Need your opinion

I'm fixing an e-machines computer for my grandmother before we move to Chicago. I was trying to upgrade the memory from a mere 128 to 256 (that's all I had extra). Since trying to do that, I fear I've severely messed up her pc but it could just be coincidence. There was a lot of dust in the case, so we air dusted it. Since then, I've been getting no display, no beeps, but the harddrive is working, as well as the CSU (the fan is spinning) but the CPU fan isn't spinning and the CPU feels hot. Could it be that I just need to buy a new fan or CPU? Could the power supply be the problem? What should I try first? Also, I should mention that the CSU fan turns on for a brief millisecond when I unplug the machine from the power source, maybe there's a short. Any help would be appreciated.


The memory is fine because I put it in another computer with no problems. I tried another video card to be sure and it was fine. I checked my monitor, my cords, everything. The CD-Rom drive works fine, opens and shuts but nothing else is happening.

It seems strange that you have problems after installing the extra ram and air dusting the inside of your case.

I dont think the airdusting contributed to the problem unless you accidentally hit something while doing it. I take it you had the machine switched off while cleaning and changing memory.

Providing full specs of your Grandmothers system would help us understand what could be wrong.

What type of memory was in it originally and what did you replace it with?

make sure you did not dislodge the CPU fans power connector...if the fan is not working there is a good possibility the CPU is toast!

Dont think the cpu is toast due to the auto cut off safety feature, but the pc rebooting is most likely caused by the cpu overheating.

You could try removing the heatsink and giving it a good clean and re-applying thermal paste (arctic silver 5 is best but not needed on such an old processor). Also the fan on the heatsink could be faulty/broken so you could try replacing that. If the cpu fan isnt spinning then the cpu overheats and the system reboots as a matter of protocol.

I went ahead and tried moving the cpu fan from one computer to the next to test it out. It worked, so then I took my power supply to get the voltage tested and the tech said it was 5 volts low, and so I probably had a problem with just one part of it since 12 volts connects through one part and 5 volts connects to something else. So it turned out to be the power supply after all. I just happened to be messing with it when it went out because I know I didn't drop it. Luckily I had another PC, an HP that I just added some additional memory to, and formatted the hard drive (it used to have ME on it) to use XP. It runs excellent now. Thanks to everyone that helped. Next time I have a problem I'll post specs. I've learned quite a lot these last few days, thanks again!