My PC isn't working. How do I find out why?

[lightng]

Start with the absolute minimum hardware configuration then add one component at a time. If your PC wont even give the correct power on self test beeps after reboot and you don't have any other kit to swap out, you're fooked - sorry. Get another PC.

[wc2]

If you are not getting any warning beeps - Chances are it's the power supply.

Even if you get power LED's etc - Worst Case... Motherboard

[lightng]

If you are not getting any warning beeps - Chances are it's the power supply.

...and you can affirm or rule out whether its a PSU issue with a multimeter.

[d000hg]

Update: bought the cheapest graphics card from a local store for £30, and plugged it in. No change.
I did note my PC's "status light" (a ring around the power button on my Fujitsu AMD3800X2) was glowing yellow for a second when turning on, which I don't recall before - normally blue. If I had the manual maybe it would mean something.

Anyway... working on the laptop until my cheap £309 PC arrives from PCWorld. Then will check if the HDD survived, though not a big deal if it didn't... personal work online in SVN.

Has Hard-disk interface technology changed the last couple of years? My PC is 5 years old, will the disk likely plug in?

If not, can one buy an adapter that will make a normal internal HDD accessible through USB as an external disk? I assume external USB drives are really normal drives with an adapter built in?

[BoredBloke]

This might sound stupid, but unplug one of you monitors and boot it. If that doesn't work try with just the other. I was running mine with 2 screens until recently and what you are seeing was exactly what I was getting. For some reason it decided it didn't like one of the screens but set both to standby. It works fine now that I have it back to a single screen!

[Jaws]

Has Hard-disk interface technology changed the last couple of years? My PC is 5 years old, will the disk likely plug in?

If not, can one buy an adapter that will make a normal internal HDD accessible through USB as an external disk? I assume external USB drives are really normal drives with an adapter built in?

If your HDD is IDE, it is possible the new machine may support it as well, but the last PC I bought only had support for SATA.

A search on Ebay should answer your adapter question.

[administrator]

I have seen SATA to IDE adapters before. My most recent PC (bought components in Jan) still had an IDE connector as well as SATA so you may be lucky.

[d000hg]

Looks like I can get an external IDE/SATA -> USB adapter including power supply for < £20. I might just do that, rather than mess about with opening up the case, plugging in my disk, accidentally setting it as the boot disk, etc, etc.

Do drives still use jumpers to mark them as master/slave or they gone the way of motherboard jumpers?

[xoggoth]

Lots of turn it off, then turn it on again advice on here but actually my PC gets just the same problem if it wakes up after going into power saving mode, no signals on monitors. Turning the whole lot (PC and monitors) off at wall is only thing that works.