What Is Computer?

What does this noise from my computer tell me?

• Here's the back story: Earlier in the year my friend gave me a used eMachines PC because I had no computer. It worked fine for several months before finally dying on me. One morning my dad had commented on why my computer was still turned-on (when I had shut it off the last time I used it) because he saw the amber light on the case turned-on. When I attemped to boot the computer it would boot for a few seconds and then shut off. I then tried booting it again and it wouldn't boot. To remedy this I unplugged it, booted it once more, and it once again shut off after only a few seconds of booting. Eventually the computer refused to boot; instead, whenever the power button was pressed, all the lights on the case and keyboard would flicker. And eventually the computer just wouldn't turn on at all (no lights, nothing). Fast forward to now: I removed the power supply recently and determined that a transistor inside the power supply was jingling around inside---likely the source of my power problems. My friend sent me a 300 W power supply to replace the 250 W unit that was originally in the computer. The result? The computer now receives power, but the lights on the case and keyboard flicker without the computer booting. Now the amps listed on the label of the new 300 W power supply are slightly higher than the old unit supplied, but I was told the computer will only draw as much power as it truly needs and that this isn't a problem. What's more, when the computer is turned on there is a strange clicking noise coming from the processor chip or near the processor chip. When I played around with the computer I determined that it WAS NOT the processor chip's cooling fan. Again, the noise seems to be coming from the chip itself or from something near the chip. What are these symptoms trying to tell me? What should I do? Does this mean the processor has gone bust (because the chip looks fine to me)?

• Answer:

  Either the processor or the motherboard is gone. You can't tell anything by looking at the processor, because all you see is the case that the processor chip is enclosed in. Look at the motherboard and see if you observe any swollen capacitors or areas on the board that look burnt. That would indicate that the board is the problem.