Black screen of death! Please help!

[philmpv]

Hi everybody,

I'm having major problems with my pc at the moment and am at my wits end. Please help!

The power supply on my pc recently failed totally (I came back from holiday and, bang, it had gone). I took the comp to a repair shop, where the problem was diagnosed and a new power supply put in.

A month or so later, whilst trying to start up my comp, a message appeared advising that the Operating System had not been found. I restarted a few times and windows XP finally loaded. I have NOT had this message again and my comp boots up with no problems.

Anyway, I noticed that a game on my comp could no longer be opened, as the link to the directory (?) could not be found. I tried to reinstall the game, got so far,and then the screen just went totally black. The power is on, but it doesn't look like I'm getting anything from the hard drive. Wiggling the mouse or pressing any keys doesn't make any difference. Also, holding the 'on' switch in to restart doesn't work either. So, I have to pull out the plug to get it to switch off. The same thing has happened ever since.

I must also mention that I have tried system restore, and the same thing happens. It gets so far, then comes the black screen and 'dead' hard drive.

Nothing like this ever happened before the new power supply was put in, so I have my suspicions that it's something to do with this. But, being a total non starter when it comes to computers, I don't know how to fix it!

Any help would be much appreciated!

Thanks

Phil

 

[muckshifter]

Yep ... it is possible you need a new HD, sorry.

I would have taken notice of the "Operating System had not been found" message, and investigated why. One sign of a failing HD.

The manufacturer of the HD will have a diagnostic tool you can download and try ... all the "shop" will do is use a known good HD to test your system out. Might be woth them doing that if they don't 'charge' too much. A good 'shop' may not charge to 'have a look' as I never did, but then that was me.

 

[drainedsoul]

I agree with what your saying muckshifter, but you may also want to check the temp of everything inside the case. you could find that the new psu is generating alot more heat forcing it to crash as well.