[Cuterpuppet]

Hey, never posted one of these before but then again never had any major problems that I couldn't fix. Here it goes.

A few days ago I was on my computer doing my usual business, conferencing a group of friends on Skype. Went to go turn on a game, a very simple one at that ( Gunbound ). Which has to be one of the games that require none other than a crappy computer just to run. So I'm not so worried about my spec's being too low. Well any who when I went to initiate the game my computer shut down, didn't over clock or anything or I would have seen it most likely. So I waited a few minutes before turning the computer back on. Turned it on, no boot.

This is what I gather so far:

Plug the power cord into the main jack, it powers on.
Cannot shut the tower off manually by the power button.
HDD activity light is solid amber.
PSU fan runs, so does the heat sink fan over the core.
DVD and CD drives don't function, nothing opens.
LED lights power on keyboard but no input apparently.
No beeps heard at power on at all.

I've tried trouble shooting as far as I possibly could with my basic knowledge:

Figured maybe it's my memory, tried the eraser end on the gold plating and nothing.

Tried resetting the CMOS both ways removing the pin cover over P1 and P2 and back, negative charging with the battery itself etc, nothing resulted.

Switched the memory to the second slot, nothing.

Checked around to make sure none of the capacitors were blown or had leaked, poked around all the ports and prongs nothing bent out of place, everything seemed fine.

I even bought a new PSU thinking maybe it's not distributing the power correctly, and the same results as my old PSU.

Then after that I tried other HDD's I have laying around with the new PSU which is an Antec Basiq 350 WATT ATX12V v2.01pin. When I did that to the other HDD's three of them are regular old IBM's and another with SATA connectors from a Sony Vaio, the HDD activity light was off completely no blinking amber or green light nothing solid for all of the rest except the original HDD that I used.

My computer is a factory setting E-Machine W3052 model with Windows XP Pro installed, the only thing that has been added into it would be the extra CD drive nothing more.

Hoping someone can give me an answer as to how I can boot up my computer once again, please help and thank you for reading as I know it is.. quite a bit. lol

[Tyrsonswood]

You could try re-seating the CPU, you'll have to apply new thermal paste as well. Sometimes with older systems, the CPU could creep out if the socket........

It does really sound like PSU, BUT since a new one didn't fix it..... motherboard?

Bugs me that the CD drives won't open, and the different reactions to hard drives.

[Optix]

My first thought is that it sounds like your board is bricked.

If it were your CPU creeping out of the socket (remember, metal expands and contracts as you power your rig on and off) it should still try to post and give a code in the form of a beep. Mine does at least.

You have done some pretty good troubleshooting so far but try reseating the CPU and boot with only one memory DIMM installed, no optical drives and only your primary hard drive connected. Also double check all of your connections from your PSU and on your various components. If it still will not give you any POST beeps you may need to look for a new board.

I'm with Tyrsonswood on this one. The fact that your drives won't open and your hard drives don't react the same way has me a bit stumped and I may be putting the cart before the horse.

When I had one go I could turn on the rig, the fans would spin and the hard drive activity LED stayed solid. No POST, no beeps, nothing. No visible signs of damage either.

[Cuterpuppet]

Tyrsonswood <

I'll try re-seating the CPU just to see what happens in the mean time.

Already putting together a new system for the next two weeks, in need of some sort of recording studio urgently so trying to fix this as a spare will keep me busy and entertained. ( frustrated lol )

And yes! I've heard of this happening to countless people yet I've only experienced my own having the problem where the drives don't open thus far. Really has been flipping me up and out with these reactions.

Optix <

I attempted your advice before post date earlier on during the day, which in turn had me putting together something else. Always hate to think I have a lost cause in my hands that I can't fix but most likely this is one of those cases right?

Thanks to the both of you for the advice it is greatly appreciated, I'll post further if anything advances or sadly if something becomes failure again. lol