Need help. Tower won't boot up

[resourcefultami]

I have an eMachines T5026 which I use as a file server. I normally leave it running continuously but I inadvertently shut off the breaker to that room while replacing an electrical switch. When I tried to restart the computer, it won't go. It's getting power. The fan in the power supply runs, but the hard drive doesn't seem to kick in. The monitor displays the eMachine logo and says "Bios information <F2>" (which doesn't work). When I restart the fans kick on, but after a couple of seconds - just about long enough for the logo to display on the monitor - but then already the pitch or whine of the fans begins slowing down as it returns to it's resting mode. I also tried putting a setup disk in the optical drive, but although the drive spins, it won't go into the boot mode so it's not looking at those drives. I've tried it more than a dozen times - completely cutting power, powering it down and back on using the power button, unplugging and plugging back in... Nada. Someone told me to replace the power supply, but I thought I'd check here to see if anyone has any experience with this problem. Would appreciate any advice or tips. Note... I do routinely blow the dust out of the fans and from the case. It stays very clean since it's in an unused room, and it doesn't even get very dusty. (The company server at work gets a dust buildup like dryer lint about every two weeks, but mine wouldn't get THAT dirty in a whole year if I didn't blow it out from time to time, so I don't think dirt is an issue unless it's really deep inside the power supply.)

 

[raybay]

Your eMachines is one of those with the infamous failing motherboard. The motherboard failure eventually causes the power supply to fail, and your symptoms are simlar to what we have seen a great number of times... well over 125 times, and we have a lot of failed eMachines in our barn awaiting resolution. Your hard drive, memory, cpu and heatsink are likely still good, and you can rescue the data. But it is possible your motherboard will not work properly again. You might borrow a power supply to test, but I would not waste money on one.
eMachines wants $179 plus shipping for the board, plus $75 for the power supply.

It could also be something as simple as a bad hard drive, and a replacement for $50 or $60 from Newegg, Directron, TigerDirect, Outpost, or ZipZoomfly will take care of it. You can probably still recover the data off the old drive by placing it in an external USB enclosure. Borrow or buy, you can always use another hard drive.