Broken Computer

[Chukchi Husky]

Last time I opened up my computer it was to add a new graphics card and power supply, and one thing I did along with that was to remove the fan, clean it and put it back. The computer worked after I cleaned it out along with the upgrade.

Now I opened up the computer only to clean out the fan and the graphics card fan. I did the same as before with the main fan and used a cotton bud to clean out the graphics card fan. When I turn on the computer instead of loading as normal it is now stuck on the boot screen, the one that says things at the bottom like "Press F2 for BIOS options". I can't go past that screen and the keyboard doesn't do anything when I press the buttons.

 

[Fëanor]

Have you tried a different keyboard (or this keyboard on a different system)?

Although nothing that you have done would suggest that something has corrupted the Bios, you may want to try flashing it and see if it becomes responsive.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

I'm currently using the keyboard on the Wii,

How do I flash the BIOS?

 

[Fëanor]

Consult your motherboard's manual, if you don't have one you can go to the PC or the Motherboard maker site and download it.

It should tell you what jumper need to change position, or possibly what button to push (some motherboards have a Clear CMOS button).

Alternatively you can always unplug your power chord and remove the motherboards battery for 10-30 seconds.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

I don't know if this helps, but when I tried turning the computer on just now I noticed that on the boot screen the working light stayed on constantly without flickering, and it sounded like the computer was trying to read something in the DVD drive. There wasn't any discs in the DVD drive,

I haven't tried flashing the BIOS yet. Is there anything I would have to do after I do that?

 

[Fëanor]

I don't know if this helps, but when I tried turning the computer on just now I noticed that on the boot screen the working light stayed on constantly without flickering, and it sounded like the computer was trying to read something in the DVD drive. There wasn't any discs in the DVD drive

Do you hear any beeps when you turn your computer on?

I haven't tried flashing the BIOS yet. Is there anything I would have to do after I do that?

Yes, usually* your PC will display an error and ask you whether you want to: "Load default settings and continue" or "Enter the BIOS" so that you can reconfigure things manually.

*Without knowing motherboard you got i can only give you some generic advice.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

Do you hear any beeps when you turn your computer on?

There is one beep.

 

[Fëanor]

One beep usually means that the PC passed the Power On Self Test.

Can you post a picture of your monitor when the PC is stuck?

 

[Chukchi Husky]

I found an image of the screen on the manufacturer's website.

 

[Fëanor]

Try pressing the ESC key as soon as you power on the PC, it should display the POST messages instead of this Boot splash.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

When I pressed the ESC key, this came up.

American
Megatrends
AMIBIOS(C) 2008 American Megatrends, Inc.
MCP73VT-PM 04/08/2008
CPU : Intel (R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz

Press F2 to run Setup
Press F8 for BBS POPUP
Memory Clock : 667 MHz, Single Channel Mode

Initializing USB Controllers .. Done.
4096MB OK
USB Device(s): 4 Storage Devices

 

[Fëanor]

Its strange that your PC freezes instead of reporting some failure (Like a HDD Failure), It would seem your pc is freezing either while scanning the USB storage devices or immediately after (Scanning your HDD and/or Optical Drives).

Have you tried disconnecting these USB storage devices? (USB HDD's, Flash drives, basically all usb devices except for the keyboard)

If after doing that your pc still freezes try disconnecting the power cable from more devices (Optical Drives, HDD etc) until you find out which device is crashing your PC.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

My computer has a card reader that is in a slot in the front of the case. Would that be a USB device?

 

[Fëanor]

Is it attached on one of the motherboards USB connections?

Making sure there are no cards in it might be enough though.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

When I removed the power cable from the DVD drive, the computer loaded up normally. The problem was caused by the IDE cable being slightly loose.

 

[GoodGame]

Last time I opened up my computer it was to add a new graphics card and power supply, and one thing I did along with that was to remove the fan, clean it and put it back. The computer worked after I cleaned it out along with the upgrade.

Now I opened up the computer only to clean out the fan and the graphics card fan. I did the same as before with the main fan and used a cotton bud to clean out the graphics card fan. When I turn on the computer instead of loading as normal it is now stuck on the boot screen, the one that says things at the bottom like "Press F2 for BIOS options". I can't go past that screen and the keyboard doesn't do anything when I press the buttons.

I doubt you need to flash the BIOS at this point, though I may be wrong. It seems to be the computer is hung up before going to the BIOS. Likely the failure of F2 key suggests that you have a bad keyboard, which is something that can cause the BIOS to hang. Try replacing your comp's keyboard that is designed for a computer.

Also did you disturb anything in your computer, like maybe a watch-battery looking thing?

EDIT: Nevermind. So your comp couldn't load it's OS because it couldn't read from the HDD.