my pc has stopped working....i was downloading something and it just turned off.

it still turns on and powers up but only gets to the PACKARD BELL screen then just freezes.

i take it that the prob cant be the psu or id have no power.

maybe the harddrive has gone(whats the life expectancy of them?)

anyone else got any ideas what could be wrong?

ive tried reinserting conectors on the motherboard etc but nothing has helped.

the comp is about 3 years old and is running win xp(athlon proccesor...could this be the prob?)

any one got any ideas?

cheers

If u havent tried all ready press f8 while booting and see if u can boot it up in safe mode, what was u downloading, could it have been a virus?. If it boots up in safe mode do a full virus scan with updated definitions. If it does not boot up at all try using a boot disk

tried that. i got into safe mode once and selected "start with last known working config" but nothing loaded. where can i get a boot disk from? can i download one from somewhere?

www.bootdisk.com

reformat ur hard drive

If it haven't went past the Packard Bell screen then you won't be able to boot into SAFE mode, b/c it haven't went past the POST test.

I think you should hit F1 or the delete key and go into the BIOS setup and check if your BIOS detect your Hard drives. If you install any new equipment, then try removing them.

The file you downloaded should not be your problem.

BTW, do you get any Beep noises upon reboot?

A Hard drive last 3 to 5 years on average.

Clean your heatsink and fan. Mayby even get new one's. Those AMD chips get hot very fast and when they do they cause problems like this.