Help Me: Courier smashed my desktop, now it turns itself off

[ratfrink]

Alright,

I had my PC couriered to my new address but when I got it out the box all the CD cages on the front were pushed in and on the back the motherboard connections were at a very slight angle. I suppose they must've dropped it. Anyway,

I can turn it on, but it doesn't make the normal bloop-bleep sound, and within a couple of seconds it makes a two-tone siren noise (same as the noise you get when it overheats, except lower in tone). It plays this for a couple of seconds then turns itself off.

Annoyingly my monitor always takes longer to display anything than the PC takes to turn itself off. I'm gonna borrow a mate's monitor and see if I can see anything.

It's an old PC I built myself about seven (yeah) years ago. The specs are:
Abit NF7-M mobo
AMD Athlon (remember them?) 2500 overclocked to 3200 with some fancy cooler (I forget what make)
3gb ram
Can't remember what graphics card but it was a decent (for the time) ATi one, again with a fancy cooler
Seagate 400gb hdd

I've had a look inside, fixed the problems with the case. I can't see anything obvious but I don't really know what I'm looking for. If anyone could give me a diagnosis based on the noise, or a push in the right direction, I'd be grateful.

Perhaps it's time to retire this old beast but I've no money to replace it (well, I do, I just don't want to spend it). I've been looking at motherboard bundles on CCL (which, seven years ago, was the best online PC retailer, maybe it's changed since). My only specifications are that I need something that runs photoshop and turbocad well because I need it for my degree course.

[SnowmanJoe]

just get a laptop

[ratfrink]

And just throw my working hard drive, awesome monitor, keyboard away, and spend £700 on something that's not as good as my desktop was to begin with. Great idea.

I'm not going to get a laptop. I need one with a decent and very large monitor which means it'll be a)expensive and b)difficult to move about. I could get a good laptop with a small screen and plug my monitor into it when at home, but what's the point spending so much more on a laptop where I can only do work on it when I'm at home? I have a little netbook for travelling and it's essentially perfect. If you can find me a laptop with a 21" top quality monitor and as-good specs as my PC for under £500, I'll consider it. Hell, if you can find one with a 15" monitor and the same specs I'll consider it. But I can get a desktop bundle for £350 with far better specs than any laptop for twice that price.

Also I prefer using desktops. Even on large desktop-replacement laptops I find the keyboards to be squashed up and I like to move the keyboard about relative to the monitor. Plus I prefer to be looking up at a monitor rather than down at it. I suppose I should add that I'm a design student and spend a good five hours a day with my sketchbook, scanner, graphics tablet and big monitor, so I need something that's ergonomic. I don't find laptops ergonomic in the slightest.

[Amie]

Does the courier have any insurance against this sort of things? I'd check that first.

Also, check these flowcharts.

[ratfrink]

Flowcharts look good. I spoke to the couriers first thing but they do have a clause that states if the box isn't signed as 'damaged' on delivery, they won't pay out a penny. Unfortunately my housemate signed for it, so they're not interested, but I've been in contact with the citizen's advice bureau and they're gonna look into it. I'm doubtful I'll get anything from them though because of the exemption clause.

[negative_zero]

Buy a new motherboard.

[ratfrink]

Fixed it. The IGP fan was getting stuck because one of the fins had partly broken off and it was jamming. I didn't notice it before because I had to remove a cooling fan and the graphics card to get to it (it's a fucking rats nest in there).

Snapped the broken fin off, now it doesn't jam so doesn't turn itself off.

The aeriel screw-in jack thing on the wireless card was ripped out so even if the actual wireless card works, I'll need to solder on a new jack. I'll just use a lan cable for now though.

[Dark Lord]

A BIOS hard reset might have done the trick too. I used to have an NF-7, it's pretty good.