my big cpu won’t turn on. its like its in a coma, instead of sleep mode. no attempts no noise no booting attempt. no blue screen of death. its not like I can’t replace it, I can, but my wife’s class reunion is next week, and all the data that she needs for the class book is on the unit. I just get one yellow light. no movement at all. help beyond a hammer to it all, would be appreciated. thanks.
Replacing the power supply is a simple fix. If that does nothing, your hard drive is toast. You can take it in and have someone try a recovery. Placing the hard drive in the freezer sometimes allows start up and possible transfer to another drive.
Haul it over to best buy and pay them to look at it. If it is a popular brand they will be able to tell you within 15 minutes what the problem is. If it is toast, they can probably work on the harddrive and get the files for you.
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Replacing the power supply is a simple fix. If that does nothing, your hard drive is toast. You can take it in and have someone try a recovery. Placing the hard drive in the freezer sometimes allows start up and possible transfer to another drive.
Your right on the power supply but if that doesn’t do it, It wouldn’t mean the Hard Drive is toast. If you have no power it’s got nothing to do with the hard drive. It could be the mother board or it could be a component connected to it.
If you need your data off the computer and can’t get this one going and have another computer here’s a simple fix. Go out and get an external hard drive box. Take the hard drive out of the computer and put it in the box and connect it to your other computer or laptop via USB. You will then be able to read everything that is on the drive.
I would also recommend having something like the USB drive to keep your computer backed up so you don’t have something like this happen again. You should always backup important files.
Power Cable, they do go bad..
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I agree with others that it is most likely a bad power supply or motherboard. There is one thing to try if you haven’t yet. Unplug the power cord, wait a few minutes and then plug it back in. Then go ahead and push the power button and see what happens. I am not sure what causes the problem, but I have seen a few computers where it seems like something is hanging up and the computer never fully shuts down.
Just thought, are you plugged into a Surge protector or GFI outlet? Check those switches.
I am assuming you mean your desktop pc is not turning on. If it doesn’t do anything, its either your powersupply or your motherboard. Even with a dead HD or such, you should get a startup screen or BSOD. Yellow amber light usually means overheated, power issues, or dead mobo. If its urgent that you need the data. You can pull the hard drive and pick up a HDD enclosure for $20 or less and read the HDD off a laptop or another pc. You would have to consider the type of connection the HDD uses, IDE or SATA.
where can I get an hdd enclosure for under$20? I was at best buy.. and for an old hard drive. they are over $24 ..and they want at least $50 for a newer hard drive box..
btw. I flunked the power install quiz.. I have at least one board or something that’s not plugged in..but I don’t know which one it is. I need to be put on the head start program and be remanded to the little bus for cpu training.. Its really funny.. in High school I read well over a book a week, some times in one day, and yet the guys who couldn’t finish a book could work on stuff and were as handy as you could possibly be.. I am just not handy…
If you look on your mobo, power to it is usually on the opposite side of where the component plugins are, such as your network/USB/Headphone etc. Usually near the cpu is where the power to that one goes. ETC, google your mobo and you should find a diagram. If you do work on your mobo, make sure your working in a static free area and rub the power supply first to ground.
Cheap enclosures can be found at microcenter if you live close to one, south mpls. You can find them for about $5, nothing fancy but to get the job done through USB2.0. Just have to know how old your hard drive is, if its the older ones, its a bit tricky to find IDE’s. You will find more SATA type connections. Not sure if we can post links but check this. HDD enclosures
Bestbuy costs for computer parts is about an arm and leg.
Who needs a HDD enclosure? At the least, just plug it in to the other computer, set the HDD on the desk. It works fine without an enclosure. Want an eclosure? Have another desktop PC? Simply open the case of the working computer and temporarily “install” the hard drive off the dead computer into a working one long enough to get the stuff off the drive you need. I have yet to see a computer that does not have at least one open drive slot in the case and an open HDD connector on the MB.
This also works in a pinch if you have an infected computer that will not clean up no matter what you do, piggyback it on a clean system and run your anti-virus, malware on the infected drive.
That would work also, but not a lot of people have two desktops, usually a desktop and laptop, etc, in that case you need to find power for the hdd to run on laptop.
where are you located at? I may be cheaper than best buy…
(not promoting a business, this is “side work”)
We use an adapter like this:
Where are you located at Grub? Microcenter in St. Louis Park has the external hard drive hookups (usually around 15-16 bucks)
It doesn’t sound like the hard drive is your problem, if the hard drive was dead the computer would at least still post.
Don’t rule out a dead stick of ram either – Many times if you have a bad stick or it came slightly unseated, it will cause the computer to not even POST.
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