Is it dead yet?

let me preface this by saying that i know almost nothing about the innerworkings of a computer, but i'm pretty good at figuring things out.

i just moved to a new apartment and set up my computer in exactly the same way it was originally set up. it's an older unit (almost 5 years old), but has a pentium iv and lots of memory. when i first turned it on and ran it, i had no problem. yesterday, i turned it on and got a blue screen and error message saying it had detected new hardware or something that wasn't originally connected and was shutting down. there is nothing connected that was previously uninstalled. i disconnected everything except mouse, keyboard, and internet and rebooted. this time, i could hear the fans going, and the main light lit up, but that's all. took off the cover, cleared out some of the dust, returned cover. computer booted and ran normally for about 30 seconds, then i heard a soft beep, and the screen froze. reboot, same thing. it will startup and run for about 15-30 seconds and then freeze. in those few seconds, i've used a usb key to try to get off some copies of the information on the unit, but i don't have anything backed up (i know...rookie mistake). does this sound like a problem with the motherboard? if so, is it possible to remove the hard drive and get the information from it to save some of the data? how can i check if it is the motherboard? hope this is detailed enough. thanks in advance.

Sounds like, during your move, something came loose. What you should do is unplug the system completely, open it up, and remove and reinstall each and every add-in card in it, then carefully remove the memory and reinstall it, then the CPU fan and CPU. Double check it's all installed correctly, and then reconnect and test.

This is the *CLASSIC* symptom of a computer having something vibrated loose.

Yea.. I would do as SamLavitt mentioned. Check the cables internally to make sure everythings connected properly.

You may even be able to try going to the Safe Mode menu (F5 during bootup), and clicking Last Known Good Configuration.

If everything fails, yes, you can remove the HD, and slave it to another drive in another computer, or put the HD in an external HD enclosure (Generally you can get these for about $30).... Either of these methods should allow you to retrieve the data off of the HD, provided the HD is not bad or corrupt. If corrupt, you may still be able to retrieve some data, but maybe not all. If the HD is bad, then you'll need to pay someone to try to retrieve the data.... one of those Data Recovery companies. But from what you're mentioning, I doubt the HD is bad.