Computer not booting, black screen, no beeps

Question

I bought a pre-owned computer on Ebay. It booted fine, had to reset due to it not detecting USB mouse, but it detected the USB keyboard. Booted fine again, then I tried to install Ubuntu Desktop, when it was installing I got a phone call, when I'm answering it, I find a Blue screen of Death. I reboot the computer and nothing, no BIOS boot, no beeping, but one of the fans was on. I opened the cover and found a large amount of dust, removed it, still not booting.

I'm a complete novice with computer repairs, the most advanced thing I did was take a 286 harddrive and replace a 486's damaged harddrive with it (put the drive into the 486 that is), what could possibly be causing this?

Solution

It's alive, IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!

I'd given up and decided to take one last crack at it, before flogging it for spare parts on Ebay. It appears it was a ram stick causing the problem, every time i'd removed the ram, i'd always placed both sticks back in again, i was forced to set the system clock back to normal, but apart from that, computer appears fine. Thanks for your help Nerdwaller and Journeyman geek.

Comments

[Thalys]

It might help to say what sorta computer it is. At the very least, brand and any other basic information you get on it,

[Kok Chong]

Ebay listed it as DELL DIMENSION 4550 - P4 1.8ghz/512mb/80gb/DVD/CD-RW/RAGE 128/WINDOWS XP & COA, but i'm not sure of anything else.

[Kok Chong]

Thanks for the info, I found a card thing unplugged and slotted it in, now the computers making a beeping noise every few seconds. I'll try removing that card. Edit: Nope, and it's making a electonic crackling noise. I'll take it into PC world next week. Thanks for the help anyway.

[Kok Chong]

Took another look at it, turned out the beeping and cracking was due to the (long card thing, think it's the ram?) not being slotted fully in. Still can't get it to boot.

[Kok Chong]

So, so far i've checked the ram cards, graphics card and that driver card, so i'll try the jumper option.

[Kok Chong]

It seems as though computers are not made to last these days, I had an old Compaq Prolinea 486, that was still running perfectly in 2009, until it was damaged when it fell from a shelf i'd stored it on temporary. oops.