[TheGoyWonder]

I've looked at a lot of stuff but not seen anything EXACTLY like this. So I'll include all the details.

Computer (Gateway desktop, AMD 64 x2) crashed during normal operation and never revived. When it started crashing, it sent nasty noise through my connected stereo. No blue screen, just freezing.

When I press the power button it illuminates and the fan runs continuously. HDD light comes on for a second then stays off. Usually I hear the fan for a second when I start the computer, then it's off or inaudible for everything, even sustained 100% CPU load.
No display, no keyboard or mouse illumination.

I've tried the unplugged 30-second restart, replacing the CMOS(sp) battery, removing all PCI and USB devices, moving RAM around, 1 RAM, no RAM, booting with all extra ATA drives unplugged, booting with no drives...it's always the same thing. Not even a BIOS screen.

I tried a PSU harvested at work...unproven though so I guess that was pointless.

What would HDD failure look like? I can't even tell if it spins over the fan noise and I don't have anything else to connect it to.

Monitor works with my laptop, just to cover my bases.
One last clue: the optical drives died one by one over the last couple months, now will open and spin but not read. That's all the details, hope they lead to great answers!

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TheGoyWonder

The first thing that I suggest is swapping in a known good PSU, it must have an equal or higher output rating than the original PSU.

Some information regarding PSUs below;

As a PSU puts out various voltages +3.3V, +5V and +12V it may appear that the PSU is working correctly but it is not, any significant drop of any output can prevent the system from booting up, the other scenario is a significant increase in the output which can be worse as it can fry one or more major components such as the MB, CPU, Ram, add on video card etc.

Please be aware that there are no user replaceable parts in a PSU so a bad one should be disposed of in a responsible manner and any type of conclusive testing will need to be done by a suitably trained Tech who has the required testing equipment and the relevant knowledge as to how to use it.

A very basic test to see if a PSU will even activate or if it is completely dead

[phillpower2]

TheGoyWonder

The first thing that I suggest is swapping in a known good PSU, it must have an equal or higher output rating than the original PSU.

Some information regarding PSUs below;

As a PSU puts out various voltages +3.3V, +5V and +12V it may appear that the PSU is working correctly but it is not, any significant drop of any output can prevent the system from booting up, the other scenario is a significant increase in the output which can be worse as it can fry one or more major components such as the MB, CPU, Ram, add on video card etc.

Please be aware that there are no user replaceable parts in a PSU so a bad one should be disposed of in a responsible manner and any type of conclusive testing will need to be done by a suitably trained Tech who has the required testing equipment and the relevant knowledge as to how to use it.

A very basic test to see if a PSU will even activate or if it is completely dead