Is it dead?

[Mithlomwen]

Okay here goes. 

My computer died on me this morning.  I'm not sure exactly what is wrong with it.  Keep in mind I am very technologically challenged.  I follow direction well, but I don't know much about computers. 

This morning it had been running fine, and then it froze up.  I turned it off manually and gave it a little bit before turning it back on again.  When I did, I got to the screen where it would normally be searching for the storage devices, and instead gave me a message to reboot and select a proper boot device. 

Also, it doesn't seem to be communicating with the monitor.  Sometimes it will and sometimes it won't.   

My OS system is Vista (which I loathe) so I'm not sure if that's part of the problem or not. 

Any help would be appreciated! 

[Izu]

Erm... before going to the bad and scary conclusions, did you try the obvious - check whether all cables are plugged properly? When it froze on you... froze as in blocked or as in it just turned off itself? Did it make any weird noises? Is it overheating? Is the fan going faster than normal?  It can either be a virus playing tricks on you, which can be fixed by either running your anti-virus, or in the worst case - reinstall your OS; or it's some hardware bug - the fan might not be working properly, some cable might have burned inside, or the worst and most expensive bad things - either the harddrive or the the motherboard might have died.

[Mithlomwen]

Yup everything is plugged in and working just fine.  It was working just fine, just like normal, and then everything just froze.  The mouse cursor wouldn't move, couldn't click on anything. 

I can't run an antivirus program because I can't boot the computer up.  It stops on the black screen. 

I do have all of the disks, though I am loathe to install Vista on it again. 

[Vekseid]

Press the BIOS setup key (escape or f2, usually) and see if it sees your hard drives? Does it never get pass hard drive detection? Do you ever hear any beeps?

[Mithlomwen]

Nope it doesn't pass the hard drive detection I don't think.  Haven't heard any beeps. 

[Izu]

Did you manage to get into BIOS?

[Soran]

I'll get on later on im and we'll go through it one bit at a time (if you have a second pc to use while we try to fix the first)

[Mithlomwen]

I do yes.  And thanks!