Hi Pam: I've been building these machines since 1990, although I have called it quits years ago, except for family and close friends. I have a collection of 'obsolete' motherboards starting with the 8088 and the 8086 and so on. This is my process of ilimination and has no concern for your own abilities for analysis it's just the way it would have to be worded/questioned. If you want some help, go through these steps and send me an email. What sounds do you have? If no sound at all, make sure there is not an on off power switch on the back of your power supply box. Make sure it's on and all plugs are tightly in and your power bar is also switched on. If you hear the power supply box but not any of the fans, try switching out your memory cards, they (or one)may be what burned out. If you hear your fans as well, listen for one beep, if you hear it, all is well with your hardware and something is wrong with your operating system bootup. Make sure you have no floppy disc of cdrom in your drawers. Most systems' bios' are set to have at least one of these to boot up first, in case of the need. They must be empty when you boot up normally everytime, if they are set up to check for a bootup disk first. If your motherboard is fried you will not get anything but the powersupply fan. Although if your second memory slot (and maybe some other rare places) is fried keep memory cards out of it - check the teeth on the memory card to. If it's your first slot that's burned (I have a gigabyte board that burned this one out), your motherboard is done in. While your in there, clean it out - those viscious little dust bunny are wickeder than you think. Crossing currents where they don't belong. Make sure it's unplugged before working in a machine. Also tighten all connections/cables and you'll likelier to have a smoother and faster machine than you had - supposing we can get it working. You can email me and let me know where you're at with it. Your lucky you have a second machine. I always keep an old Win98 around, eccential for internet info for some repairs or analysis. Which environment do you have? Windows XP? It would help to know if you have a P2 or newer as well. 1 ghz or better. If so press F8 on boot up to try to get to safe mode. Once in, you can use system restore back to a prior date. Virus's can remove the boot sector (genb and genp are older virus' that did this) but that doesn't mean your machine can't be rebuilt. I'm hoping to avoid the process of booting up from another disk as that's a whole new ball game. It's pretty much a call to rebuild your software environment which will scrub out all your prior data. But it is a whole lot easier to rebuild than in the old days as long as you have all original disks. Keep 'em clean people, they'll purr for you - Sandy

You can post this in the seed exchange or any forums you have been on. I don't think anyone would object. I think in 3 years I've been on this section once so you might have a better chance of catching people on the other threads. So sorry your computer crashed. That is so hard. Mine did that and my husband got me an external hard drive. It plugs in and I save everything on that drive. It saved me the second crash and with all these viruses I can't believe how often it happens to so many people. Heidi

I like Ravencajn's ideas. If you try her approach and you still have no luck, I'd take it to the next level. After unplugging everything and letting it sit, leave everything except the monitor, keyboard and mouse unplugged when you plug it back in. Then turn it on and see if it boots up. If it does, plug in things like speakers, network cables etc. Do them one at a time and make sure the computer is working before going to the next item. Once you get to that point, start with USB devices. Again, do them one at a time and make sure they're working before going to the next one. If you're using USB hubs, unplug everything that's plugged into them, plug in just the hub, make sure it's all working, then plug the devices into it, one at a time (again making sure it works after each one). I also have another question for you. When you say the yellow light is on, what is the yellow light? The power? The drive activity light? something else? I don't like the APC overload light going on. Did you reset the APC? Is this a UPS or one of their surge suppressors? Does the manual for it say it can be reset and used once that light goes on, or are you supposed to replace it? I had a UPS go out when the power company did some work outside. The computer, printer, etc were all undamaged, but I had to get a new UPS. If I hadn't had the UPS, I'm reasonably certain I'd have lost the PC and the printer.

Is this an eMachine? If so have her shut down then open the left side to see if it has a Bestec power supply in it. These were notorious for failing and often took the motherboard with it. Get a model number from sis, it might help determine if it is a power supply problem.