Any computer geeks.....

[pinkfloyd1973]

My 5 year-old Compaq Presario desktop computer is on the fritz, it started with the monitor. My monitor went fizzy all of a sudden and I had to hold down the button to turn it off (I know, bad idea), then when I rebooted it, it would not go past the Compaq screen so I forced it to turn off again. NOW, the computer only boots up partially (I say this because I never remembered hearing a beep) and the keyboard and monitor won't work.......did I fry my motherboard? Is there any way to fix it?

[S2M]

My 5 year-old Compaq Presario desktop computer is on the fritz, it started with the monitor. My monitor went fizzy all of a sudden and I had to hold down the button to turn it off (I know, bad idea), then when I rebooted it, it would not go past the Compaq screen so I forced it to turn off again. NOW, the computer only boots up partially (I say this because I never remembered hearing a beep) and the keyboard and monitor won't work.......did I fry my motherboard? Is there any way to fix it?

I'm told praying works.

[pinkfloyd1973]

My 5 year-old Compaq Presario desktop computer is on the fritz, it started with the monitor. My monitor went fizzy all of a sudden and I had to hold down the button to turn it off (I know, bad idea), then when I rebooted it, it would not go past the Compaq screen so I forced it to turn off again. NOW, the computer only boots up partially (I say this because I never remembered hearing a beep) and the keyboard and monitor won't work.......did I fry my motherboard? Is there any way to fix it?

I'm told praying works.

and a hammer?

[ebake02]

My 5 year-old Compaq Presario desktop computer

There's your problem.

[pinkfloyd1973]

My 5 year-old Compaq Presario desktop computer

There's your problem.

Well it's better than an Acer or an eMachine

[S2M]

My 5 year-old Compaq Presario desktop computer

There's your problem.

Be nice...this was MY first computer

[ebake02]

My 5 year-old Compaq Presario desktop computer

There's your problem.

Well it's better than an Acer or an eMachine

Or a Gateway.

[ebake02]

My 5 year-old Compaq Presario desktop computer

There's your problem.

Be nice...this was MY first computer

My first experience with a computer was the old Apple IIe in elementary school.

[pinkfloyd1973]

My 5 year-old Compaq Presario desktop computer

There's your problem.

Well it's better than an Acer or an eMachine

Or a Gateway.

I know for a fact that eMachines have a life of about 3 or four years before you fix it, and 5 years total before it's a desk decoration

[ebake02]

My 5 year-old Compaq Presario desktop computer

There's your problem.

Well it's better than an Acer or an eMachine

Or a Gateway.

I know for a fact that eMachines have a life of about 3 or four years before you fix it, and 5 years total before it's a desk decoration

You have the same luck I had with HP laptops. I went through 2 in six years. The Dell I have now is the third laptop I've had since 2002.

[tater1977]

My 5 year-old Compaq Presario desktop computer

There's your problem.

Be nice...this was MY first computer

My first experience with a computer was the old Apple IIe in elementary school.

My 1st experience with computers way back to the old Fortran programming. Where you ended up with about
500 punchcards for a simple program... yes ...no ...go here..go there...lol
glad its got simpler...

[YoungJRNY]

My 5 year-old Compaq Presario desktop computer is on the fritz, it started with the monitor. My monitor went fizzy all of a sudden and I had to hold down the button to turn it off (I know, bad idea), then when I rebooted it, it would not go past the Compaq screen so I forced it to turn off again. NOW, the computer only boots up partially (I say this because I never remembered hearing a beep) and the keyboard and monitor won't work.......did I fry my motherboard? Is there any way to fix it?

Since you're having trouble with your monitor & it started there, your monitor could be shitting the bed or since your image has been going fuzzy, that could be a video card issue as well. When the computer boots up with the fuzzy monitor, do you still hear the fans running inside your system?

[G.I.Jim]

Just send Deano a PM. He is a self-proclaimed genius, and should have no problem fixing ANY problem you come up with.

[pinkfloyd1973]

My 5 year-old Compaq Presario desktop computer is on the fritz, it started with the monitor. My monitor went fizzy all of a sudden and I had to hold down the button to turn it off (I know, bad idea), then when I rebooted it, it would not go past the Compaq screen so I forced it to turn off again. NOW, the computer only boots up partially (I say this because I never remembered hearing a beep) and the keyboard and monitor won't work.......did I fry my motherboard? Is there any way to fix it?

