When your PC won't boot

It's the stuff to send chills down your spine. Your push the Go button and nothing happens. You check the power cables and other connections and still no go. So you rush to this very helpful article by Phil Spector for some advice. (Of course, you have printed it out beforehand, and saved a hard copy.)

When your PC won't boot

There's nothing to make the blood run cold in your veins like a PC that won't boot - and Murphy's Law ensures that it happens at the most critical time. It happened to me a couple of weeks ago. Fortunately, I had done a major back-up of data a short time previously, so was not rendered a total gibbering wreck on the spot. When I got the machine back from the repair shop, it turned out that a cable from the DVD player was shorting on the case - not something I would immediately have thought of. A simple problem, but it did set me back $90 for the tech's time.
Before you run to the shop, there are quite a few things you can do yourself if your PC won't start. This PC World article by Lincoln Spector gives you a good run-down in simple language. My only comment is that I am surprised he does not recommend pressing the F8 key on start-up (to start the computer in Safe Mode) as a first restort. In the past I have found that effective in at least 50% of cases.

Kick-starting the computer

When I got back to work after the holidays, my computer refused to start. There wasn't even a blue screen of death - just a ghostly white screen (which my complexion suddenly matched), and ominous beeps which I had never heard before. I didn't have a clue what they meant. A helpful colleague thought to look up the topic of warning beeps on the internet, and the closest match we could find was that the chip on the computer's motherboard that controls the keyboard had broken down. Said colleague opened the computer case, poked and prodded, but could see nothing else. He closed the lid, pressed the "Go" button again, and lo and behold, the computer booted up. His best guess is that during the holidays, the prolongued shutdown actually drained the little battery that holds the settings for what is called the "bios" (the set of instructions that helps your PC to start up). Opening the cover tripped a little switch which reset things sufficiently that it could all start up again. Or something like that. Moral of the story: If you find someone who knows more about computers than you do, keep them well supplied with morning tea or other goodies during the year, against that urgent time you are going to need to call in a favour.