Desktop will not boot or start in safe mode - tried all sorts - nothing works

[Frances30]

I have a Compaq Presario CQ3160AN Desktop PC running Windows 7. It was on sleep mode when tried to wake it up. It starts up fans and usual noises but then gets stuck, screen still black. I've tried hard restarting it and also turning power off but still does the something. Nothing ever shows up on screen and tried all sorts to get operating system to show or start in safe mode, such as passing F8 and other suggestions found by googling. I also tried disconnecting all other devices and have a bootable hardware diagnostic tools CD which I tried and also does nothing. What else can I try? Or is it last resort try recovery discs.

[BeemerBiker]

A servicing guide is here

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c01835707.pdf

Have you tried another monitor?  If the LED for the hard drive shows activity then borrow a monitor and see if it is working.

Open system, use compressed air to blow out all dust.  Be sure to get dust out of power supply

unplug power

touch finger to case before touching any components

If you have add-on video board, then remove it

Remove all memory

Put one stick of memory back in at DIMM0

connect monitor to video out at back of computer 

turn on and see if it boots up.

if seems working then add memory back in 

then add in video board (if any)

If does not boot up then look for damage on motherboard such as bad capacitors

[Frances30 · Accepted solution]

Thanks for your reply. I took it to a repairshop and it's the hardware. The motherboard I think - reached the end of the road not fixable.