Since you're having trouble with your monitor & it started there, your monitor could be shitting the bed or since your image has been going fuzzy, that could be a video card issue as well. When the computer boots up with the fuzzy monitor, do you still hear the fans running inside your system?

Yes I do, someone said to unplug it for a minute

[pinkfloyd1973]

Just send Deano a PM. He is a self-proclaimed genius, and should have no problem fixing ANY problem you come up with.

[artist4perry]

Just send Deano a PM. He is a self-proclaimed genius, and should have no problem fixing ANY problem you come up with.

Send him a steamy OWS present in a box from me while your at it!

[YoungJRNY]

My 5 year-old Compaq Presario desktop computer is on the fritz, it started with the monitor. My monitor went fizzy all of a sudden and I had to hold down the button to turn it off (I know, bad idea), then when I rebooted it, it would not go past the Compaq screen so I forced it to turn off again. NOW, the computer only boots up partially (I say this because I never remembered hearing a beep) and the keyboard and monitor won't work.......did I fry my motherboard? Is there any way to fix it?

Since you're having trouble with your monitor & it started there, your monitor could be shitting the bed or since your image has been going fuzzy, that could be a video card issue as well. When the computer boots up with the fuzzy monitor, do you still hear the fans running inside your system?

Yes I do, someone said to unplug it for a minute

That's good that your fan is still running because that tells you your inside components, mainly the CPU, is still getting the right amount air ventilation and not overheating. Usually when you're dealing with hardware like a video card, the system will beep a couple times to tell you it's a hardware issue and since you hear the fans running and that you said you don't remember hearing any beeps, that's a good thing. Unplug your monitor for a few minutes, plug it back in and boot up and see what you get. Do you have any other monitors in the house you can test by any chance to see if it's a monitor issue?

[pinkfloyd1973]

That's good that your fan is still running because that tells you your inside components, mainly the CPU, is still getting the right amount air ventilation and not overheating. Usually when you're dealing with hardware like a video card, the system will beep a couple times to tell you it's a hardware issue and since you hear the fans running and that you said you don't remember hearing any beeps, that's a good thing. Unplug your monitor for a few minutes, plug it back in and boot up and see what you get. Do you have any other monitors in the house you can test by any chance to see if it's a monitor issue?

Yes I do, but even though the monitor messed up, I think it might be more from me forcing it to restart

[Rick]

That's good that your fan is still running because that tells you your inside components, mainly the CPU, is still getting the right amount air ventilation and not overheating. Usually when you're dealing with hardware like a video card, the system will beep a couple times to tell you it's a hardware issue and since you hear the fans running and that you said you don't remember hearing any beeps, that's a good thing. Unplug your monitor for a few minutes, plug it back in and boot up and see what you get. Do you have any other monitors in the house you can test by any chance to see if it's a monitor issue?

Yes I do, but even though the monitor messed up, I think it might be more from me forcing it to restart

It doesn't hurt a computer to hold in the power button until it shuts off. The fact that it doesn't boot up means that there is something else wrong. I will assure you that you did no damage by holding in the power button.

I'm going to have to disagree with Travis though, as the symptoms you have described, that being the distorted monitor, sound exactly like overheating. And while your fan may still be spinning, the insides of a 5 year old computer can be so clogged up with dust bunnies and whatever that it fails to cool properly. That being said, it shouldn't prevent your computer from booting up, initially, so there may be another problem.

[pinkfloyd1973]

That's good that your fan is still running because that tells you your inside components, mainly the CPU, is still getting the right amount air ventilation and not overheating. Usually when you're dealing with hardware like a video card, the system will beep a couple times to tell you it's a hardware issue and since you hear the fans running and that you said you don't remember hearing any beeps, that's a good thing. Unplug your monitor for a few minutes, plug it back in and boot up and see what you get. Do you have any other monitors in the house you can test by any chance to see if it's a monitor issue?

Yes I do, but even though the monitor messed up, I think it might be more from me forcing it to restart

It doesn't hurt a computer to hold in the power button until it shuts off. The fact that it doesn't boot up means that there is something else wrong. I will assure you that you did no damage by holding in the power button.

I'm going to have to disagree with Travis though, as the symptoms you have described, that being the distorted monitor, sound exactly like overheating. And while your fan may still be spinning, the insides of a 5 year old computer can be so clogged up with dust bunnies and whatever that it fails to cool properly. That being said, it shouldn't prevent your computer from booting up, initially, so there may be another problem.

