back on, the speakers DIDN'T thump like they do usually. no sound at all from them.

computer simply won't turn on. pushed button a few times. nothing. no humming, no nada. speakers are DOA too.

called my friend Mark, who put it together for me, he said maybe it's just the power supply (whatever that is). but who knows. he just gave me a brand new hard drive (two) last May and a new motherboard and a whole bunch of new things.

does any of this sound even vaguely familiar? :confused:
 
Sounds like the power supply to me. Your friend should be able to replace it fairly quickly.
 
whew, I hope so. I have my life on that damn thing.

what external backups drives are out there? I should start putting stuff outside. although I have two hard drives, the other one is independent of the main one - is it also vulnerable to a virus and etc? no emails go through it.
 
Agreed - sounds like the power supply is the most likely culprit. The power supply is the part you plug the big black heavy cable from the wall into, and converts the 120v power source into an assortment of + and - 12v and 6v channels. No power supply, nothing runs.

The good news is, power supplies are designed to fail safely - if something goes wrong they generally shut down before damage can occur to the computer.

You're looking at what... $40 - $50 to replace with a new 350W power supply...
 
Everything is vulnerable to a virus if its hooked up to a computer including external drives. Adequate virus protection is a MUST.

Regarding external backup systems - Best Buy and Comp Usa list an assortment of "One touch backup external hard drives"... I've never used one but they can give you a starting point, anyway. :)
 
corjulo said:
Power supply or logic board. You didn't say what kind it was.
Click to expand...

well, I just heard of the term power supply this morning at 9 AM, and logic board just now, so, I can't answer that question right now I'm afraid.
 
thanks ya'll. my friend Mark is going to look at it when I get back. I have a lot of stuff to take care of with this thing. any websites to download certain things?
 
corjulo means what kind of computer: PC based or MAC?

Download certain things like what?
 
Sounds like power supply. 'Though I did have a motherboard go bad in similar fashion. Most new computers have soft-switching through the motherboard, so it's easily possible that a bad motherboard can cause the problem.

Did you look at the back of the computer? Is there a circuit breaker or fuse on the power supply? Some have 'em, some don't.

I use an external hard drive to back up my system. 250 or 300 GB, USB2 or Firewire. Available online or from Sam's Club (or Costco) for a couple of hundred bucks. WinXP has a built-in backup utility.
 
I learned the hard way about backups...

Now, my daily backups of critical files and folders are done using Microsoft Backup directed to a separate internal drive.

For full system backups, I use an external USB2 drive cradle with a Western Digital 120GB internal drive dropped into it. $59 for the cradle, $80 for the drive at Circuit City. I found this to be cheaper than buying an external drive. Then I use Norton Ghost to do a drive copy of my main drive to the the external, followed by backup images of my other internal drives.

The daily backups take 5 minutes, and the once a week system backup takes about half an hour. Worth the time!

Dan
 
Is it safe to do a test, by using the power supply from the computer you are now typing with, and using it to check your defective computer? Or can they be differently powered? (and fry something?) A question for the gurus but that is a 'McIvor answer'.
Of course if the plugs are different shape, forget it.
 
It's a safe enough test, but its a real pita to perform and not recommended for people not comfortable with the innards of a computer.

Liz would be better off waiting on her friend to arrive before doing such a test - kinda like you don't try changing the landing light/tires/oil the first time on your own - you get a mechanic to supervise. :)
 
Greebo said:
corjulo means what kind of computer: PC based or MAC?

Download certain things like what?
Click to expand...

PC based. anti-spyware, virus, you name it. there's some sort of anti-virus on it but I don't know what it is.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
Is it safe to do a test, by using the power supply from the computer you are now typing with, and using it to check your defective computer? Or can they be differently powered? (and fry something?) A question for the gurus but that is a 'McIvor answer'.
Of course if the plugs are different shape, forget it.
Click to expand...

I'm actually at work, and the computer is at home. It will have to sit until i get back Tuesday. actually til the following wkd. sigh.
 
While it's probably the power supply, I agree with the 'could be the motherboard' assessment. All PC's nowadays are power-switched through the motherboard for power management.
 
Brian Austin said:
While it's probably the power supply, I agree with the 'could be the motherboard' assessment. All PC's nowadays are power-switched through the motherboard for power management.
Click to expand...

