Kansasdad Posted November 16, 2007 Group: Diamond Member Followers: 1 Topic Count: 19 Topics Per Day: 0.00 Content Count: 1,227 Content Per Day: 0.18 Reputation: 6 Days Won: 0 Joined: 05/10/2005 Status: Offline Birthday: 08/19/1964 Share Posted November 16, 2007 Ok while we are getting free computer help, while running my home computer I started smelling something getting hot. I shut it down as fast as I could. Now it won,t boot at all, nothing on the screen. Do you think it is the processor, motherboard, memory, or videocard? I had an old hard drive I swapped in and still get nothing so I don't think it is the harddrive. I also had a spare power supply and still nothing. I did switch the memory to the second bank. I have a single 1 gig stick. It started to boot and then froze. Now I get a total black screen. Thanks, K.D. Is the system back to it's original state? You mentioned that you changed things around. Usually, when you get a smell like that, it is the power supply, but you threw me off saying that you rebooted after changing the memory from one bank to the other and it started to boot. My first thought was the power supply. I had an extra. I tried it and it still didn't work. Maybe the reason it is an extra is because it didn't work either....have to think about that. Yes that is what confused me as well. I have one stick of memory. I switched it to the second bank and it started to boot, but froze. after I hit the reset it stopped booting completely again. Underpowered power supply would freeze a boot....thinking. Yes I have it back to it's original configuration. I might try a third power supply from a working computer. I have 3 About the power supply. Ensure it puts out enough watts for your system. It has to be at least as powerful as the first. Do you hear any beeps when you boot up? If so, count them and go the you BIOS's site to troubleshoot the code. It will tell you what is wrong. Some BIOS's sound like morse code and others don't. If you can't even get that far ... you are not getting any power. OneLight I tried a 3rd power supply, 450 watt. And I still get nothing. I do get lights on the CD, power switch, Ethernet. I am sure it is not the power supply. I do not get any beeps, and the harddrive is not engaging. I saw on E-bay a motherboard analyser for $18 are they worth purchasing. Otherwise it could be the processor, motherboard or memory. As best as I can tell. Thanks, K.D. I would of said that you fried your motherboard, but you are getting a light on your NIC, which indicates that there is power going through the board. Still, only part of it could be fried. Since you are not getting any beeps, then your BIOS is not being run, which is part of the board. I also question why your are getting lights on your CD but not your hard drive? Neither are directly plugged into your motherboard and do not require the board to do anything. Very puzzling. I never used, or heard of, a motherboard analyzer. While on E-Bay, you may want to check out the prices of a motherboard. Praying ... OneLight Sounds like the motherboard went, if it were the RAM or CPU you would still likely get at least an error tone from the bios. The original PSU may have gone bad and fried the motherboard, that happens often. Does the original PSU smell burnt? I have not pulled the CPU yet. I will see if its looks brown. It would be nice if I only had to buy one and not both the CPU and Motherboard. Thanks, K.D. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willow99 Posted November 18, 2007 Group: Junior Member Followers: 0 Topic Count: 2 Topics Per Day: 0.00 Content Count: 80 Content Per Day: 0.01 Reputation: 0 Days Won: 0 Joined: 11/10/2007 Status: Offline Birthday: 06/05/1952 Share Posted November 18, 2007 Any computer guru worth his salt will be able to get your pics and other personal stuff off your crashed computer. Make sure they don't just wipe the lot and rebuild coz once that is done it's REALLY tough to retrieve it. Onelight is right. Having those two antivirus programs will cause conflicts. I also dabble with PC's and have found that with AVAST antivirus and SPYBOT both installed the nasties have been long gone from my machines. Cheers If Windows won't boot at all, you can still get the stuff off by using a Linux Live-CD. One of those boots the Linux OS off the CD drive and will read both FAT32 and NTFS formats from the hard disk. (FAT32 = Win 98 and earlier & NTFS = XP and higher.) There are quite a few different ones and they can be downloaded for free and burned to cd. I keep several around in my "tool box" for dealing with things like that. Once Linux is up, I can copy anything I need to from the PC's hard drive to an external hd, usb stick, and in one case - a guy's camera (that was all he had at the time.) I need help! I wasn't permitted to start a new thread here so I'm hoping someone will answer my post anyway. I'm trying to learn all I can about computers but my husband doesn't know much and doesn't care to learn. He says a hacker has planted a porno movie on his puter. I am doubtful this can be done. He has his computer password protected and keeps his office locked at all times. So no one there could have downloaded the movie on him. It's in his downloaded files. I'm desperate to know the truth about this. Please somebody who knows this stuff answer me ASAP. Please move this post if it needs be. Thank you so much, Willow99 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WrenchGuy Posted November 18, 2007 Group: Members Followers: 