I’d echo the recommendation of opening the computer up and going at it with a can of whoop-ass (and by whoop-ass, I mean air), then case still open, starting up the computer and making sure the CPU fan is indeed spinning. (The rationale being that many computers/mobos have a setting that will shutdown the computer after a few seconds if the fan isn’t spinning.)
If the CPU fan spins, and the CPU heatsink is still firmly mounted (which I imagine it should be), try popping out the RAM, giving the RAM and the slots a squirt of air, and putting them back in, this all assuming you’re comfortable with doing so.
When you open the case, make sure you’ve grounded yourself. Touch a radiator or a pipe to discharge any static electricity. And leave the computer plugged in to the mains but turned off at the wall if you don’t have a wrist-strap.
Wow, do you actually do this? I am new to the game of computer repair (been doing it for about a year) and while I was taught to do this, I have never actually seen it done in real life.
I’ve never done this, and for this type of work, I tend to eschew grounding wrist straps–too much of a hassle. If you leave the thing plugged it (I don’t even care if the power is off at the wall unless I’m working on the guts of the power supply*), it’s already grounded. As long as you make contact with some part of the chassis (and it’s almost impossible to work on a PC and NOT touch some grounded part fairly often) you’ll be grounding out the static charge anyway.
I have yet to zap a part with static. Or myself.
On older AT or baby-AT boards, the line power ran from the PS to the front panel switch and back to the PS. The switch terminals were insulated, but a litte care when working near them was called for. If there was any possibility of exposing these connections, such as when replacing the switch, I’d unplug it. Grounding wasn’t an issue in that case, anyway, since switches aren’t static-sensitive.