I had a BSD/Unix box break that way. Replaced MB, it's now running as a server :)
 
That correct, PC or Mac? If its a Mac I can direct you to the exact after market power supply (might even have one I can give you) and installation instructions. If its a PC I'm certain someone else can do the same. Power supplies are a common problem and easy to replace. Important point, this time of year you really need to be careful about static electricity damage when you open up your computer. A simple anti static wrist band is needed. Don't let any of your geek friends open up your computer if their not properly grounded.
 
thank you Dan, I spoke to my friend Mark and he told me to get a 350 or 400 (whatever that means) and my IT guy here at work is going to replace it for me. The power supply on this computer is 4 years old so I guess it's time?
 
woodstock said:
thank you Dan, I spoke to my friend Mark and he told me to get a 350 or 400 (whatever that means) and my IT guy here at work is going to replace it for me. The power supply on this computer is 4 years old so I guess it's time?
Click to expand...
Horsepower, Elizabeth, horsepower!!! :dance: Hope you have your high performance endorsement, 'cause you're getting a 400 hp power supply! :D
Just kidding, it's total watts rating of the power supply. Gotta have enough watts to run all the peripherals in the case.
 
That high performace endorsement may be gained by providing a sufficient quantity of donuts to your local IT professional - who will then dispense sufficient advice and crumbs to assist you in the future.
 
MSmith said:
That high performace endorsement may be gained by providing a sufficient quantity of donuts to your local IT professional - who will then dispense sufficient advice and crumbs to assist you in the future.
Click to expand...

actually, his quoted price is Heineken. sounds good to me.
 
Liz,

Unless you use your computer for:
1) High intensity graphics processing;
2) Cutting edge late model intensive gaming
3) Programming

You do not need a 350+ watt power supply. 300 will be fine.

If you do any of the above, or are powering four simultaneously spinning IDE devices, a high power video card and high power audio card, then 350 will do you fine.
 
what about if I check my email and websurf?

I do plan on getting a film scanner soon.

re: film scanners - anyone have an opinion on the Epson perfection 4180?
 
300W or even 250W will be more than adequate.

Geeks (me included) love to buy the most powerful, most newest equipment, just because it exists. Granted, a 350 doesnt cost that much more, and PC power supplies are intelligent - their rating is their maximum capacity, not how much they eat per hour - but still...why spend more for something you dont and wont need?
 
Using the Internet or talking to a scanner (the scanner will be plugged in on its own) don't add appreciable power usage. They're probably on the motherboard (USB and Ethernet) already.
 
well, here is hoping that is the ONLY problem and it magically starts working again when he puts the power supply on.
 
corjulo said:
That correct, PC or Mac? If its a Mac I can direct you to the exact after market power supply (might even have one I can give you) and installation instructions. If its a PC I'm certain someone else can do the same. Power supplies are a common problem and easy to replace. Important point, this time of year you really need to be careful about static electricity damage when you open up your computer. A simple anti static wrist band is needed. Don't let any of your geek friends open up your computer if their not properly grounded.
Click to expand...

How far back in the Mac history does your source go? Far enough to come up with a power supply for an LC III?
 
it was indeed the power supply. my IT guy at work came over and swapped it out. runs like a champ.

you learn something new every day!
 
woodstock said:
it was indeed the power supply. my IT guy at work came over and swapped it out. runs like a champ.

you learn something new every day!
Click to expand...
Here's what I learned lately...

Everything made it to Singapore pretty well. I was aware and had made the family aware of the power difference (220Volts vs. 110Volts in the US) so let's be really careful hooking stuff up. Some of it is going to need transformers!

I had set up one computer so the family would be in touch and had decided to defer setting up other computers and faxes and stuff until after my US trip.

The boss thought differently and had a neighbor hook up the second PC while I was at work - Poof! :zap!: The PC was dual voltage but it was manually switched.

Now here's what I learned - The Hewlett Packard company is really sneaky. You can't just go buy any old power supply. HP runs unique power settings on their motherboard so the power supply is unique.:confused:

Called HP and they wanted like 200 bucks for an HP one but it also had to be ordered from the states. I called HP in the states and basically the same story.:mad:

Here's the good news - Singapore is like the US was 30 years ago. They actually have repairmen who fix things. VCR's, TV's, camcorders and, yes, power supplies can all be repaired by little Mr. Fixit shops.

Once I tracked down the address of a Mr. Fixit that does computer power supplies he said, "No problem. I can fix but a little expensive." - :( - "OK, how much is a little expensive?"

"Forty bucks." - In Singapore dollars that is like $28 US. :D He fixed it in 2 days.

What was amazing is that this shop had nothing but piles of power supplies all being soldered and repaired by Mr. Fixit. Must be a market for this stuff.

Way cool!

Interesting what a throw away society we have become in the US.
 
Dan Deutsch said:
Interesting what a throw away society we have become in the US.
Click to expand...

