Be Excellent To Each Other

Typical. I get extravagant and buy lots of lovely wine, and ten minutes later I can't turn my PC on. It starts up as normal, fan whirring, noises churning, red light on as usual. Alas, 'no input' says the monitor, and after a couple of minutes, the PC shuts itself off.

Any ideas, computer literate types?

This is not the ideal time for it to go boom boom.

Any beeps out of the machine? Have you reseated the video cables?

I'm no expert, and I don't pretend to be.. but it seems like the graphics card would be the first port of call for me!

Stupid question, but I do this for a living... Have you checked the monitor cable?

I have indeed checked the monitor cable. Alas, it was not that simple. Also, that probably wouldn't explain why it was turning itself off.

I'll try it again tomorrow, and fiddle about with things.

Does the computer make any beeping noises?

Hang on... Your PC is broke yet you're still posting on the forum!?!? I smell WITCH CRAFT!!!

he turned me into a newt.

I got better.

Is there any sort of short, relatively high-pitched tone produced by the PC as a signal, summons, or warning? A strident electronic sound like as what is emitted by your microwave?

Does the device emit any form of sonic distress signal at all? A beacon, as it were, warning no stranger to approach?

Does it smell of hammers?

Does it make a beeeeeep beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep beep bep bip noise or more like a beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeereeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeepperpppppppppppppppppppppp noise. Or a beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeegheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeettterertpppppppppppppp-p-p-p-p-p-p noise..... Followed by a dash?

What you obviously need is an iPad

Have you considered a Mac? *runs*

Has anybody noticed that Mac users are like Christians? They prey on the weak.

Hey Curio, WTB just called you weak.

I'm pretty sure that's the first twelve seconds of Jet Set Willy loading.

whenst thou ingiteth the spark within the magic talking box, is there, perchance a clarion blast in reply?

I'll check tomorrow and let you know. Or possibly tonight, depending on how drunk I get when I'm out.

WARNING. Do not attempt PC maintenance during drunk time.

"It's just a screw holding the case on, I'll have a look inside"

*wibble effect*

"Wow, that's a big fire!"

So, is it beeping then?

Alas, there was no beep when I switched it on last night.

Is that bad? I think it's probably bad, isn't it?

There should be at least one.

Any further opinions?

Yeah, it should beep.

The only other thing it might be is the power supply.

Open it up and make sure the power button's actually connected to the motherboad. I had it once where it had worked its way loose.

Well, he says it starts up as normal up to a point, so I doubt it's the power button.

I'd guess the PSU as well.

Sorry, I read that it wouldn't power on at all. When he pressed the button nothing happened.

Depending on your technical skill, you might be able to test it logically.

Open case and disconnect everything from the mobo aside from power, switches and LED indicators (oh and PC speaker). That means, pull every expansion card, hard drive, cd drive floppy drive, etc and make sure their power cables are out too.

Press power button. Any beeps?

If yes, then you can bet it's your PSU on the way out.

If no...

Borked Mobo would be my guess. Or it could of course, still be the PSU

Just an aside, my work PC doesn't beep when you start it either

The internal speaker may be disconnected, it isn't something worry about if the computer is actually booting fine.

That would be something for you to check Curio, make sure the internal speaker is connected. It usually plugs in around the same area on the motherboard that all the front panel stuff does.

It does all sound to me like a duff PSU. Can you borrow another from somewhere? If not the PSU, it's the motherboard and if that's the case there is the unfortunate possibility that it will have taken the CPU out with it. But for the time being I'd say the PSU is what you need to concentrate on.

Mine goes WOOOOOOOSH! as the fans go mental for 10 seconds. It may beep, I can't hear it.

As a hijack, I'm kicking it old school until monday. The supercomputer is packed away and I'm using a *ick* P4 with a SINGLE monitor.

I feel like an medieval.

You all lost me somewhere around PSU.

I think I'll buy me a new one.

Any recommendations for under 500 squids?

Technical Assessment: Curio
Result: Normal (for a Bear)

No games, right?

Just buy something like this:

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/topic ... l=en&s=dhs

Do these things have built in wireless?

I might get that, and some speakers to be playing the musics.

Or I could upgrade for more memory I don't need! Woohoo!

Unlikely. You're looking at £20 for a decent PCI or USB wireless card/dongle.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Edimax-EW-7128G ... 504&sr=8-1

I've got three of those. The antenna is marvellous. I have about 30 wifi points in my list. The entire street basically

No this isn't £500 but it's also far FAR more expensive new (£1600 or so). It also has Blu ray, the best CPU (I7) a good gaming card (1.8gb 260GTX) and a massive hard drive.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MW004-Alienware-A ... 1e5a1f4de5

That thing is a top end beast.

I know I know, it's double what you want to spend but I just wanted to let you know about it just incase you fancied something that wouldnt be out of date in a year.

As for buying Dell? Ebay is absolutely awash with brand new systems with full 1yr warranties for far less pennies than Dell want. Good old recycling laws.

Wow holy fuck these are new (to Ebay of course)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/XPS-700-Ref-HDL-1 ... 2a052f16fa

LOL that's rather funny. That thing could pretty much run any game.

SLI, a good core 2, 2gb ram, Creative Xfi and a decent sized hard drive for £230. haha, utter bargain !

JFC. Dual 7950? god, that's quad crossfire LOL. One of those gpus can still stand up to the latest games.

Fucking hell the CPU is going for £85 used

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/INTEL-E6700---2.6 ... a7ffd42690

That machine doesnt really take much thought really. LOL. At that price they're giving it away. That's a darn good core 2 aswell. One of the best made.

Fudge me, and another one !!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/XPS-710-Ref-8XV2R ... 2a052f13c9

Quad core intel, 2gb ram, SLI gpus, 500gb hard drive, media reader, Xfi, Physx card and a dvd writer for £280. LOOL. Deffo bargains of the week those fuckers.

Make sure your new one has a functioning PC speaker so you can hear it beep.

I have a USB dongle thingy. I would have thought they'd have added wireless capability as standard these days. It wasn't even offered in the 'Accessories' bit.

I might check out some of JC's ebay links tonight, but I am not a big fan of ebay, so may just buy a new Dell one or something instead.