BleepingComputer.com: Doing virus scan, walked away, PC completely bricked.

Hey everyone, I'm having some PC issues and I have no idea what I should do to resolve the problem.

I was doing a virus scan before class this morning (I don't know/think that this had anything to do with the problem), and I walked away to go eat breakfast and get ready to leave. When I came back I noticed my computer was off.

I figured the power went out or something, but I noticed everything else was on. My power strip is working because both monitors are on, but my PC isn't. I tried pressing the PC power button and couldn't get anything to happen.

I checked all the plugs and connections, all the power switches are on, and everything should be good to go. I am getting absolutely no signs of life when I hit the power button. I have no clue what to do to try and resolve this problem.

If there isn't an easy solution I'd rather not swap out parts. My PC is old and I'd prefer to upgrade rather than put a bandaid on the problem. However, I need to get all the files off my hard drive. I do freelance programming work and I have both my coding work and my school work on the hard drive.

So I guess what I'm asking is, if anyone can help get my computer booted up again AND/OR how I can restore all my files off a dead PC. I have other computers/laptops available if that would help.

Some basic stats about the PC:
Mobo: asus p4p800
CPU: 2.8ghz p4
Hard Drive: 120gb (forget brand/specs)
OS: Windows XP Pro

Let me know if you need any other info. I appreciate any help I can get, I've got comp sci work due on Friday and all my labs are already done, just sitting on my hard drive.

Thanks!

This post has been edited by hamluis: 28 September 2011 - 11:55 AM
Reason for edit: Moved from XP to Internal Hardware.

A simple thing that you can try is to unplug the power cord from the back of the system & let it sit for about a half hour.
I have seen that work many times before.
Worth a shot.

<<So I guess what I'm asking is, if anyone can help get my computer booted up again AND/OR how I can restore all my files off a dead PC.>>

If there is no sign of power...the obvious suspect would be the PSU, IMO. If you have access to another...switch a known good one into the system.

As for moving files...the simplest way that I know is to simply remove the hard drive and temporarily make it a secondary on a working system and move the desired data files.

Louis

Hey thanks for the responses so far guys. I tried out the unplug/plugin after 30 min and that didn't help.

I'm going out to get some compressed air now so I can clean out inside my tower and get some work done. Then I'll try swapping the psu or putting the drive in another pc.

My concern with putting the drive in another box was compatibility issues. I wasn't sure if my HD/Version of Windows was already expecting certain drivers and motherboard stuff when it booted up? If I can put the drive into another box and use it as primary or secondary that would be great.

Thanks for the help. Any other suggestions are also appreciated. Once I get back from the store I will try out those other solutions and see if I can rescue my files before this thing goes in the garbage. Computers are frustrating... lol.

Edit: nvm problem not solved

This post has been edited by NonProphet: 28 September 2011 - 02:31 PM

EDIT: New problem.

So last time I just plugged in the PSU, turned on the power, saw lights and fans, shut it off, and assumed it worked.

I then put the PSU in place, put the case back together, and plugged everything in.

I powered it up, and during the first screen, before it loads windows, it crashed.

Now I am back where I started. I press the power button, get no signs of life, and all that fun stuff, except this time I have the new PSU in place. This PSU is 300w instead of 500w, I don't know if that would have anything to do with it?

Any thoughts on what I can try now?

Thanks for the help.

Quick update for anyone that can help.

I've been messing around for awhile and I can get it to bootup to the starting windows screen then it shuts off.

The first screen is the mobo screen. Just a picture for the asus p4p800 mobo, and it says press del for setup.

Then it gives me the option to load windows normally or go into safe mode.

So far I've only tried to boot normally, and it gets to the loading windows screen with the blue progress bar, and then it randomly crashes somewhere in there.

Once it crashes, I have to unplug the power cord and plug it back in to get the computer to boot again.

Any more advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm stumped and spent my whole day trying to debug this thing.

Should note for some reason I was able to get logged in to safe mode, I saw my desktop.

I WAS SO CLOSE!

Then it crashed, again.

Define "crashed"

That is a vague term that can mean almost anything.
Exactly what happens?
Any error messages?

If you are going to connect the drive to another system do it as a slave.
If the drive is IDE you can disconnect the cdrom on the other system and connect it to there.
That is the easiest way to do it without changing jumpers.

You can tell the drive connection type (IDE or SATA) by looking at the data cable on the back of the drive. IDE has a grey ribbon cable about 4 inches wide. SATA uses a very thin cable. They way you connect the drive to another system depends on which interface the drive uses.

<<If I can put the drive into another box and use it as primary or secondary that would be great.>>

You cannot normally expect to move a hard drive from System A to System Z...and use it as a boot drive. It can only be a storage drive, unless you format/install in the new system...which defeats any attempt to move old data files.

Louis

NonProphet, on 28 September 2011 - 02:31 PM, said:

300 watt where there was a 500 watt? it could quite easily be overloading the power supply which will then shut down as a self protective measure. Overloaded power supply's shut down. Try a KNOWN GOOD POWER SUPPLY OF THE PROPER SIZE.

This is what I am thinking.

If you are seeing a notice about enter setup upon bootup, this suggests to me that your BIOS setting are defaulting back to default settings.

This can happen if your CMOS battery on your motherboard is dead.

Replace your motherboard CMOS battery, once you have put in a new battery, boot up your computer and enter your BIOS setup utility by hitting the Delete key.

Correct the time and date.

Make sure your drives are all detected by the BIOS, this includes SATA0 SATA1 etc.

(These settings below apply to PATA/IDE drives only.)
Primary MASTER
Primary SLAVE
Secondary MASTER
Secondary SLAVE

Under BOOT menu or BOOT options:

Make sure your PRIMARY hard drive containing bootable operating system is the first or second device listed, it is okay to have your optical drive listed as the first device on list, with your hard drive listed as the second device.

Save settings to CMOS by hitting F10 key, choose YES save to CMOS or SAVE changes and exit.

Allow system to boot up.

Please post back the results.

Bruce.

oops, Looks like I hit the censored caps lock key in my reply above and didn't notice it until just now. Apologies for the shouting.