My computer

[Danny G]

I left my PC on all night yesterday. And it shut down all by itself. Today when I attempted to press the power button and run it, it wouldn't work. The computer doesn't run anymore, and I have some important files in it that I'd really want to not be erased or disappear. Does anyone know how to get those files back, or are they permanently gone? BTW, I just have a Local Disc (C), not a hard drive, don't even know if it's a hard drive... And does anyone know how to fix this problem?

[Tweezy]

Number 1, you do have a hard drive... Your hard drive is the Local Disk, number 2, as long as there wasn't a surge in your PC your data should be fine.

But why it wont boot up... Hard to tell without being there, the only 2 things that come to mind is the Power Supply might have broken, or the little battery used for start up...

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/findbysymptom/ht/nopowertopc.htm

Try some of those steps as well.

[Ms. Blargh]

You can get the data off of your hard drive by unplugging it from your motherboard and plugging it into another computer.

But you might wanna first figure out why it wont start up.
Like Tweezy said its probably the power supply or the Battery on the motherboard.

For example everytime my power would go out I had to unplug my computer open it up and reset my cmos battery by moving the jumper pins next to the cmos battery. But you can do the same thing by just taking your cmos battery out for 30 seconds and putting it back in (mine is a bitch and wont come out)

[Danny G]

Number 1, you do have a hard drive... Your hard drive is the Local Disk, number 2, as long as there wasn't a surge in your PC your data should be fine.

But why it wont boot up... Hard to tell without being there, the only 2 things that come to mind is the Power Supply might have broken, or the little battery used for start up...

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/findbysymptom/ht/nopowertopc.htm

Try some of those steps as well.

How do I know if the little battery is broken? I mean I just saw it, but I have no idea how it works. And the Power Supply, how in the hell does that work? I think I should give it the company's reparation service. By the way is the Hard Drive the one you put Cd's into so that it can read the Cd's? I mean the one that installs games you've bought from stores and stuff?

[Danny G]

You can get the data off of your hard drive by unplugging it from your motherboard and plugging it into another computer.

But you might wanna first figure out why it wont start up.
Like Tweezy said its probably the power supply or the Battery on the motherboard.

For example everytime my power would go out I had to unplug my computer open it up and reset my cmos battery by moving the jumper pins next to the cmos battery. But you can do the same thing by just taking your cmos battery out for 30 seconds and putting it back in (mine is a bitch and wont come out)

I did the thing with the cmos battery, didn't work :/

[Spiffy]

I would seriously suggest taking it to a local computer shop or someone you trust with computers.

[PotshotPolka]

^ this since no offense, advanced troubleshooting on bricked hardware seems a little out of your league.


If you need the HDD asap, just take it out of your current case and insert it into another PC and hook it up (requires some basic knowledge in PCs)

otherwise, go to a PC shop and buy an internal HDD mounter, you can then stick the HDD inside of it then just connect it to a PC with an USB cable.




If you want to continue troubleshooting, you'd need to tell us more, like if BIOS even comes up when you start to boot. If it doesn't that could usually indicate either PSU, mobo, CPU, or even total RAM failure (far less likely since if you have multiple sticks the chances of them all failing simultaneous is low)

[Bilbo Baggins]

How do I know if the little battery is broken? I mean I just saw it, but I have no idea how it works. And the Power Supply, how in the hell does that work? I think I should give it the company's reparation service. By the way is the Hard Drive the one you put Cd's into so that it can read the Cd's? I mean the one that installs games you've bought from stores and stuff?

Okay the drive that you put your cds/dvds into is called the optical drive. The optical drive has no storage built in, it is used exclusively to read data off of discs. The hard drive is a rectangular box that is usually mounted below the optical drive. The hard drive is what you are seeing as 'local disk c' that is where all of your files, such as photos music and movies, are saved on your computer.

Also when potshot said "internal hard drive mounter" he meant external hard drive enclosure.

Now me being the simpleton that I am I am going to suggest that you go over the simplest stuff first. like make sure the power supply is actually on, there is usually a switch on the outside back of computer's near where the power cable plugs in, make sure that switch is flipped into the on or 1 position. While you're at it check to make sure you're power strip/surge protector is turned on. I only bring this up because in many cases its the very simple things that people miss.

Now as potshot asked in his post you really need to provide more information, such as when you hit the power button now does anything happen at all (does the power light come on and the like)?

[Ms. Blargh]

wait..how is it that you can find the battery and take it out but dont know the difference between a hard drive and disk drive? o.O

[Tweezy]

seriously dude... If you don't know the difference from the DVD Drive to a hard drive I would seriously suggest taking it to a comp repair shop... We'll just be going around in circles.

[Mr. Moop]

New power supply is my best bet.. LOL
Bad luck being just that night it goes out..
I'm pretty sure you have a hard-drive btw...

If you find the time.. go to your local library, to a friend's house, or anywhere with a printer and internet and use google to learn a little about computers instead of wasting money on a shop to fix your computer.

[Gator]

Was it plugged in even? xD

[Dirk]

last time my pc failed the motherboard power connector had come partialy unplugged. i would check that if you havent already.

[PotshotPolka]

Moving to fixed because of inactivity/NOT a place for people to get their post count up.