Sounds like your power supply got hit, need to get a new power supply. Best Buy or PC repair could replace it. If DS is computer handy he can.

the power supply thing seems to be ok lights up I'll suggest it to DS thanks

well exactly what is happening then. if it lights up, can you hear the fans do you hear the initial beep, it could be your monitor is out but the pc is working but you can not see it due to the monitor. That happens a lot. Try another monitor on it.

tell exactly what you are seeing and hearing.

Is this a desktop unit? Troubleshooting will be different for different types of systems.

Any lights on the monitor? Any noises from it? Can you feel static electricity near the screen? Any beeps from the computer? Can you hear the hard drive spinning? Any activity lights for CD, hard drive, etc flashing?

Let's see... it's a long shot but try unplugging everything and plug it back in. Look for any scorch marks on the connectors. Sometimes it can simply be bad connections. Loud thunder can shake a house and of course its contents.

Oh, if you have an optical mouse, is there light in it?

One other possibility, if you have it plugged into a surge strip, bypass it. That could be the issue.

That's where to start.

Raven and Cynic, II gave bad info: my son has an old laptop.

The Compac desktop does not turn on. he said the back of the computer looks fine and in the back was a slow green blinking light. Now the green light is blinking twice as fast as yesterday. He thinks its a battery inside the computer to save data He's not sure what the blinking light is but he is concerned as its blinking twice as fast as before. Does this mean we could lose files if that light goes out.

He plugged it into a separate direct power to the house and its dead as dirt no sound, no beeps no lights except the above green light .

He took the side off and cleaned a ton of dust out and still the fan doesn 't spin and the computer doesn't turn on period. It maybe my son says, you leave the computer on for days which he says would make the internal temp very hot inside the computer.

He believes the power supply in the computer is finished after he just cleaned out the whole computer . there is no sign of scortching and he said he will no longer sit in front of one of my working computers when we are back up haha

We are using that ten year old sony laptop. Since I have a stand alone file saver should I take the 8 year old Compac in for repair or buy a new one, I am so used to XP All the new computers have the scary Windows 8?

THANKS IN ADVANCE !!!

a power supply is not very expensive and fairly easy to replace, lots of YouTube videos showing how to. I would try a power supply myself.

2 suggestions at my end:

1) If the damage resulted in the the lighting and you have homeowner insurance, you can claim and get a new one.

2) You may still be able to retrieve data from the PC hard drive by using an external hard drive hard case. You can purchase one of these at Fry's or any computer supply store. It uses a USB cable that you can plug into another/new computer for retrieving the data. Your new computer will see this as another hard drive.

Later on, you can even keep that old hard drive as a back up system for your new computer.

There is a computer forum on Garden Web, thankfully all the computer geeks, I mean folks hang out there, they are very helpful and love to show each other up, I mean answer.

Good luck!

I agree with Raven. I would replace the power supply. You can look at the one that is in there, and order one that will fit that computer. I had the same thing, happen many years ago, and I did replace the power supply. Had it up and running in about 15 minutes after the new power supply arrived. I ordered mine from Newegg. I also had to order new ram, as that was damaged too. It was all an inexpensive fix, and it was also a very good lesson, to keep everything on surge protection, and have a whole house surge protector installed by the power company. My whole house surge protector is actually owned by power company, and costs 6.00 a month on my electric bill, but, is well worth the price, and they will replace it, if anything happens to it. Our power company also has a guarantee to replace or repair anything damaged , while it is in use. Most insurance companies, do not replace computers damaged by storms anymore. It is one of the cut backs, along with larger deductibles, that insurance companies have now. I am still leery of leaving things plugged in during storms, so all the computers in this house get unplugged when a storm happens, and all internet is unplugged to. One of my friends had it hit the jack, her dsl was plugged into, and had to replace a few things. Better to be safe than sorry. Good Luck to you. Cat

thanks everyone I sent all replies to my son I'll let you know !!!

if you do get a new computer, the windows isn't too bad...we bought the new stand alone ( just the screen) so much space saved...where the tower was, now holds my map books and boxes of cards...

btw, did you have any problems with other outlets in the houese?

btw, did you have any problems with other outlets in the houese?

no everything else is tip top ..

a while back I got a new Dell OptiPlex gx520 desktop with 3.0 ghz etc It was nice I would use a converter th it to put my cassete tapes on it MP3 It came with WXP also. a week or so ago it was doing an auto upgrade and froze the whole thing upo.. have to take it in somplace to get that fixed !!!