Need a geek, or guru, or something. . .

Sounds like it could be your power supply, I have had them go out over the years on several computers, the last time the computer was just 3 months old. I just got a new one, pulled the old one out and put in the new one and that was that.
It is not powering up at all?

It powered up once briefly, just long enough to get the black/white screen. The light above the power button glowed yellow the next couple of times I tried to power it up; I got the hum of it being powered, but nothing on the screen. Now no light at all.

Is replacing the power supply faily easy? Not for me to do myself, of course, but to have done?

Thanks for your post, by the way.

It is fairly easy to do. The box at the back of your computer where the fan is, is the power supply. I just open up the computer, take out the screws and mark where I unplug with little pieces of tape and then put in the new one and replug in the same places and that is it.
Do you hear your fan running when you try to turn it on or is it silent? Hell, if it gets too crazy for you, I could come by and look see if you want. 🙂

Not trying to hijack this thread, but my laptop locks up every now and then. The mouse will just stop moving and the only way to get things going again is to restart.

Any ideas?

Word to the wise, like with everything else, you get what you pay for. Do not buy the cheapest power supply on the shelf. I spent a frustrating week with the same problem, replaced power supply, then video card, then memory, then motherboard only to learn that the "replacement" power supply I had bought was a useless piece of junk.

Lesson learned? the $30 power supply I thought was a good deal ended up costing about $250.

I've read that that problem is sometimes caused by overheating. You can reduce it by placing your laptop on a surface allowing more air circulation.

Word to the wise, like with everything else, you get what you pay for. Do not buy the cheapest power supply on the shelf. I spent a frustrating week with the same problem, replaced power supply, then video card, then memory, then motherboard only to learn that the "replacement" power supply I had bought was a useless piece of junk.

Lesson learned? the $30 power supply I thought was a good deal ended up costing about $250.

Thanks, there is a fairly wide discrepancy in price. I was wondering about that. Fortunately, newegg.com offers ratings posted by actual users, which I find useful.

use it as a plant coaster and go buy a mac...

I've been thinking more of going to Mac especially since XP is being replaced by Vista, which I've not heard great things about.

i made the plunge after 3 PC's crashed in one year...when i sit down at my computer, it is supposed to work...i was so tired of trouble shooting and cookies and anti-virus garbage and waiting 10 minutes for the thing to boot up?!?!...my mac just works...that's not asking too much...

use it as a plant coaster and go buy a mac...

I couldn't have said it better myself!

Not trying to hijack this thread, but my laptop locks up every now and then. The mouse will just stop moving and the only way to get things going again is to restart.

Any ideas?

Do you have any kind of cleaner on your laptop such as Ccleaner? It helps to clean out a couple of times a day for me and I had my daughter put it on her laptop and it runs much better now. It cleans out old cookies and useless registry files and such. If you don't have it, go get it, it only takes a minute to download and run. It is www.ccleaner.com

i made the plunge after 3 PC's crashed in one year...when i sit down at my computer, it is supposed to work...i was so tired of trouble shooting and cookies and anti-virus garbage and waiting 10 minutes for the thing to boot up?!?!...my mac just works...that's not asking too much...

Do you have any kind of cleaner on your laptop such as Ccleaner? It helps to clean out a couple of times a day for me and I had my daughter put it on her laptop and it runs much better now. It cleans out old cookies and useless registry files and such. If you don't have it, go get it, it only takes a minute to download and run. It is www.ccleaner.com

:bang:that kind of stuff used to drive me crazy...

use it as a plant coaster and go buy a mac...

:clap::clap::clap:

On the desktop computer hopefully it is your power supply. It could be sudden hard drive death too. How old is the computer?

To the laptop, sounds like heat unless it is a regular occurence and then you may also be facing hard drive death. Does it ever make an odd clicking/knocking sound?

use it as a plant coaster and go buy a mac...

Took the words right outta' my mouth.
I did kill a HD on a Mac once (long, sad story), but overall the number of "issues" are minuscule in comparison.

Try Linux Mint

http://www.linuxmint.com/

On the desktop computer hopefully it is your power supply. It could be sudden hard drive death too. How old is the computer?

To the laptop, sounds like heat unless it is a regular occurence and then you may also be facing hard drive death. Does it ever make an odd clicking/knocking sound?

My desktop is 6 years old; I pray it's the power supply.

My laptop, a Lenovo, is only about 2 years old, but sounds like Rice Krispies when I boot it up. Is that not good? :blink:

My desktop is 6 years old; I pray it's the power supply.

My laptop, a Lenovo, is only about 2 years old, but sounds like Rice Krispies when I boot it up. Is that not good? :blink:

On a computer this old parts are going to get harder to find and more issues (motherboard getting fried)are going to show up. Hopefully you have any valuable data backed up. It may be time to upgrade with a newer desk top. I'm no computer guru but it happened to me recently. Linux Mint has a similar interface as windows but a much better operating system and less susceptible to viruses and spyware. It can handle data a lot faster/better and you can download a live disk for free and see if you like it before uninstalling Windows. I recommend having a computer geek friend to help out the novice. I put that out there for the people that think Windows and Mac are the only alternitives and its free.