Speaking of something dying.

fixerupper · Feb 19, 2012

The compuker died this afternoon. Sat down to use it and it was stuck on the screen saver. So I did a cold shut down. While shutting down it went to the user page, as I call it, where you click on the user's name to open it up, then it shut down. Now it won't start up. Nothing! Just like the power cord is unplugged. It is drawing a little power because when I crawled into the darkness under the desk to unplug and then re-plug it in, I saw a small spark in the plug when I plugged it back in. I did this several times and saw a small spark every time it was plugged back in. That's my redneck way of checking for power! Anyway, it's going to the computer doc tomorrow. It's five years old now so I'm expecting the worst but you never know. Jim

teddy52food · Feb 19, 2012

So if it isn't working, How did you post this?

fixerupper · Feb 19, 2012

Marilyn's laptop. Jim

Red Mud · Feb 19, 2012

When mine does that I unplug all power from the computer for a minute, plug it back in and it will come back on telling me to use the up down keys to restart it.

old bc · Feb 19, 2012

It sounds like you need a new power supply.

Anonymous-0 · Feb 20, 2012

Try removeing the CMOS battery on the motherboard and then reinstall it to see if that clears it.

Anonymous-0 · Feb 20, 2012

If it really did go south, discover the freedom of a second laptop. No cables to fuss with and just have a printer, scanner, or whatever you need set up for a usb plugin...... If you save a bunch of stuff, just get an external HD and split it so you both can store stuff on it as needed. I've forgot what our desktop looks like and the wife only uses it for major updates on our websites.

Good Luck.

Dave

fixerupper · Feb 20, 2012

Thanks for the suggestions. I did unplug-wait-replug and still nothing. The power source is relaible. If it has actually gone south now would be the chance to go laptop as was suggested. It would free up countertop space and I could take it with me when I visit with my accountant friend. Thanks again. Jim

Tony in Mass. · Feb 20, 2012

Just after thanksgiving mine had a black screen with a message code... looked it up- hard drive was down. So was the $160 battery, but I already knew that. The cost of a new labtop equaled the repairs- I told the kids at staples 'this compaq was barely 2 and a half years old, whatsup?'... they both looked shocked- 'wow! you must have babied that thing! We never see labtops especially compaqs last a full 2 years'..... ooooohh?????..... so I got the extended warrantee with this HP pavilion. I didn't expect to do this that often. My webtv2 lasted 8 years. I retired it because it couldn't do enough with adding or storing photographs. Good luck.

EX 450 Owner · Feb 20, 2012

Try unplugging the tower and holding the power on button depressed for about 60 seconds then release the button and plug the tower back in, that used to work on an old Compaq computer we had.

ChrisinMO · Feb 20, 2012

Thanks for reminding me. Our main computer here doesn't have any kind of external hard drive. I have been meaning to add one so we won't lose important data (like photos, financial info, etc) in the inevitable event of a hard drive crash. Just something else to add to my get it done before spring list.

Christopher

Speaking of something dying.

fixerupper

Well-known Member

teddy52food

Well-known Member

fixerupper

Well-known Member

Red Mud

Member

old bc

Member

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member

fixerupper

Well-known Member

Tony in Mass.

Well-known Member

EX 450 Owner

Member

ChrisinMO

Member

Similar threads