Computor wont come on...

[Tilly Mint]

Please bear with me while i try to explain, i was on the computor and all of a sudden it went off. The monitor seems fine along with the router, but, the hard drive (the big box) wont come back on. I have tested all the wires and gave it a good blowing to make sure it wasnt dust causing this to happen and, it still wont come on. This has been for about 2 hrs now. Any clues as to what has happened?
Thanks.

I'm on my daughters laptop for now..

[Cloggie]

I had a similar thing happen, where the fans would come on but the computer wouldn't boot. It turned out the motherboard had died and needed to be replaced.
A computer failing to start could be caused by a number of things though, such as these:

http://www.computerrepair.com/Computers/General/computer-wont-start.html

[WendyPusey]

Have you checked the fuse in mains cable?

[Tilly Mint]

Thanks Sarah, i'll have a look at that now.....

Thanks Wendy, i did'nt even think of that one !

[Velma Dinkley]

If the monitor comes on and the tower doesn't then it could be harddrive failure.

[Anne in Carlisle]

I had that too! It got a clean out and was OK for a while then it took to going off again. It would go suddenly and just like you say the tower fans were on but no-one was at home!

The help desk tried to tell me it must be the monitor. NO! I had tried that by connecting the monitor to the laptop.

In the end (because we have a contract) they came and took it away. 2 weeks later it came back - working but with no explanation! I rang to find out what had happened and they said "no fault found". It has been working OK (fingers crossed) ever since. I think they must have frightened it!

Seriously - I think it is some sort of switch problem. I could tell that when it suddenly stopped it wasn't really off. It was only if I managed to turn it off 'properly' that it appeared to be fully off. I now back everything I do up as soon as I've done it!

Anne