Yesterday my wife called me to tell me that the computer wasn’t working. These are the events as she described them. She brought the computer out of hibernation and the monitor gave her a message telling her that it was not receiving a signal. She turned off the computer and rebooted. She was able to log in, saw the desktop and then the computer shut off. At that point, she smelled something burning (awesome) so she just turned everything off.
When I came home I was not able to get a response pushing the power button, so I unplugged the power cord from the unit, waited and plugged it back in. As soon as I plugged it back in, I heard the motherboard fan come on. The amber light on the front of the tower came on to indicate that the unit was receiving power. I was not able to power the CPU on however by pressing the power button, nor did the power-on light come on.
I opened the unit to see if my limited hardware knowledge could spot anything obvious burnt or unplugged. I couldn’t find anything obvious. Even today, when I plug in the power cord, the motherboard fan comes on right away. What’s going on here? This is beyond my scope of knowledge. Please help! Thanks so much!