The pc was working fine earlier today. Tonight when I went to turn it on, the monitor comes on like normal, but the lights are dead on the pc. I checked the outlet strip, power cord, all are fine. Printer works, zip drive works, monitor appears to work. I recently installed a cd burner, but it has been working perfect since I installed it.

Any suggestions on what might be wrong and how to fix it myself?

Reseat everything. Any beeps?

Disconnect all drives, printer, monitor, modem. Any beeps?

=====================================
If at first you don't succeed, you're about average.

M2

You say power-cord etc. is OK... Presumably you're in N.Am. and thus no fuse in plug at the wall end of power-cable (whereas there is in the UK system)? Are you absolutely sure that power is "leaving" the power-strip - and "arriving" at the other end of the power-cable? How did you test that cable? Did you put something else on the end - a table lamp perhaps, or even a test meter across the live/neutral "sockets"?

However, if in the UK... are you sure the fuse in the 13amp plug is OK...; and again that power does actually arrive at the other end?

Presuming power does arrive OK... then as M2Go suggests... reseat everything inside - without the power cord connected (if in the US/Canada); or (if in the UK - where switched AC-sockets are the norm...) at least power is switched "orf" at the wall.

You can obviously also test the power-cord by substitution as most audio/video/electronic kit uses the same style power-in connector these days (IEC - aka a kettle plug in some parts of the universe).

Also I seem to recall there may be a fuse (inside the PC housing) that sits in-line with AC-mains/power in? (They used to exist in AT-style boxes.) They used to be glass, but often are now ceramic... If exists it may have blown? If it does, and it has... replace and see what happens... Fuses can blow either because there was (is???) an internal fault; or sometimes just plain old-age... - they get tired of being on-duty 24/4/365. If it blows again... then as they say... you have problem.

Could be the power-supply unit has died a death... If not across testing etc. for volts various on a PC then you have a few options to consider.

But post back with results of reseats etc., power-cord tests, fuses first etc.

My suggestion: Unplug the computer from the wall outlet, open case, unplug and relug the main power to the motherboard, unplug and replug all devices such as HD and CDdrives. Reseat the memory and CPU. Put everything together and start the computer. If you get no current to the motherboard and it remains dead go to plan b>try another power supply. If that doesn't work suspect the motherboard. One more thing, by-pass the computer switch up front and turn on the computer by momentarily jumping the power on pins on the motherboard. The computer should start.