Computer won't start up.

[LADY]

OK thursday afternoon i was playing a game - Enemy Territory as it happens. I closed the game after a while and then opened up VLC Media Player and was listening to some music. At the same time i then opened up Windows Live Messenger and clicked on one of my email messages. It opened up in Internet Explorer (7.0). I then decided to maximise Internet Explorer - but then when i clicked on the maximise button the whole system froze and stopped responding. There was no BSOD or error messages - it wouldn't respond to CTRL + ALT + DEL either. I had to manually shut it down.

I then started it back up again but while the computer was working (and the computer fan was continuosly going), i just got a blank screen. I manually shut it down again. I left it a few mintues and tried starting it up. This time it went all the way to the blue "Welcome to Windows" splash screen - but it went no further.

Now when ever i try and start it up, the computer runs with the processor fan and the fan on the back of the case continuosly running but the screen is blank and showing no sign of life.

The PC is a HP Pavillion A708.UK (about 3yr old)

The spec is;

Windows XP SP2
Intel Celeron 4.3 Ghz
80 GB HDD
Nvidia Geforce MX4000 128MB

i have taken out the graphics card and tried using the onboard graphics port with no luck. i have tried and tested the surge protector with a lamp and its fine. the monitor is definately on standby. i don't think the email was a virus. i am just about to try and move the 2 ram sticks around.

Any help much appreciated.

 

[johnny_bravo]

Are you able to boot in to Safe Mode (F7 or F8 i forget press it on startup before windows xp splash screen)?

If it doesnt boot at all you could have a motherboard failure...are you able to switch the hard drive to another computer to rule the drive failure out?

-J.-

 

[DandyDon]

Hope you saved your OS discs.