I tried searching the forum so i dont repeat a POST... but i really dont know what to search for. It's a bit of a niche problem i think...

a couple of weeks AGO i bought a PC from an internet cafe... cheap as dirt, overclocked 3ghz p4. when i tried it at the internet cafe, it worked fine. when i got home, it worked fine. I downloaded a bunch of stuff on the computer, installed alot of basics like antivirus, firefox, games... etc...
by the 3rd day or so, it was starting to show symptoms... a couple of times, when i turned it on, the light at the front was on, but nothing else was happening at all... after a couple of tries, it worked. The next day, it got worse, i had to it on many times before it worked. and by the 5th day, it just wont work at all.
Last night i went back to the internet cafe and they gave me another PC which worked fine at the internet cafe. I got home, turned it on, and it was fine. So i started to download and install all the usuals.... i wasnt watching the download so im not sure what happened, but it must've turned off by itself and now it doesnt work again.

My friend has bought the exact same computer from the internet cafe a while back and he's is working fine... I opened up the computer (wasnt sure what i was looking at). When i turned it on, there's a green light on the mother board (the green light as well as the red light at the front was on too). I switched the graphic card with my other PC and it was fine... I did notice that the hard drive wasnt running...

Can you guys help me out? I have a feeling its not the internet cafe selling me dodgy computers coz my friend's one works, and both computers that i tried worked while it was at the internet cafe... Its really frustrating. Any suggestions at all will be appreciated. Thanks in advanceI tried a few other parts on my working PC...

HD works, video card works, ram works... all the fans turn on if that means anything...A little confused...

What exactly is the computer you have doing when you turn it on now? Do you see the BIOS screen? Does Windows even start to load?

If you've tested all the hardware in another computer and confirmed it works, it might be your power supply.If the HDD light (red) is continuously on when u boot up...remove the ide cable and power to all hard drives/dc drives and see if it will boot to BIOSnope, nothing shows up

I've tried a different monitor and graphic card... nothing shows up on the monitor at allOK few things to check...the plug it is plugged into hasn't been known for surges or problems with other devices?

you aren't running it in a extremely humid environment compared to the internet cafe?

symptoms are of a dead motherboard my friend..but one more thing!

are you familiar with the CMOS battery on the motherboard? a little cell battery that keeps all the BIOS settings "active" while not plugged into the wall, so it doesn't "forget" them.

remove it for 2 minutes, then unplug your computer from the wall and try to turn it on. it 'should' momentarily power up fr a split second but it shouldn't depending on power supply and other factors...

anyway after this clip the battery back in and plug the computer back in to the wall and try to power up again

Kurtis
Thanks Kurtis... I found the CMOS battery and tried the thing you said. It didn't work... I TOOK it to a computer store and you were right, they said it's probably a motherboard problem (although if i want to find out the REAL problem it'll cost me ofcourse). *censored* it, i payed $300 for this piece of junk and i doubt they'll REFUND it....

oh well... gotta be smarter next time i guess.
Thanks Kurtis