Q: This morning when I turned on my computer, the graphics card turned on, but the cpu didn't appear to make any noise and the cpu's fan was not spinning. I took out the graphics card and tried turning on the computer using the video plug on the motherboard, but still the computer would not start up and the monitor said no input (tested the monitor, it works fine). I'm guessing right now that the cpu is broken, but I have no idea how to really tell. Anyone out there know how I can figure out what part is broken? Edit: forgot to add, I took out the battery on the motherboard, left it out for 10minutes, put it back in, and no help. Also there appears to be no burn marks or smell of burning on the motherboard or anywhere (a friend suggested checking that).
A: Remove everything. Remove the video card. Unplug the harddrives, cdroms, floppy drives. Remove any pci cards like modems or NICs. Remove the ram. Only thing plugged in should be the processor, 1 stick of ram and the lcd to the onboard monitor and the front panel connectors. Turn on the PC. I it boots fine, then add in the video card after shutting down the PC. If that works, one by one, shut down the pc and add in the next bit of hard ware. if at any point after something is installed remove it. You've found the bad part.