Hardware

in my experience these are the common failure modes, in order. 1) power supply 2) overheating processor (due to failed fan) 3) bad RAM
this is what i would try:
1) check fan on processor and power supply to make sure they are running. see if anything (cables) looks like it is interfering with air flow. see if processor is really hot to the touch.
2)unplug all the cards and devices (hard drive, cd's floppy etc etc). see if system will boot.
3)if you can get another power supply to swap in for a test, great! or maybe use a volt meter to look to see if it is putting out the voltages, especially on the 'power good' wire (see your manual or if lucky refer to sticker on pwer supply). unplug motherboard power connectors. plug in one hard drive (switching power supplies need a load in order for you to measure the voltages) and test at the momboard connector for power. this is not a great test if you don't know the voltages you are looking for....but maybe the wire color code is on a labelon the power supply or maybe you will measure no 5V's anywhere so that will clue you something is rotten in denmark
but first, check the fan on the processor and power supply. all spinning? then try reseating the processor if possible (ground yourself first). 'nother possibility is unseated or flaky RAM. if you can out take half of the RAM (you're still grounded, right?), and test, then try with the other half (your system has to support ram in that 'half out' configuration, check your motherboard manual or just try it)...if you get it working, you have some bad or mis-seated ram...
if nothing works, you can try cooling the processor by directing cool air at it somehow (like, will canned air you use to **** out dust from heat sink fins and fans?) and see if that gets it working. if you can pinpoint the problem, hopefully to processor or ram then you can price out replacement and decide if it is worth it...
hope t

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