Not sure if it's anything too serious, but thought I would post in case. I'm having my friend look at it tomorrow I was using the computer fine today, and trying to get a USB Gamepad to work. It wasn't working, and eventually I plugged it again, and the computer screen just froze. I couldn't move the mouse or anything. Upon restarting, no Windows startup thing shows up. The monitor works fine (I see the whole power save thing), and I can hear the computer running. My monitor has a light that is blue when it's on, and orange when in standby. When I turn the computer on, it starts off blue (has screen that says about power save, etc.), then turns orange right after. My friend thinks that it might be something loose on the inside due to me maybe plugging in the controller too hard. Any other opinions?
Sounds like you may have fried the power supply, or at least shorted out the USB connector. Try unplugging the USB connections from the motherboard (if possible) and starting it up.
Does the computer beep now during boot? Any chance you can try to boot into safe mode (usually by pressing F8 during startup)?
Is the USB connector you tried on the front or the back of the PC? If it's the front I don't think it would have shorted anything out, but if it's in the back, it might be possible to short something out (assuming that plugging in the controller hard snapped the USB connector on the motherboard and allowed traces to be shorted together). When you turn on the computer, do you see any output on the monitor from the computer (i.e. BIOS information, splash screen, etc)? If you are (but no Windows XP (Im assuming) splash screen), then it could be your OS got screwed up when you pulled the plug or pushed the reset button. If you don't see anything, then double check the monitor cord (stranger things have happened) if that's OK then it could be something blew on the mother board.
The USP ports are on the front. I get no Windows screen at all, but the monitor works fine. Going to give the computer to my friend's dad to fix. Luckily, the hard drive is fine, and I was able to get my essay from it to my other computer
sounds like the OS is hosed... especially if you see any of the normal BIOS information (i.e. amount of RAM, etc).
According to my friend, somehow the motherboard got fried. Guess it's time to get a new motherboard...
Same thing happened to me a few years ago with a USB mouse. Computer = fried. If you have a low wattage power supply (< 400) you may want to replace that as well.
The thing is the controller worked in the past though, and was working that day. It just wasn't working with the program I needed it for. After unplugging the controller, I realized what I messed up on. I plugged it in, and the computer froze. Hopefully a new motherboard doesn't cost too much
Unequivocally yes. A five-year-old computer is practically ancient in computer terms. It would probably be cheaper than trying to buy a new motherboard, anyway. Just remember to have the motherboard recycled (check out gcycle.org).
Are there any stores where I can buy just the tower, and not a whole set that includes monitor, keyboard, etc.? I'm hoping to not spend more than $150, and planning on just buying a computer that was as good as the previous one, or slightly better. Maybe buying online would be better?
Locally, you should check for computer shops that build computers, opposed to Best Buy or a big retailer. http://www.newegg.com/ and http://www.tigerdirect.com/ are both good online stores. Honestly, I don't know if you'll be able to get a computer for only $150, especially if it has to be shipped.
Hoo boy. Your only hope there would be a barebones kit from Tiger Direct, and even then it's a little rough.
Any idea around how much I'll be looking at? The computer that broke is actually my sister's, so I'm just going to replace it with nothing too fancy. Plus I'll probably get myself a good computer once it's tax return time. My sister only uses the computer for IM and web browsing, so I just need to find something at least about the same This is the computer, or similar http://www.amazon.com/Pavilion-Desktop-2-60-GHz-Pentium-Hyper-Threading/dp/B00009QPS0
