computer will not boot - need help troubleshooting

[le_vainqueur]

I have a desktop that I had built about a month ago. Its set up as a windows 7 Ubuntu dual boot machine. It was working great until yesterday. A couple of nights ago we had a big storm. I'm not sure if its related or not. The following day, the only noticeable symptom was intermittent network connection loss. The day after that there was complete network connection loss. Today a new Pci network card was added hoping that it was just a problem with the mobo network port. Unfortunately the computer will not even boot now.

I'm not sure what the best way to troubleshooting this problem is. Any guidance is appreciated.

[oldfred]

Hardware is more difficult to fix in my opinion.

I heard a pop on my system one night but it kept working. Next morning my wife said it would not even start. No power, no lights nothing.

I had a weak motherboard & power supply that I was looking for an excuse to upgrade anyway so I replaced those and still nothing. Put in new video card & it worked like a charm. On further review, I could see that the capacitors on the video card were not quite flat on top but slightly open. I suspect I heard one pop, but it took more than one to pop before system stopped working.

You might check all the boards for any irregularities. Burnt spots, open capacitors, anything that looks wrong.