I have an HP Pavilion a350n that I bought around 2003 or 2004, it worked great until about a year and a half ago when there was a blackout in my neighborhood, once the electricity came on the computer stopped turning on, after a few months I had decided to check if it still worked real quick, otherwise I would GET a new computer, I pressed the power button and it worked fine! A similar thing happened a few months ago, also because of a blackout, and it worked fine a month later. So that brings us to this, Yesterday my power went off, you can see where I'm going, the computer refused to turn on. Now I have semi important documents on there, probably a little stupid of me beings how untrustworthy it is, so I need to get on soon, not wait a month or two. Most likely you have already realized this, but all three times were the result of my electricity going off, I don't THINK there is anything wrong with the computers power supply though, I looked in the back and their is a little green light that blinks when it is plugged in, but the computer will just not turn on. If someone can help me that will be greatly appreciated, thank you.In Order to gain access to your document you could REMOVE the harddrive (the one with the document on it if you have more than one HDD) and temporarily attach it to another desktop computer as a slave drive. You do not need to physically install it in a drive bay. You can just connect it to the cable connections and then providing it is not damaged you should be able to access your CONTENTS. truenorth
P.S. Given the propensity for power losses in your location you might want to consider installing a backup power supply to your computer. Thank you, I can't believe I didn't think of that, I'll do that either tonight or tomorrow morning, again thanks.Your welcome and GOOD luck,truenorthI suspect the CMOS battery is weak or dead. 7-8 years for a CR-2032 is about maximum.I managed to salvage the file, so that is all good. Also I replaced the CMOS battery, and it still shows no sign of working, while it isn't to important if I can't get it to work, it would be nice if I could get it to work as soon as possible.Glad to see that you recovered your needed file. What i would do in your circumstances re the computer that is giving you this intermittent issue is i would remove all the hardware from the computer not essential to it running and see the difference at that stage (as to it's ability to boot). Then one at a time i would reintroduce the hardware to try and determine if one of the components is the cause. If you have more than one RAM module i would remove all but one (and replace that RAM module with the other(s) one at a time) before moving on to reintroduce the other hardware components. You might get lucky.truenorth
P.S. As i stated earlier a power backup unit for all the computers in your household should be a serious consideration. It seems it was the power supply that is damaged, I found the manual for it and saw that the blinking light denotes that something is not working, so I guess that I need to replace, while I am at it I will probably consider installing a backup unit as you have stated truenorth. Thank you for everyone's help.You are most welcome--i would just alter your process a little. I would try to borrow or use another power supply equal to or greater than that which you think is the culprit BEFORE i would buy a replacement. It may NOT be the only problem. truenorthGood solid advice Truenorth...