Won't boot?

[xGodlyPoison]

Alright...

Recently, I've installed a new hard drive and a new CPU heatsink for my brother's computer. After we installed the heatsink(1 or 2 months ago) the computer worked fine for about a week, and after that the computer wouldn't start. We figured it was the hard drive because it was making a knocking sound, so we bought a new one and installed it. Last night while installing windows everything went fine, this morning when we booted it up everything went fine as well. However, this evening the computer won't boot windows. Usually a large silver "e" shows up on the monitor as the computer boots, but it hasn't been and the monitor gets no signal. The motherboard is getting power, and the CPU fan is spinning(The optical drives work as well). However, Windows won't boot.

I tried looking at the procedures thread, but I'm not exactly a computer genius. I tried following the steps in this post: (click) But to no avail.

Someone, please help!

 

[oldskool]

Maybe the CPU is running hot ? What kind of fan did you buy ? Did you apply thermal paste ?

 

[Jorsoft]

This might be somewhat of a long shot but I've had a few experiences when everything has installed fine and then suddenly won't work the next day. Each time it's been the RAM, either incompatible in the first place or has gone bad at some point. I suggest you swap out the sticks and possibly run Memtest on them using another PC if you can't get this one to post.

 

[xGodlyPoison]

Maybe the CPU is running hot ? What kind of fan did you buy ? Did you apply thermal paste ?

Brand new heatsink and fan. Newegg.com - Rosewill RCX-Z2 7 blades 80mm reverse ball bearing fan CPU Cooler - CPU Fans & Heatsinks
Applied copious amounts of Arctic Silver 5

This might be somewhat of a long shot but I've had a few experiences when everything has installed fine and then suddenly won't work the next day. Each time it's been the RAM, either incompatible in the first place or has gone bad at some point. I suggest you swap out the sticks and possibly run Memtest on them using another PC if you can't get this one to post.

I don't have another PC that I can open up and test the ram with, so thats gone... I'll try another stick I have lying around and try cycling the ram again.

 

[Slaymate]

Just because a few fans spin up and the optical drives light up, it doesn't mean the power supply is good.

 

[xGodlyPoison]

Just because a few fans spin up and the optical drives light up, it doesn't mean the power supply is good.

So I should look into the power supply? I mean, its a 4 year old computer and both of those parts(CPU Heatsink and fan + HDD) were due for replacement so the next thing to get replaced should be the Power supply? I never even thought about that, I'll look into it though.

Are there any sort of tests to see if it is indeed the power supply and not something else? I certainly hope its not the motherboard because we replaced it about 2 years ago when it got fried in a storm.

 

[Slaymate]

If your careful and experienced you can test all the voltages with a multimeter. But I don't recommend it. Plus, once the power supply is put under a load all the values can change. Right now I'd bet money on either the Power Supply or the Mobo. It could be either, I'd try a new Power Supply 1st.

 

[xGodlyPoison]

Alright, thanks for the help!

Now to find a compatible power supply... Would someone be kind enough to suggest one that isn't very pricey? Preferably below $60

 

[Slaymate]

What size power supply are you using now (in watts). What are your system spec's? How many Hard Drives, what kind of Video card do you have, CPU model, etc...

 

[xGodlyPoison]

What size power supply are you using now (in watts). What are your system spec's? How many Hard Drives, what kind of Video card do you have, CPU model, etc...

400 watts, 1.5GB of ram, 1 HDD(250 GB), nVidia GeForce 7 series(7300 maybe? Got it from a friend), and according to HERE a Pentium D 805 CPU Dual-core