0 Topic Count: 0 Topics Per Day: 0 Content Count: 51 Content Per Day: 0.01 Reputation: 0 Days Won: 0 Joined: 11/05/2006 Status: Offline Share Posted November 18, 2007 Any computer guru worth his salt will be able to get your pics and other personal stuff off your crashed computer. Make sure they don't just wipe the lot and rebuild coz once that is done it's REALLY tough to retrieve it. Onelight is right. Having those two antivirus programs will cause conflicts. I also dabble with PC's and have found that with AVAST antivirus and SPYBOT both installed the nasties have been long gone from my machines. Cheers If Windows won't boot at all, you can still get the stuff off by using a Linux Live-CD. One of those boots the Linux OS off the CD drive and will read both FAT32 and NTFS formats from the hard disk. (FAT32 = Win 98 and earlier & NTFS = XP and higher.) There are quite a few different ones and they can be downloaded for free and burned to cd. I keep several around in my "tool box" for dealing with things like that. Once Linux is up, I can copy anything I need to from the PC's hard drive to an external hd, usb stick, and in one case - a guy's camera (that was all he had at the time.) I need help! I wasn't permitted to start a new thread here so I'm hoping someone will answer my post anyway. I'm trying to learn all I can about computers but my husband doesn't know much and doesn't care to learn. He says a hacker has planted a porno movie on his puter. I am doubtful this can be done. He has his computer password protected and keeps his office locked at all times. So no one there could have downloaded the movie on him. It's in his downloaded files. I'm desperate to know the truth about this. Please somebody who knows this stuff answer me ASAP. Please move this post if it needs be. Thank you so much, Willow99 Well to be honest, its not a strait forward answer...can unwanted files be downloaded to ones computer? Yes, it can happen, but its not very likely unless they are visiting websites that have obviously questionable content to begin with. Leaving a computer without anti-virus and anit-spyware software also opens it to all kinds of malware that will blow your mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneLight Posted November 18, 2007 Group: Royal Member Followers: 22 Topic Count: 1,294 Topics Per Day: 0.21 Content Count: 31,762 Content Per Day: 5.23 Reputation: 9,762 Days Won: 115 Joined: 09/14/2007 Status: Offline Share Posted November 18, 2007 Any computer guru worth his salt will be able to get your pics and other personal stuff off your crashed computer. Make sure they don't just wipe the lot and rebuild coz once that is done it's REALLY tough to retrieve it. Onelight is right. Having those two antivirus programs will cause conflicts. I also dabble with PC's and have found that with AVAST antivirus and SPYBOT both installed the nasties have been long gone from my machines. Cheers If Windows won't boot at all, you can still get the stuff off by using a Linux Live-CD. One of those boots the Linux OS off the CD drive and will read both FAT32 and NTFS formats from the hard disk. (FAT32 = Win 98 and earlier & NTFS = XP and higher.) There are quite a few different ones and they can be downloaded for free and burned to cd. I keep several around in my "tool box" for dealing with things like that. Once Linux is up, I can copy anything I need to from the PC's hard drive to an external hd, usb stick, and in one case - a guy's camera (that was all he had at the time.) I need help! I wasn't permitted to start a new thread here so I'm hoping someone will answer my post anyway. I'm trying to learn all I can about computers but my husband doesn't know much and doesn't care to learn. He says a hacker has planted a porno movie on his puter. I am doubtful this can be done. He has his computer password protected and keeps his office locked at all times. So no one there could have downloaded the movie on him. It's in his downloaded files. I'm desperate to know the truth about this. Please somebody who knows this stuff answer me ASAP. Please move this post if it needs be. Thank you so much, Willow99 Well to be honest, its not a strait forward answer...can unwanted files be downloaded to ones computer? Yes, it can happen, but its not very likely unless they are visiting websites that have obviously questionable content to begin with. Leaving a computer without anti-virus and anit-spyware software also opens it to all kinds of malware that will blow your mind. I agree about malware, worms and viruses, but not a complete movie, unless the system did not even have a firewall running and the system allows someone else to log on, which would require someone to understand how this is done in order to have it allowed. If a person does not know how to open the network up, I would say that it was downloaded on purpose. The OS is not set open as much as this would require. This is just my opinion, and without being on the system to see how it is set up, it is only my best guess. OneLight Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grace222 Posted November 19, 2007 Group: Junior Member Followers: 1 Topic Count: 29 Topics Per Day: 0.00 Content Count: 99 Content Per Day: 0.02 Reputation: 12 Days Won: 0 Joined: 09/17/2007 Status: Offline Share Posted November 19, 2007 I've experienced this before viruses are like sin - try to invade our lives and destroy us! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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