Repairing basic computer hard ware problem (system disk failure and broken PSU and missing/corrupt files)

THIS GUIDE IS NOT YET FINISHED, I WILL ADD MORE INFORMATION WHEN I GET A CHANCE.

If you need any help with fixing a computer or if you have any questions at all feel free to message me"

In this instructable i will tell you how to repair basic computer hard ware and software problems.
I will tell you how to:
1.Hard drive problems
2.replacing hard drives
3.Power supply problems
4.System problems (windows XP etc...)
5.Mother Board problems
6.CPU problems
7.RAM problems
8.Speed upgrades

THIS INSTRUCTABLE WILL BE CHANGED DAILY AND NEW STUFF WILL BE ADDED IN SO KEEP CHECKING.

Step 1 Power supply!

If you plug in your computer and hit the power button and nothing at all happens (no fans or lights come on) CHECK THE FUSE IN THE PLUG.

Only open a computer up if you Know the fuse in the plug is working.

Power supply problems:
1.The light or fan on the power supply do not work.
2.Nothing in the computer works.(plug something into the USB power to see if there is power going to it)
3.No lights / fans or beeps come from the computer.

If any of the above happen to you try changing the power supply unit.This can be down by removing the computer case and removing the PSU(picture below. The PSU is only held by a few screws.

Put a new power supply unit in and try that and the computer should work.

Comments

[infraredman21]

Hey whats up? i'm chris and i have a "Dell Inspiron" i got it from a friend and it hade "Windows Xp" and it hade crashed before i got it, it hade a wipe out floppy that came with it and i did that and it so called wiped it so then i installed Window ME 2000 and then it booted up and it was very very very slow i mean like 3 minutes befor the mouse would move each time you wanted it to move so i hit the power button and it shut down and i turned it back on and it sade no "Hard Drive Fond" and i will now do nothing when i put the Windows boot cd in is loads and then say no hard drive fond, and the floppys that i hade my brother thout they was just so old floppys so he erased it now i have no undo floppy is there any thing you can help me do to fix it i would love to have it up and runing i've never seen it work befor other then that one time and boy i should have never turned it off please help if you can.....chris

[memyselfand1]

woah. excuse me while i mentally punctuate that.

[twitch2009]

Boot off a windows xp cd and boot recovery console and type in "format C:" this wipes that hard drive ...if you had spyware on it before it might of messed it up.

[infraredman21]

OH I ADDED YOU ON YAHOO MY NAME IS CARROCK19

[dean-101]

sounds like the hard drive is broken, but if it was running really slow first it could be the RAM, if you could try a new stick of RAM in it and it still does not work check all the cables and power supply on the inside of it. if this does not work take out the hard drive and put one in that you know works, install xp /2000 from a cd/dvd and it should work fine. but i suggest u try a different hard drive first then power supply and if problem is still the same try ram . if none of these work the mother board could be broken / overheating too fast

[Derin]

HELP!!!!!MY XP DISK WONT REPLACE THE MISSING FILE!!!!

[ReCreate]

OMG OK FIRST BACKUP EVERYTHING AND REINSTALL XP OK AND DONT YELL IN CAPS OK?

[Derin]

BACKUP IS HARD WHEN YOUR FILES ARE ALL OVER THE DRIVE

[ReCreate]

OMG O RLY? JUST COPY EVERYTHING OFF OF THE DRIVE PROBLEM SOLVED ALSO STOP YELLING OK? ^lol

[dean-101]

do you know if the xp disk is working perfect with no scrapes on it? , also if your computer is making any weird noises , your hard drive could be broken. you can buy a 70gb one for around £30. What happened to your computer? and i may know another way to fix it

[Derin]

no it is a good one and no weird noises except from heavy use of cd drive if you can help the file is named ntoskrnl.exe

[ReCreate]

ntoskrnl.exe? that file that is a part of the windows kernel, that is what contains the images(boot screen) that shows at startup, That is a very important file, You can try to replace the file, it is the windows/system32 folder(i think). You could use MS-DOS to copy the file back...Only if you are familiar with command line...

[ReCreate]

Or a linux distro, I like Slax And Puppylinux, you can try those.

