Locked out of computer

I was looking something up on the banggood site this morning when the screen went blank and briefly flashed locking and everything went dead and I Just can’t switch back on 😭any ideas about what has happened have I caught a virus I have Norton protection

Stew

If it wont even start to boot its not good. Probably the power supply failed but could be any number of things.

Take it to repair shop but if its more than 12 months old it will probably be cheaper to buy a new one. Good news is that your existing hard drive should be ok with a new machine, again depending on how old it is.

Not a computer expert, but it sounds as though the computer power supply unit has gone.

What computer? What operting system?

Desktop / Laptop /All in one?

PC / Mac / Linux

Make and Model

OS version?

With this information we can give you some checks to do.

Robert G8RPI.

Hi Stew, agree with all the above. If you have keep your Norton updated, you shouldn't have got a virus.

Regards .Nick.

Hi Stew, strange that, I tried to look at my Asus 7" tablet yesterday, just wouldn't turn on, thinking that the battery was flat I plugged in the charger. After 5 or so minutes, no sign of it charging like it usually did. I then plugged it into my laptop and guess what, no sign of it being connected. absolutely dead as a door nail and this is just about six years old. Just as well all the important data was on a removable micro card.

regards Nick.

Doesn't sound like a virus.

Do you have ANY lights on at all (keyboard, desk unit, monitor standby light etc.)

Do you hear any noises, (even very quiet) when you switch on?

Neil

My pc did the same last October. I took it to PC world for a check up; response was the PSU had gone. I asked them to remove hard drive & return to me. They asked what I wanted to do with the pc as they could dispose of it, which they did, They also mentioned that the hard drive had a fault too as it wouldn't run in an external caddy, they could recover hard drive, at a cost of £90 !, needless to say I have the original hard drive at home & a new laptop I am still looking for someone who can recover hard drive without being extortionate.Built in obsolescence I would say.

George.

One advantage of assembling your own PC is that you can splash out on a high quality PSU, an area where manufacturers may be tempted to economise.

Modestly-priced PSU testers are available and if it fails the self-builder is in a position to replace it easily.

If it is just a case of recovering data on to another device and they can do it that is cheap. If you need to go to a specialist data recovery company you could be looking at ten times that or more - but they will do a lot more too, even to the extent of placing the platters of your hard disk into a new device in a clean room.

As an actual example my wife sucked a memory stick up into the Dyson vacuum - removing the USB connector in the process. After carefully re-soldering the connector still no joy so sent for data recovery - quote £800 plus extra time at cost if needed. Didn't bother - it was hassle but she felt it was not worth it as most of her work was stuff that was kept, but often never reused.

In my opinion it is rare that the data on a private individual's damaged device is worth the trouble and expense of professional recovery.

Nick

Have you tried putting the Hard Disk Drive into an external USB HDD enclosure? These are cheap and will let you access the drive if it is working at all. There are two types of HDD used in most PC's IDE and SATA. The IDE type is older and fairly rare now, The IDE uses a 40 pin ribbon cable and the drive will have two rows of 20 pins, The SATA uses a small cable and the connector looks like plstic with no visible pins. Obviously the external case must be the same type as the drive.

Robert G8RPI.

Gents if a PC is in some form of tower, you can swap out the power unit

If there are no lights or noise from the PC at all it is likely to be a fauly PSU. That is not a good enough reason to scrap a 5 year old PC unless you were thinking about changing it anyway. A new PSU is under £25 and there is no reason why you could not replace it yourself. If you are anywhere near Cambridge I can do it it for you.

Robert G8RPI.

Nick Clarke 3 ...If it is just a case of recovering data on to another device and they can do it that is cheap...

Thanks for the heads up on that. I'm not too concerned at the moment as I have the Information on another ext hdd that I loaded up to the desktop initially, it just contains updates etc.

George.

FWIW, I back up, every week, to an external Hard Drive.

If anything goes really wrong, only a week's work has been lost, so not a total disaster.

Have only had to do restore, once. That cost me the Address Book contents. Fortunately, most of these were on the old machine. But it was a right PITA having to copy the details over, one line at a time.

Lets hope that is just a PSU failure.

Howard

Sorry to state the obvious, but have you checked the fuse in the mains plug ?

Edited By Bob Unitt 1 on 15/02/2020 13:31:20

Me too - twice a week actually for the OS partition - to an 8-TB Seagate Expansion Drive via Acronis True Image in automatic mode. It's set it and forget it really. It does it while I'm watching TV in the evening (and sends me an email to confirm). As you say, changes between backups are fairly minimal (although in my case, it's worth backing up the desktop more frequently - I'm a heavy user of that).

I also backup certain data files (email, CAD etc) at least once a day using the same process.

PC world did a full check on it when I left it with them & they had tried the hdd in one of their ext. caddies, same result.

George.

Mechman and Stuart,

Computer active magazine have had some excellent practical articles on various aspects of DIY building and alterations. They also run a help section. Quite a cheap mag and I think, very good, been taking it for years. Try them.

John