Alright so, I have been expierencing several the symptoms of a so-called "dead machine".

What has been happening is...well, here's the whole story.

The first time it happened, it was a simple random restart.
This happened twice again, with no problem, but the THIRD time, it failed to boot up. It'll turn on and everything, but not boot up.
I forgot how I fixed it, but all I remember doing was that I kept restarting and hitting the switch at the back of the computer.

Fourth time, same story, and yes, I forgot AGAIN. (yay!)

Now, the fifth, that's a DIFFERENT story.

3 days ago, it did another restart. It's been a long time since this happened. For 3 days, I have not been able to get it going again. I have looked over a few threads on this forum, and seen similar problems, but none exact as mine.

When I start up, the monitor light stays orange, and I hear no beep as I would when starting up normally.

I do not have a list of system specs rights now, but I can guarentee it is NOT an eMachines motherboard. Now, I hear fan(s) running. I cannot tell if I have more than 1, and if they're running togehter, if there are indeed more than 1.

I'd like to avoid taking it to a store and spend money. Or opening it up because of fear of screwing something up.

The only new hardware I have been using is a new external harddrive, and it's been several months since I've bought. I have reason to believe it's the EH, because even with the EH unplugged, the above problem is still there.

Help is appreciated. ALOT. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

power supply?

How would I go to check that out?

Okay, I had a blonde moment. Please refrain from laughing. >_<

Anyways, testing it right now.

Okay, power supply was not the problem.
Anyone else? PLEASE help. I need this computer for several school projects.

Alright, thought I should mention this. There have been several times when I've booted up that it has made wierd noises, that I suspect could be the root of my problem.

Someone please help. Sorry for all the short time between bumps. >_>

Man, I need this computer back soon, someone please reply with an answer.

What kind of weird noise, clicking, whining, rock and roll? Can you tell what part of the computer the noise is comming from?

It sound like a hard drive would...in that wierd way.

I'm going to guess that you've had the system for a while and the problem has steadily gotten worse. If you're uncomfortable opening up the box then it's "take it to the shop time". Most likely cause is CPU overheating due to lint, etc. clogged cooling fins. Removing the fan ass'y. etc. is fairly easy but if you don't apply the special adhesive to the top of the CPU on reass'y. then it's scratch one CPU. That done THEN you look for driver errors or something else.

It sound like a hard drive would...in that wierd way.

Your master hdd may have a problem. Depending on the computer you should be able to download a diagnostic program which you will need to load on a floppy. You boot from this disk and it will run the test.

It would help if you let us know what make and model your computer is.

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