Hi listerines,
First post here, need help!
Left the room last night to watch TV. Came back, my desktop was off. Thought it was odd because even during an auto update, it just reboots.
Turned on the computer, immediately noticed everything but the hard drives spooled up and the HD light was stuck on solid. No sound at all coming from the HD's, no activity on the monitor. I have one 80gb HD with the OS (XP home) and another 80gb just for stuff, and they are cabled in series. I've had it that way for years. HD's are about 6 years old.
Opened the case, the motherboard chipset fan was still running as was the CPU fan, and everything appeared ok. Reset button doesn't appear to work but I don't think it has booted far enough to be activated yet, and I have to hold the power switch down for a few seconds to get it to shut back off. All this tells me there is still life somewhere in the system and it wasn't a complete meltdown.
Pulled the CPU, it looked fine - no signs of it being fried or anything (I know it still could be fried). Pulled one of the ram sticks, same result on start - switched with the other ram stick - same result. Pulled the floppy cable and the DVD cable, no change.
Finally, pulled the HD cable from the mobo (leaving power cables to HD's still attached), and that's when I finally can hear the HD's spooling up but the HD light is still stuck on. Still no activity on the monitor.
My gut feeling is something in the HD controller on the mobo has died or maybe the CPU itself, but I also fear that it may just be my hard drives since they are so old. I'd hate to go buy a new mobo/CPU to find it is the HD's, and vice-versa.
Any thoughts?
First post here, need help!
Left the room last night to watch TV. Came back, my desktop was off. Thought it was odd because even during an auto update, it just reboots.
Turned on the computer, immediately noticed everything but the hard drives spooled up and the HD light was stuck on solid. No sound at all coming from the HD's, no activity on the monitor. I have one 80gb HD with the OS (XP home) and another 80gb just for stuff, and they are cabled in series. I've had it that way for years. HD's are about 6 years old.
Opened the case, the motherboard chipset fan was still running as was the CPU fan, and everything appeared ok. Reset button doesn't appear to work but I don't think it has booted far enough to be activated yet, and I have to hold the power switch down for a few seconds to get it to shut back off. All this tells me there is still life somewhere in the system and it wasn't a complete meltdown.
Pulled the CPU, it looked fine - no signs of it being fried or anything (I know it still could be fried). Pulled one of the ram sticks, same result on start - switched with the other ram stick - same result. Pulled the floppy cable and the DVD cable, no change.
Finally, pulled the HD cable from the mobo (leaving power cables to HD's still attached), and that's when I finally can hear the HD's spooling up but the HD light is still stuck on. Still no activity on the monitor.
My gut feeling is something in the HD controller on the mobo has died or maybe the CPU itself, but I also fear that it may just be my hard drives since they are so old. I'd hate to go buy a new mobo/CPU to find it is the HD's, and vice-versa.
Any thoughts?