[dean-101]

if u have a spare hard drive try using that or , get a ide to usb connector and take out ur hard drive and connect it to another computer via usb, if it works then copy the file from your other computer. If this does not work , it is most likly u need a new hard drive

[Derin]

thanks for the help i may use it if using the driver diskette doesnt work

[Derin]

and,i found another xp disc which didnt work without my newly obtained sata driver

[Derin]

the disk works when it wants to

[cavemaneca]

This isn't always the case. I recently had a problem with a corrupt file "windows\system32\config\SYSTEM", and putting in the install disk only asks for you to either install the OS or go to the repair console. Since reinstalling the OS my cause problems with having to reinstall programs, and reconfigure settings, It's usually less of a hassle to just fix it. How I do this is I have a clean backup of the OS that I can refer to. When I have a problem like this, I plug in the backup hard driver as a slave, then open the repair console, which is almost identical to DOS, and I transfer the missing or corrupt files from the clean OS copy to the one that I use. For those who have constant problems with the computer shutting off and corrupting files, and viruses don't seem to be the problem, download a program such as SpeedFan(free), which shows you the temperature of the computer. Optimal temperature is <40 degrees for the CPU and MoBo. 40-50 is 'uncomfortable', 50-60 is dangerous, and 60-70 is and immediate problem. If the computer reaches temperatures over 70, it may shut off without waring, corrupting vital system files. If temperature isn't the problem, then it's possible that you have a very low quality virus scanner, and it's missing things. I suggest actually paying for one, especially one that will update daily.

[jibatsu]

hi i have an xp pc and it worked fine. i put a different dvd drive in and it didn't get to my desktop so i took it out and thought that i could live without it. so i turned on the pc and this time i got the SYSTEM DISK FAILURE , PLEASE INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ANY KEY message (it turned on last time the dvd drive wasn't in) and i changed the ide ends round and it still didn't work. any ideas?

[dean-101]

you may have blown the hard drive if u unpluged the dvd drive when the pc was on. so the hard drive could be broken. also when u changed the ide around did u notice any broken pins on the hard drive/motherboard. or the dvd drivers could have corrupted the system. i suggest looking at the pins on the hard drive and mother board then if not them reinstall windows xp, or try the repair on the disk. if these dont work try a different hard drive.

[jibatsu]

don't worry me and my dad fixed it we had to change the boot order. thanks anyway.

[jibatsu]

hi i have a xp pc it turned on ok but when i put a new dvd drive in it i got the SYSTEM DISK FAILURE , PLEASE INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ANY KEY message so i took out the dvd drive and thought that i could live without it. so i turned the computer back on remembering that it turned on before the dvd drive was put in and i dont get past the sYSTEM DISK FAILURE , PLEASE INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ANY KEY message. any ideas?

[UbuntuNinja]

You said the instructable was not done so i will help you by giving you a bit of info. You could write about using the results of the POST check to find problems. POST stands for power on self test. know how when you turn the computer on it makes a beep? That beep means that the POST was successful and everything is working as it should. Wikipedia should give more info.

[shouldawoulda]

Great Piece! how about R&R of Lap top hard drives, I think mine is toast cause it won't take the disk to recover. This is the first time i will try this, Soooo any help from ouyr readers out there would be great It is a Toshiba satA-135 I really miss it and am using an old desk top

[dean-101]

Hey, if you are sure its the hard drive , you can goto a computer shop and get a new laptop hard drive for around £40 , to put in the hard drive look on the back of the laptop and there is usually a few sections you can unscrew and the old hard drive should be under one. the hard drive should just slide/pull out and is easy to replace

[keppoch]

An excellent contribution. Simple, direct, concrete directions exactly what we need in a DIY community. I look forward to your continued instruction as will others. Cheers from Canada! -Keppoch

[themadman]

what case is that? im building a gaming pc and i need a case with a lot of expansion bays.

[cinderblock]

Lian-Li makes the best computer cases. Far better than any of the name brand companies here. IMHO

They make excellent quality cases but have a horrible marketing department.

Newegg has a great selection of their cases with full pictures

They do have a couple that aren't my cup of tea. I'm using the PC-2000. Lots of 5.25" bays. 12 3.5" HDD bays. They make a smaller version of the same case if you don't want so much.

[dean-101]

computer cases, that link has a lot of cases u can buy cheap for gaming computers.