We're gonna clean it out and try unplugging it for a minute, and then we'll see if the hard drive or motherboard is fried and go from there

[YoungJRNY]

That's good that your fan is still running because that tells you your inside components, mainly the CPU, is still getting the right amount air ventilation and not overheating. Usually when you're dealing with hardware like a video card, the system will beep a couple times to tell you it's a hardware issue and since you hear the fans running and that you said you don't remember hearing any beeps, that's a good thing. Unplug your monitor for a few minutes, plug it back in and boot up and see what you get. Do you have any other monitors in the house you can test by any chance to see if it's a monitor issue?

Yes I do, but even though the monitor messed up, I think it might be more from me forcing it to restart

It doesn't hurt a computer to hold in the power button until it shuts off. The fact that it doesn't boot up means that there is something else wrong. I will assure you that you did no damage by holding in the power button.

I'm going to have to disagree with Travis though, as the symptoms you have described, that being the distorted monitor, sound exactly like overheating. And while your fan may still be spinning, the insides of a 5 year old computer can be so clogged up with dust bunnies and whatever that it fails to cool properly. That being said, it shouldn't prevent your computer from booting up, initially, so there may be another problem.

Yeah, heat could still be an issue. The first thing I thought about was maybe the fan and the CPU overheating, which sometimes forces the CPU to reboot by itself to conserve its own energy and dust could have a lot to do with that issue. The first thing I always look for with these issues when powering up or so would be maybe popped capacitors which could give the motherboard a shock and loss of the right amount of power as well. When dealing with things like this, it could be a couple things with hardware, maybe even a power supply or video-card issue.

[Rick]

That's good that your fan is still running because that tells you your inside components, mainly the CPU, is still getting the right amount air ventilation and not overheating. Usually when you're dealing with hardware like a video card, the system will beep a couple times to tell you it's a hardware issue and since you hear the fans running and that you said you don't remember hearing any beeps, that's a good thing. Unplug your monitor for a few minutes, plug it back in and boot up and see what you get. Do you have any other monitors in the house you can test by any chance to see if it's a monitor issue?

Yes I do, but even though the monitor messed up, I think it might be more from me forcing it to restart

It doesn't hurt a computer to hold in the power button until it shuts off. The fact that it doesn't boot up means that there is something else wrong. I will assure you that you did no damage by holding in the power button.

I'm going to have to disagree with Travis though, as the symptoms you have described, that being the distorted monitor, sound exactly like overheating. And while your fan may still be spinning, the insides of a 5 year old computer can be so clogged up with dust bunnies and whatever that it fails to cool properly. That being said, it shouldn't prevent your computer from booting up, initially, so there may be another problem.

We're gonna clean it out and try unplugging it for a minute, and then we'll see if the hard drive or motherboard is fried and go from there

Both good things to do. If it fails to boot up again, try tapping the F8 key during boot up and you will get a menu of options. Select to boot into safe mode. Once in there, it will look quite a bit different, but start up your antivirus program and have it do a full system scan and allow it to remove anything it finds.

[S2M]

I'm betting that it is a power supply issue......just saying.

[YoungJRNY]

Boot into safe mode, one of the first things to check would be Device Manager to monitor your hardware. If you see any yellow caution signs with an exclamation point, the issue could be narrowed down to that as well. If there isn't anything you see out of the ordinary, then reboot, tap F8 and boot into safe mode with networking, update your anti-virus and then run scans for any computer virus's on your hard disk that could be causing an issue. You could also boot into BIOS settings and check out what speed your fan is running at and the temperature of your CPU if it is in fact overheating.

[pinkfloyd1973]

Well........we cleaned out the dust families hibernating in there and did a few tests to see what it could be, and we think it could be that it was overheating and might've fried the motherboard. At this juncture we're gonna look up the cost of one and see if it's feasible, or just buy another computer. Thank you everyone for your help

[Rick]

Well........we cleaned out the dust families hibernating in there and did a few tests to see what it could be, and we think it could be that it was overheating and might've fried the motherboard. At this juncture we're gonna look up the cost of one and see if it's feasible, or just buy another computer. Thank you everyone for your help

Overheating never fries the motherboard. It can fry the processor and the video card, however. If it's even booting up at all, the processor isn't fried. If you get anything on the monitor, your video card isn't fried, but could possibly be damaged. I've seen that. I honestly think you have/had a combination of problems. One being overheating due to a dirty case (very common) and the other is a corrupted operating system, possibly due to a virus.

