Dead computer ???

I have a compact machine which is probably at least 5 years old. It came with Windows 7 and has been upgraded to Windows 10

We have been away and it has not been turned on for about 5 weeks.

When it is turned on it just comes up with the first Compac screen which offers 4 key presses

ESC -Boot Menu
F10 - Setup
F9 Dianostics
F11 - Recovery

It does not respond to any of the keys. There is a noise which sound like a dead/hunting hard disc a few seconds after this screen then nothing.

It is normaly equipped with a wireless keyboard and I have tried 2 different USB keyboards to no effect.

I have tried inserting both a bootable USB stickand a kubuntu live CD and the result is exactly the same.

Any hints as to what to try next.

Thanks in anticipation for any replies

Try using the jumper to clear the CMOS (BIOS settings). This will revert it to default settings.

Or just pull the battery out for a bit, no mistaken jumper settings then.

That's certainly an alternative. (You need to remove the mains lead and leave the battery out for a couple of minutes to be sure.)

Note that some older PCs had soldered-in rechargeable batteries so for them the jumper was the only way of clearing the CMOS. I'm not sure if that applies to any more recent computers.

Thank you for the replies.

Nothing had changed with regard to jumper settings and it has been working fine for a couple of years at least.

Removed the battery disconnected the power cord and switch on to kill any residual power. Left it a couple of minutes and then tried re-starting. Now it recognises the butto pushed and says loading - the option chosen but still nothing happens.

I have removed and tested all three hard dicks and sure enough one - the bootable one is dead.

Now having a ferret to find a replacement and see what happens

Sorry - I didn't mean to imply that any jumpers were wrong. Just that one way to reset the CMOS is to use the jumper that the manufacturers supply for this purpose.

Sorry my misunderstanding.

I have found a hard disk and I am now in the process of trying to set it up using a bootable USB stick that I think I had to make when I bought eith the omputer or the one I use now.

First attempt after a long "resetting your PC 1 - 100% just led to a flashing prompt which stayed on the screen for 20 min before I gave up.

Trying again

Bootable CDs/DVDs are often more reliable than USB sticks, especially with older computers. Does the computer have an optical drive?

Yes it does. The bootable USB stick I found was for my acer laptop after the second attempt. It had actually worked, but did not make the C drive bootable, must be something to do with Acer.

While it was doing it the second time I found the original recovery disks I had made, however the first one of those failed right at the end. Probably just as well as I bought the machine just as Windows 7 was about to be released, with Vista on it but the promise of an upgrade disk (which I also found) when it was available. I did upgrade to Win 7 and then 10 when they had the free offer.

I then downloaded a new bootable USB image from MS installed it on a spare HD and I think it is now all working again. Have installed several of my packages and most importantly WinTV which is probably the main use of the computer. It is a nightmare ordering the channels.

Thank you for your tips on the Cmos as that was the first step which had me flumoxed,