My mom's computer won't stay on for more than a minute.

[aimeeandbeatles]

(Original title was "My mom's computer won't stay on for more than a minute.")

Then everything just randomly "freezes" and you have to hit the power switch in the back to turn it off. The soft-switch won't work. It happens no matter what OS (I tried the natively installed Windows and two Linux Live CDs. And the BIOs too) She keeps insisting its either an operating system problem or a heat problem despite the fact that it's all operating systems and that the temperatures in the BIOS are pretty low (I got in before it died). Then I reseated everything but that didn't help.

I tried to tell her I think its a hardware failure. But she won't listen to me. And she keeps booting up, unplugging, and randomly smashing the computer (and me, too) with her fist as though that will help. I offered to take her hard drive and pull off everything and I got it unplugged but when I told her I had to wait till tomorrow because Im tired she grabbed it back and yelled at me again. And then she broke some of my stuff.

What could cause a computer to do this?

 

[PeteAtoms]

I think smashing the computer might cause some hardware issues.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I tried to tell her that. She wouldn't listen.

 

[warpus]

Throw her computer out the window and punch her in the *whoopsie*

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

OK, so I got the data pulled off before it went again. I told her not to turn it on because the power supply was making funny noises and I could smell burning stuff. Then I went to bed. And then this morning she turned it on and there was a bang and a flash of light and smoke. And now it won't turn on at all.

I don't know exactly what happened, though. I did set up her laptop like a regular computer though.

 

[Fire Bringer]

If nothing happens, it's power supply is probably dead. Apart from that it might be something wrong with it's CPU, motherboard, or graphics card.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Nothing. It doesn't even power on.

 

[MarineCorps]

Nothing. It doesn't even power on.

That bang you heard was a capacitor blowing it's top. Never a good thing. Sounds like it could be that a cheap PSU went bad. Sometimes it can fixed with just replacing the PSU. However in this case since she waited till it went bang there is a VERY GOOD chance the PSU decided it wasn't going to go down alone and took down what it could. Most likely everything in that computer is DEAD. If the HD wasn't in the computer the you can still recover the data from it, but you can kiss that computer goodbye. You should tell her for future reference that when a computer refuses to boot up there usually is a very good reason for it and to continue trying to do so it foolish, also that computers aren't mechanical therefore hitting it doesn't do anything besides make you feel better.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Well the computer was very old anyways. Not really worth trying to fix. Salvage it for parts if they work. It's in the back of a closet right now.

 

[Elephantium]

I'd file this under "Reasons why Mom is too stupid to use a computer."