My advice is this. It will cost you $75 to even sit it on a repair persons counter for them to look at it. It's a 5 year old box, so probably best to buy a new one.

If you want to go on the cheap, like me and most everyone. Order a new computer from a discounter. I love www.newegg.com and www.tigerdirect.com Sometimes you can find free shipping in the deals.

What you want to look for is a multicore processor with at the very least, 4 Gigs of RAM. All the other things are arbitrary. You can find machines with those items included for $349 a lot of times. Black Friday might even get you a better deal If you have a Fry's electronics in your area, shop there for first hand deals.

[pinkfloyd1973]

Well........we cleaned out the dust families hibernating in there and did a few tests to see what it could be, and we think it could be that it was overheating and might've fried the motherboard. At this juncture we're gonna look up the cost of one and see if it's feasible, or just buy another computer. Thank you everyone for your help

Overheating never fries the motherboard. It can fry the processor and the video card, however. If it's even booting up at all, the processor isn't fried. If you get anything on the monitor, your video card isn't fried, but could possibly be damaged. I've seen that. I honestly think you have/had a combination of problems. One being overheating due to a dirty case (very common) and the other is a corrupted operating system, possibly due to a virus.

My advice is this. It will cost you $75 to even sit it on a repair persons counter for them to look at it. It's a 5 year old box, so probably best to buy a new one.

If you want to go on the cheap, like me and most everyone. Order a new computer from a discounter. I love www.newegg.com and www.tigerdirect.com Sometimes you can find free shipping in the deals.

What you want to look for is a multicore processor with at the very least, 4 Gigs of RAM. All the other things are arbitrary. You can find machines with those items included for $349 a lot of times. Black Friday might even get you a better deal If you have a Fry's electronics in your area, shop there for first hand deals.

Thank you Rick, we're gonna look into that option instead

[Rick]

Well........we cleaned out the dust families hibernating in there and did a few tests to see what it could be, and we think it could be that it was overheating and might've fried the motherboard. At this juncture we're gonna look up the cost of one and see if it's feasible, or just buy another computer. Thank you everyone for your help

Overheating never fries the motherboard. It can fry the processor and the video card, however. If it's even booting up at all, the processor isn't fried. If you get anything on the monitor, your video card isn't fried, but could possibly be damaged. I've seen that. I honestly think you have/had a combination of problems. One being overheating due to a dirty case (very common) and the other is a corrupted operating system, possibly due to a virus.

My advice is this. It will cost you $75 to even sit it on a repair persons counter for them to look at it. It's a 5 year old box, so probably best to buy a new one.

If you want to go on the cheap, like me and most everyone. Order a new computer from a discounter. I love www.newegg.com and www.tigerdirect.com Sometimes you can find free shipping in the deals.

What you want to look for is a multicore processor with at the very least, 4 Gigs of RAM. All the other things are arbitrary. You can find machines with those items included for $349 a lot of times. Black Friday might even get you a better deal If you have a Fry's electronics in your area, shop there for first hand deals.

Thank you Rick, we're gonna look into that option instead

I think that's the right way to go. If you find something you're interested in and are not sure, just holler. I'll be glad to give you my opinion.

[Everett]

My 5 year-old Compaq Presario desktop computer is on the fritz, it started with the monitor. My monitor went fizzy all of a sudden and I had to hold down the button to turn it off (I know, bad idea), then when I rebooted it, it would not go past the Compaq screen so I forced it to turn off again. NOW, the computer only boots up partially (I say this because I never remembered hearing a beep) and the keyboard and monitor won't work.......did I fry my motherboard? Is there any way to fix it?

It probably got tired of playing all of those dennis videos Hope you get it fixed soon though. I have a ten year old hp that i'm lucky still works for now though i use the term "works" loosely

[Don]

I'm running a 1.8 duel core Pentium, probably about five years old. Two gigs of system ram and one gig video card, Windows 7 64 bit. The thing handles everything with no issues. It runs better with Windows 7 than it ever did with XP. Online HD streaming (also dependent on your cable connection) and 1080p videos play back flawlessly.
Even my old Pentium 4 test machine with one gig of ram was good enough for most things in Windows 7 except high def video.

A basic system with an i3 Processor and a couple of gigs of ram should be more than enough if you upgrade.