computer help needed
 

ok, my desktop pc is all messed up.
it was working just fine 4 months ago when i left.
before i left, i unhooked all the wires, power keyboard mouse monitors etc. i just left the network cable plugged in. and that was still connected to the cable modem and router. the router and modem still work fine.
keep in mind i used to keep the comp on 24 hours a day for months straight, and now it had been off for 4 months, somethign its not used to.

the issue is the pc doesnt want to boot up. i got it started a few times but cant anymore. when i turn it on, you hear it power up and then it beeps every 3 seconds. the monitor doesnt even respond, it states "no signal". what could be wrong with the comp that it wont even get to that stage. when i did manage to get it to boot up, i used it for about 25 min, then it just blanked out, monitor went to no signal again and that was it. another time it blacked out then rebooted on its own, or actually attempted to and then went blank again. I dont believe its any type of virus.

if it isnt easily fixable, i plan on just buying another cheap pc since i dont need it to do much, just the web and some pictures occasionaly. It is an eMachince so nothing great to begin with. I was also wondering if i buy another eMachince, can i pull the hard drives from my current one and use them still so i can save all my data?

im not sure what to do about it... thank god i have my laptop

If you buy another eMachine there's a good chance you should be able to swap HD's - however... you're going to need to see what kind of bus your current and future HD's will be running on. IDE? SATA? Also if you're running xp, I'm not sure how OEM versions run but it may very well "lock" your xp when it detects a significant hardware change.

In response to your desktop I would say try another power supply first, and it that doesn't work, start taking peripherals out 1 by 1 that aren't necessary (video card if you have onboard graphics etc) If you still have this problem with ONLY a keyboard, mouse and monitor plugged in I would say you have a bad motherboard

Paul, regardless of the issue, as long as the hard drive itself isn't damaged, your data can be transferred from the old broken PC to a new one.

- Justin

did you plug everything back in right?

small hammer.... :D

20lb sledge....ok might wanna take the hd out first....lol

fixed!

do you have an aftermarket video card in it? It can be one of three things i believe
dead video card, dead motherboard, dead cpu. sounds to me like a dead motherboard though.

tiny hammer ftmfw

you can try changin the power supply... but ur probably gonna need a new mother board

Beeps are usually RAM related. Most of the time if the board or processor have failed the board wont even beep. Power supplies can be expensive if you buy them from the store. Places like CompUSA had them for reasonable prices but I think they are completely out of business now?
Hard drives are not significant hardware changes, so if you get it in your next computer you can use it as a backup or something. Otherwise you can get the data from the drive like Justin said, provided the HD has not failed (doesnt sound like it though)

alright, well i am currently typing this on my PC. This morning i decided to pull the cover and start messing with it. Once i got the cover off all i saw was a TON of dust. It was BAD, so i cleaned that all up and tried it again. same thing, beeping and no response to/from the peripherals. i then removed the ATI graphics card(used so i can run 2 monitors) and the telephone line modem( i use a network cable). I then tried it again... no difference. Next i unplugged the CD rom, cable and power cables. tried again, same crap. Finally i pulled the hard drive to see if it would act any different without it. nope, still the same, beeping and all. I then decided to pull off the main cooling fan from the motherboard. There was a ton of dust and lint packed under it. so i cleaned that up as well. i just put the HD back in and turned it on. This time there was no beeping and the monitor came to life and the leds for the num lock caps lock and scroll lock flashed on the keyboard. Windows booted but all the desktop icons were the large size, not my old settings. about 2 min later it rebooted itself and windows came back up with my old setting for everything. right now im just seeing how long it'll stay running. I havent noticed any issues with any data or programs so i think its safe to assume the HD is fine. since theres 2 HD spots on this comp im guessing if i buy another emachince it'll have 2 spots 2 and i can put this one in as a slave HD. Thats if i still decide to buy a new PC. This one is like 2 years old and kinda slow.

so we'll see how it acts today... if its still good tonight, i'll put the ATI card back in and see if i can have both my monitors up and running again. It it drops dead again then, well then i found the problem maybe lol. Thanks for all the advice and help so far. i think ill still be needing some, i dont think its over and fixed just yet.