Hi Trying to figure out what may be the problem with friends computer, she does not have the cash to take it to the shop and asked me if i could look at it... she has: P233 32meg ram windows me She had someone else install a usb card and driver for it. Since then she has had problems getting it to boot. WHen she did finally get it running she said it was slower than usual. When I got there the computer was running but I shut it down because the fan for the power supply wasn't running. (yes i used the shutdown menu) The case was quite warm to the touch. I checked the fan in the power supply unit and it was seized up tight. Replaced the fan, after it was cool enough to work with (yeah it was that hot) tried to reboot the machine....now it does not boot at all. The light on cd rom lights up for a sec and gives 2 klunks, power light on the front of case, can feel the hdd spin up and hear it (no it's not real noisy) but the hdd light does not come on. The fan is running on the psu, and on top the processor. That is as far as it gets....no post, nothing on monitor, nothing else happens. Tried rebooting a few times with same results. The cables and other connections inside pc are fine, everything seems to be getting power.... Am I looking at a new motherboard? or could it be the processor itself? Since I can't boot the pc, and dont even get post... I cant give much more info on all the hardware unless i take it apart to look at the cards and such. Appreciate any feedback Thanks

You have done real good in troubleshooting so far. From here, you got to go to basics. First, an easy test: pop out the BIOS battery and wait 10 minutes for the BIOS to reset to default, and replace it with a new one (just in case) and power up. That may do it. If you got a short-out jumper on the mainboard use that. If no joy, then: Remove everything (just unplug the powercord to the harddrive and floppy and CD roms)except one memory stick, CPU and fan, and video card. Power up. IF you get post to BIOS screen, that's good; then reattach all peripherals 1X1 until you can't post, and that's the problem. IF you do not get BIOS post, replace the components 1X1 until you get post. If you do that and still don't get post, your mainboard is bad. The CPU is a problem, but very rarely does a CPU fail; if you have a choice between the mainboard or CPU, it's probably the mainboard.

Ranchhand That was a very nice bit of advice. Short but to the point. Just perfect...

Chichael! All compliments are gratefully noted and accepted. I don't get 'em very often! Thanxx!

<re-post> I don't know what that "Chichael!" thing is in my previous post, that isn't what I typed. It was just a innocent exclamation, not any bad language... (?)

Thanks Ranchhand for the advice. Well written and easy to understand. Looks like a new motherboard....hopefully she gets a new system!