I think part of the reason we are such a throwaway society is embedded in your email... when repair/replace a part costs enough money, you may as well throw it away. I have a digital camera, takes great pics, I love it, but I've dropped it at least once and to fix it will be at least half the cost of a brand new one. maybe a little more than half. it's 18 months old, I may as well pay for a brand new and improved one. (a brand new one is under 400 bucks - if it were 15 grand I'd likely think about fixing the old one).

do we maybe make things cheaply enough that it's smarter to buy new? which end is driving it?

in your case, I don't know how powerful your computer was, but supposedly you can get a new computer for what, 800 bucks? 700? the cost of that little power supply approaches becoming rational for a non-computer savvy person to buy a new one. what would the cost need to be for you to just say "eh, I'll get a brand new zippy computer".

now my own computer was built by a friend who is a whiz kid, and every so often he puts all brand new stuff in it so right now it's less than a year old (despite having been initially built in 2001). if it goes down I just have him replace - he doesn't charge anything.
 
Dan Deutsch said:
Must be a market for this stuff.
Click to expand...

Junk shops.

You'd be amazed how much you can save by fixing things vs replacing. My 486 laptop screen went blank one day. Compaq said $500 display + HV power supply for it $300 plus cabling plus..... $900 assuming nothing else is broke. (For reference: I paid $120 for the whole computer). I opened it up and a teeny hold down screw had worked itself loose and managed to find it's way to the HV backlighting lines and popped the picofuse just before the HV transformer. Trip to the junk shop fixed it for 9 cents, actually 4 cents but I bought two: One in the PCB, one taped to the inside of the case nearby in case it pops again. I have a $700 TV from the late 1980's that was about to be heave ho'ed into the garbage that I fixed for under $1.00 doing the same general thing with a couple capacitors.

I do this kind of thing all the time. People throw away perfectly good stuff all the time without even thinking about what might be the problem. I picked up more than one hard drive for free because someone couldn't read the data on it because it was formatted with the wrong version of DOS and one brand spanking new one straight out of the box that had never been partitioned in the first place (unreadable = failed = garbage can)

Sigh.
 
woodstock said:
I think part of the reason we are such a throwaway society is embedded in your email... when repair/replace a part costs enough money, you may as well throw it away.
Click to expand...
Oh, I agree and the I guess that's the point I'm trying to make.

HP makes a "unique" power supply and effectively ties up the aftermarket for HP power supplies - i.e. $200 bucks.

I can buy a generic power supply for $40 but it won't work in the HP.

So I am driven to a "new" PC because my value equation has been influenced by HP.

In reality - the part that was replaed was an IC from Taiwan that a machine built for 10 cents - The guy in Singapore charged $28 bucks to solder it in (Oh and he had to know which IC was bad ;-).

I am happy, the Singaporean Mr. FixIt is happy and HP can kiss my...
 
fgcason said:
I do this kind of thing all the time. People throw away perfectly good stuff all the time without even thinking about what might be the problem. I picked up more than one hard drive for free because someone couldn't read the data on it because it was formatted with the wrong version of DOS and one brand spanking new one straight out of the box that had never been partitioned in the first place (unreadable = failed = garbage can)Sigh.
Click to expand...
You sound like one handy guy to have around!
 
Dan Deutsch said:
snip
In reality - the part that was replaed was an IC from Taiwan that a machine built for 10 cents - The guy in Singapore charged $28 bucks to solder it in (Oh and he had to know which IC was bad ;-).
Click to expand...
Itemized bill for power supply repair:
Parts: 1 0.5 amp microfuse $ 0.25
Labor: Soldering 0.2 hours@ $25/hr - $ 5.00
Knowing which part to replace - $22.75
 
HP has really taken the lead (or is it the tail?) in making things device/country specific. THey led the field in putting chips in ink cartridges so you couldn't buy aftermarket or refilled inkjet cartridges (and sued some folks that tried to reset the chips). They've now made those cartridges and chips country-specific (i.e. a printer made in the US can't use Europe ink cartridges and vice-versa).

this was one of the "better" things to come out of the Compaq merger - NOT :mad:
 
I think it's time for a consumer revolt! I'm recently completely sick and tired of DVDs that will not allow you to skip thru the FBI warning and previews and all the rest of the crap they stuff into the front end of those things.
 
gkainz said:
I think it's time for a consumer revolt! I'm recently completely sick and tired of DVDs that will not allow you to skip thru the FBI warning and previews and all the rest of the crap they stuff into the front end of those things.
Click to expand...
UGH. This surprised me on my latest few. Good grief, I thought we got past all of that leaving tapes behind. Blah.
 
Just try and add some internal goodies to a PC with an HP motherboard. I've had no trouble with hard drives, but tried to add a DVD burner I got for Christmas. The system wouldn't even acknowledge that it was there. We know it was good as we dropped it into a system with a non-HP motherboard and it fired right up. Grrrr :mad: However, the HP system is alive and well (and paid for). What will finally kill it is when I find a compelling reason to upgrade from a 1 GHz Pentium III system (terrible attitude for an engineer at Intel, isn't it?). I would like things to happen faster, but cheapskate that I am (I am a pilot, after all) I just can't justify the expenditure. Let's see, new computer for $1000. How many hours in the 172 is that? :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top