[steven1]

reconfiguring my hard drive, is it difficult to do?, will i lose any files?, how likely is it to solve my problem?

[alex]

Before we go down that route, can i ask two questions:

1) How confident are you in your abilities with windows and hardware? (a no b.s answer please).

2) Is the pc still covered under warranty?

If you're not very confident i'd advise not to go down this route as i may be wrong and messing with the boot file could only compound your problems. Again, its difficult sometimes to confirm what the problem is just from a post. The simple fact the moderator and myself both arn't sure (and are disagreeing) testifies to this.

My concern is for your coursework, if i'm wrong them you lose valuable time for retrieving the data.

If the pc is still covered under warranty, just take it to them. If its not, and you're not very confident i'd advise taking it to a shop for fixing.

I'll happily talk you through it, but be sure of which way you want to go first.

Also, going forward, once you get it sorted it might be worth investing in a cheap external drive so you can save copies of files, that way if your pc crashes and you can't get at your data, you'll have a usb external hdd you can just plug into your laptop. Or at the very least copy files to a cd.

[steven1]

well i'm quite confident with using software, however the most complicated thing i've ever done hardware wise, is taking out the graphics card yesterday, so obviously i've got no experience. Having said that i think i would quited capable, to be honest ur probly a better judge of that than me considering i really know how difficult it is to do. And the warranty ran out in 2005

By the way, my brother has posted an old 16mb graphics card to me, and all going well i should receive it tomorrow morning. will a 16mb card work on a relatively modern computer?

[Dave Hybrid]

Originally Posted by steven1 By the way, my brother has posted an old 16mb graphics card to me, and all going well i should receive it tomorrow morning. will a 16mb card work on a relatively modern computer?

Providing it has the same slot type as your old gfx card it will work fine.

[mcbee]

It sounds that your computer isn't POSTing which means that it is not getting as far as windows. Before windows loads the computer goes through the POST check when you should hear a single beep if all is ok. You would also hear the fans running and the Hard drive spinning up as well. If you don't hear the HD spinning your problem arises before windows. If the BIOS cannot find a boot file or operating system you may get a message stating so and telling you to load a bootable disc. If the problem was in the Hard drive you would still have a text screen as your monitor would still function. It is not easy to pinpoint your problem without an accurate description of the events that do take place when you switch on. If there is a problem with your graphics card alone you should get a long continuous beep(I think) so there must be something else wrong. Switching off at the socket normally wouldn't wreck your computer. You need to do a hardware check before a software check. Can you describe accurately what happens when you switch on.

[alex]

:( Urgh, now 3 of us are giving you different ideas.

Mcbee's right though, can you accurately describe in exacting sentences exactly what happens, and in what order, from the moment you press the 'on' button/switch on the pc please.

Had a pal round earlier (he's a pc technician), described the problem, as best i could, to him. First thing he said was gpu, but as you'd tried that, he said hard drive failure, or the boot file.

So thats four of us stumped.

So can i strongly suggest you put an exact description of what happens when you power up, or (as time is pushing on for your project) you swallow your fear and go tell mum so you can take it to a shop to get looked at. Or even better, pull out your own cash, sneak it to a shop yourself and mum need never know. :twisted:

[steven1]

ok, sorry i havnt posted for a while, i'm having problems with the internet, i've managed to get an extention on my coursewrk till friday,

ok, here's what happens when i switch on the computer, i click the on button on the front, all the little LED's light up, the fan next to the power cable spins, another fan on the side spins (is that the HD?), and it all sounds the same as when it worked. apart from it doesnt beep anymore, and used to beep once.

dont know if thts helpful, but i do know that sooner or later this is gonna come to an end, wether it results in me failing my GCSE's or finally getting the computer to work

[alex]

Hardware probably not software related.

It's gonna be the motherboard or (and my favourite) the hard disk.

To be frank, it would be very difficult to fix it on here. I strongly advise you take it to get looked at considering the timeframe you have.

Sorry fella.

[steven1]

well it still could be the graphics card seen as the one i got off ma brother didnt fit

[mcbee]

I don't think it's the graphics card. If the motherboard is ok and the graphics card is faulty you should get a beep error code. The fact that there is no beep may point to the motherboard unless the mb speaker has stopped working. As Alex states it may not be possible to diagnose your problem remotely.

[alex]

Hey Steven.

Apologies, was under the impression (from a previous post you made) that you'd tried the other graphics card you got and it just didn't resolve the issue, not that it didn't fit.

I'm still leaning toward the hdd, whether the boot file or the hdd itself.