Please help! Computer was in standby mode when we had a power surge. Immediately smelled burnt something or another. Cut power and took the cover off, smell seem to be coming from RAM slots. Does this mean that the ram got fried or the mother board or everything. Know not that much about hardware and very short on funds. If someone could give me some pointers I would appreciate it. Knew I should have made backup of files but never took the time. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Is it within warranty? If not, I would suggest taking it to a shop. Parts will have to be replaced.

Didn't you have a surge protector? Try to boot. If you can't and it shuts down, your RAM is probably fried, possibly your CPU. If you try to turn on the unit and it just stays black with no boot, not good prognosis for your CPU. If your mainboard lights are on, and the fans start but then immediately shut down, there is hope for your CPU. On one note, your data is probably safe. We can hope that it didn't boil your harddrive, but until you do some diagnosing you won't know.

It cycles through, monitor says no source and then goes into standby, but everything on the cpu cycles through, cd, dvd, a-dr, and acts like it is doing the scan, just nothing on the monitor. So do I buy some ram and try that first? No it is not under warranty and company that built it is no longer in business. Yes there was a surge protector on it. Ice falling from trees evidently hit a power line somewhere

Okay, before you replace the memory, check out that your video card is seated properly, and the data cable from your monitor is securly plugged into the video card. If all is correct, then swap out the video card with one you know is good. If you can, maybe borrow one temporarily from a good, understanding friend. Also possibly you can buy one at Best Buy and test it at home, then return it. Be sure to check their return policy, it used to be blanket but a lot of stores are charging "restocking" fees now. You don't have to load the drivers, just the card alone will enable the XP generic video drivers to kick in and you should post on the monitor. The "no source" message that you are getting is the monitor telling you that it has power but can't receive a video signal from your video card. So that means that most likely your monitor is okay. Usually a computer will just shut down if the memory is bad, but evidently your unit is going through the normal boot process. That's good. This all points to a bad video card. If it turns out that it is your V.Card, newegg.com has some good deals on cards, cheaper than at a retail store. Post back and let us know.

any beeps?