Power

[bubba]

When I turn on my computer all of the fans come on, but none of the
drives will start working. sometimes the fans will stop running after
a couple of minutes, when I start it back up the fans go on and
then shut off right away but still none of the drives or the monitor come on

 

[DonNagual]

Sounds to me like a dead PSU.

Have you made any changes to your system lately to cause this problem?

Could also be your motherboard. Take a look at it. Any swollen capacitors?

 

[bubba]

No I have not made any changes, I was thinking it might be the PSU
but I thought I'd get a few opinions before I get a new one.

 

[DonNagual]

If you have another one to test, that would be a good starting point, but most people don't.

You can test your PSU if you have access to a voltmeter: http://www.ochardware.com/articles/psuvolt/psuvolt.html

Other than that, you can just buy a new one. There are good quality PSUs on newegg for $50 or so. Look at the fortron lineup for example. Nice psus for cheap.

If that doesn't fix you up, the next suspect is the motherboard. Did you find any swollen capacitors?

 

[bubba]

No all capacitors look good. I'm going to pick up a PSU and try it out. thanks

 

[DonNagual]

If I can make a suggestion on the PSU....

First go here and calculate how many watts you need:
http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp

Then be sure to get a PSU with dual 12v rails, and at least 12amps on each, preferably more (depending on what kind of system you have of course. If you have a high end graphics cards and a dual core CPU then you'll be wanting more like 15 or more amps on each 12v rail).

Good luck!