Computer will not turn on NEED HELP

[kat3teresi]

I'm new to this site but I need help!
My computer will not turn on. It was working fine yesterday, shut it down, and when I woke up this morning the power button had a faint blue light (which never happens)and was doing nothing. I pressed the button, nothing happened, fan didn't turn on no noises etc. Disconnected the power. Plugged it back in nothing happened and blue light is gone. I took out the psu, tested it and it works fine. I also tried a different power cable and outlet and still nothing.
I know somethings about computers but not a lot when it comes to hardware. I really do not know where to go from here.

I have an Emachines T2885 with a 2.8 ghz intel celeron processor.
I have had the computer for almost 4 years and has worked fine. I have never had one problem with it.

Can somebody help me and tell me what I should try next (and explanations for a "noob" would be welcomed!)

[vbironchef]

I have had a friends Emachine over at my place for repair. I did alot of research on the problem. I could not fix the problem. I believe the problem is with the motherboard that got to much moisture. The best thing to do is to build a new computer. Has something to do with change in temps. With a Emachine it is very hard to replace parts and your computer is so old that it is not worth the trouble.

[XstollieX]

my first step would be to strip the rig to bare bones. unplug drives, all but one mem stick, and pull out all cards but video and see if anything happens. If it posts plug in the drive with your windows partition. Try posting again. If it doesn't post try different slots for the mem and/or different mem sticks if you have multiple. Are you using onboard vid or a gfx card? The more info we get the more we can help. Just looked around on the web and it looks like the motherboard and the psu have a bad habit of going bad. You may end up needing to rebuild or buy a new rig but with a bit of work that may be a last resort.

[DaIceMan]

I would try to find a friend or relative that might know a bit more about the hardware aspect and have them take a run through it. Start off with all the power connections (you said the PSU was tested... how so?), check the main power, motherboard power, all the connections from the front panel to the board. Then check all the cards and memory to make sure they are seated properly etc. Generally, if it's a card loose, the machine would still boot and post error codes, but stranger things have happened. Generally, someone that is familiar with computers should be able to run through the system and produce an educated guess in an hour or so.

[kat3teresi]

I have a power supply tester, plugged in the 20 pin connector worked fine. I'm not sure about the molex, P4, and floppy, when I plugged just them in it did nothing, but when I plugged them in along with the 20 bit it lit up and lit up some other voltages so im not sure if thats normal or not.
I reset the Bios with the jumper and nothing happened. Then I removed the ram tried to turn it on and nothing happened. Then I removed the drives nothing happened, removed ram and drives still nothing happened.
I've removed pretty much everything from the computer and the motherboard and it still does not turn. There is a green light on the motherboard but I think that means it's getting power and thats it. Is there anything else I can test or try?

[Sporg]

How about the button on the front of your case that turns on you computer? Have you tried bypassing that and jumping directly?

[DaIceMan]

Sounds like you know more than you were letting on. Seems like you've progressed in the right direction. Aside from replacing the motherboard and/or processor, there really isn't much aside from the power switch that i can think of.

[kat3teresi]

Im curious if I was reading the power supply tester correctly. Are you supposed to have the 20 bit plugged in along with the molex or P4 etc. when you test them?

[vicaphit]

Sounds like the power switch. Find the pins that connect the case buttons to the Mobo, and follow the cable from the power switch to the 2 pins it matches (they might be labeled). All you have to do is span these two pins with a flathead screwdriver or something metal. Be sure not to span any other pins, or make contact with any of the other pins.

[martini161]

when you say you removed the ram, did you remove it all? or just all but one stick?
ive had lots of problems with emachines where the Motherboard or procesor just died, so that might might be your problem

[kat3teresi]

I bypassed the power switch and it still did not turn on so I have come to the conclusion that it is my motherboard. I did remove all the ram from the motherboard. Thanks for your help!

Question ha? Should I just buy a new computer or should I get a new motherboard? also
Does anyone have information on how to trasfer the information from my hard drive to a new computer? Should i use an external hd or can I place the old harddrive in the new computer?

[Sparky]

Put your old HD in your new computer as a secondary or slave and just drag and drop the files you need.

[vbironchef]

see my post? When it gets cold at night and hot during the day, that's what my research has told me. I know it's no fun to lose a rig. Look on the bright side, you get to build one yourself, I hope.

[martini161]

try testing with one stick of ram in. a computer will never work if theres no ram!