Computer Not Starting/Booting Up
There is an abundance of possible reasons why a computer wouldn’t boot up, all varying based on operating system, hardware, or any recent changes made to your computer or its software.

This article assumes you’re using Windows. Most problems a computer has with booting are related to software changes, not hardware. If you’re experienced enough to confidently change hardware, you should already know that changing hardware can do funny things to your existing Windows install.

One of the most common cause of a computer not booting to the desktop is a hard drive failure. If the hard drive that has/had Windows installed on it crashes, it can still be plugged in and nothing is going to work. When this happens, your motherboard takes over and informs you that an operating system couldn’t be found on your hard drive. Most of the time, this means that the motherboard couldn’t load the contents of the hard drive period, and conveys this only by stating that it couldn’t find an operating system. I guess you could say it’s a valid statement, though lacking in information.

Next to hard drive failures, malware and other virus-related infections are another leading cause of an OS not booting. Think back - have you downloaded or run anything in the past couple of days that you shouldn’t have? The simplest viruses just incapacitate or slow the computer, and the best of them completely obliterate any hope of loading your OS from that hard drive. In the event that this happens, you can attempt to boot into safe mode, recover any files, and reinstall Windows. I hope you kept the disc!

Another cause of a computer that won’t boot could be a hardware failure. If your computer screen is on and you can clearly see something happening, you at least know that everything is working with the exception of maybe your hard drive. If your screen won’t turn on at all, that’s a different story.

In today’s computers, the first component to fail is typically the hard drive. Or maybe the optical drive (disc reader) if you really really need a cup holder. Then, the most commonly failing component is a graphics card, assuming you have one that isn’t built into your CPU. You’ll know, they look like bricks with paint. If your computer screen has no activity, this is likely the cause. You need a video card to display video, after all! Go on the back of the computer, and study what jack your monitor is plugged into. If you see a similarly-shaped jack elsewhere on the computer, try plugging your monitor into that jack instead. If the problem was solved, your graphics card failed. Hope it’s still under warranty!|

After that, the power supply (PSU) is often next to fail. If the power supply fails, everything else is non-functional. Everything needs power, especially that hungry PC.

Should all else fail, contact Milford Computer Service! We guarantee the issue will be handled with the utmost efficiency and courtesy. 

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