Loose Screw or Hard Drive?

[colinjn]

I only get a short one second response when trying to power up my computer. I hear the hard drive and get one flash on my cd player ( if I'm lucky) and then nothing. Other times only a faint click.

I opened up the case and checked the power supply cable pin voltages and everything seems fine, but noticed a mainboard anchor screw stuck between a couple capacitors. I'm afraid that it shorted out a bunch of stuff on its way down. Any way to check this?

Also I must admit that the problems I was having before, sounded a lot like the "cold boot" threads. I'm tempted to stick the computer by a space heater and cross my fingers. RAM would be a lot better of a problem than a mainboard or the data on my hard drive.

 

[The Silence]

Hey,
That faint click, can you find where that is coming from, cause that could mean your hard drive is dead

 

[kamel5547]

Well if it was just the HDD you should get a full POST and a System Disk Not Found (or something like that. Assuming you are not getting a similar message you likely have another issue, either the PSU or the Mobo would be my guess.

 

[colinjn]

It was the motherboard. The PS was also toast. Some juice was getting through, but not enough. Also a row of capacitors was bulging and ready to leak. The good news is that the HD is still good and so is the RAM. My data is safe, and I'm doing all those backups I've been putting off for the last month!