Computer fails to boot

[butc8]

I have a friend(seriously) whose computer doesn't want to boot.

It started when his computer froze playing some or other game and he restarted, while it was busy booting it froze again and he tried restarting again, but nothing happened, the screen just went blank and the lights on his dvd-drive kept flashing. It does that every time he tries to boot up his computer now.

He has tried clearing his CMOS, swapping graphics cards, unplugging everything and plugging it back in and nothing helped.

What should he do? Any ideas what went wrong?

Thank you,

(seriously it aint me, Im typing this on my working computer)

 

[PC Direct]

Can you boot in safemode?

If you can try doing a system restore.

GL

 

[Drake2007]

done the safe mode etc and tried last known good?

 

[Drake2007]

snap

 

[ponder]

Can he boot a Linux LiveCD on it without issues?

Just trying to eliminate hardware problems before I say "format".

 

[Drake2007]

Can he boot a Linux LiveCD on it without issues?

Good idea
Also have your "friend" check in the bios' System & CPU temperature

 

[butc8]

The screen stays blank the whole time, can't check BIOS

 

[Drake2007]

no POST beeps?

 

[kronoSX]

no post beeps.Well now go back to basics and plug all extra stuff out all cards and then take bios battery out for 30 seconds,Start with one ram inserted.See what happens

 

[bekdik]

Check that he hasn't bent a pin on his video cable

 

[ponder]

Blank screen, no BIOS, no POST beep, CPU fan spins, Optical drives spin up.

If the above happens then he might have a dead motherboard. The above happened to me two weeks ago and it was a dead motherboard.

 

[FuNkEr]

If the above happens then he might have a dead motherboard.

+1

Was just about to suggest that, could most likely be a dead motherboard.