Last night, at some point, my computer went tits up. I wasn't around but I was on it remotely and it shut down. Got drunk. Went in this morning and it wouldn't power on. Took it out, used a different cable. Reset the memory. PCB LEDs (next to 2 of the 4 RAM slots) light up but I get almost zero power. the front LED illuminates for about a nano-second... and the graphics card fan spins about 1 revolution and then nothing. I'm thinking fried CPU.
I had a similar problem some time ago in a friend's computer and it was a dead PSU, try changing it and see if it boots. Be aware that if the PSU died there's a chance that other components (like motherboard or HDD) got fried in the process, remember that once you put the computer to work you must check every single component to make sure it's working properly, a single failing component can cause a big electrical failure.
PSU failure is the most probable case. With dead CPU you get power but nothing further in most cases.
Unplug the PSU from everything, get a paperclip, and bridge the green and black wires on the big chunky mobo connector (it's safe, there's no electrically dangerous lines on there). That's the power switch, so the PSU should spin up and stay on.
If your PSU has gone your CPU will probably be ok, the motherboard usually sacrifices itself to save the rest if there's a surge.
Yes... this is the fucking problem, too. I was pressed for time before this thing decided to die. So, now even less. I've decided to pony up and get another box. On YJ, there's seller that makes Cube (Shuttle PC) systems, and will do upgrades. I calculated it all. For what I want which I'll list later, the savings if I went to Akihabara and bought everything myself and made it myself is like 5,000 yen (but I'd have like 500GB more of space and probably better quality memory... that's it). Not a bad deal for saving the probably 6 hours of my life to go, buy, assemble, and test everything (w/ no guarantee). I also don't keep up w/ HW in the least, so I'd probably buy incompatible MB & CPU. So, I ordered it. For the record: Shuttle Barebones Core i7 870 2TB Drive 16GB Memory GeForce GT430 (?... it's like 8000 yen) 91,000 yen I think, after tax. What I will likely do is try to resurrect the old one (when I get some time) and swap it out w/ my file server, so thanks for the tips. I should find some place in Akiba that will actually test the components for a small fee. Don't know if such a place exists though. I don't want to guy buy a PSU and have it not be what blew out. Also, while we're on the topic: Has anyone used these small boxes w/ 2 drives in it? I've had two in for quite a while... it hasn't flaked out up until now. I got some seg faults when compiling which are generally a bad sign, but not that often. But the 2 HDs is about the only thing I can think of. Why would they put 2 3.5" bays in if there's a heating issue w/ most drives? Food for thought...
