Hi. I have read through some of the threads here to start getting ideas, but I figured it would be better for me to create my own thread instead of piggy-backing on another one. Yesterday evening, I was working in the garage, and heard a loud screeching noise that I hadn't heard before - coming from the side of the house. I went over there and saw that it was emanating from the A/C unit. To my untrained ear, it seemed like it might be a bearing or something. I asked a neighbor, and he said he doesn't know anything about A/C, but that it sounded like a bearing going bad too. When I walked up to it, I noticed that the fan was not spinning. I went back inside the house and noticed that the system was still blowing cold air. So, that said it's not completely broken yet.....perhaps just sort of broken. :-) At that point, I turned the system off at the thermostat. Then, a little while later, I tested the system by turning power back on (stood outside and asked my wife to turn it on over the phone, actually), and this time, the only thing that happened was that it made a humming noise, like an electric motor that's trying to spin but is stuck or something like that. I quickly turned it back off. I then called a couple friends that are much more handy than I am. One of them suggested that I go out, with power on to the A/C system, and try to spin the fan with a screwdriver to see what happens. I did that, and it indeed started spinning, and pretty much seemed 'normal' at that point. Then, I turned it back off. When I contacted my friend this morning with the news about the fact that it spun up when I moved it a little with the screwdriver, he said he thinks it means that I need a new motor. However, when I read through [URL="http://www.doityourself.com/forum/air-conditioning-cooling-systems/227549-outside-unit-fan-not-moving-buzzing.html"]this thread[/URL] (which seems very similar to what I'm dealing with), it seems as though it may be more simple than that....perhaps just replacing a capacitor? So, is there anyone here that would be willing to help me diagnose this thing any further? I'd like to know more about what's wrong with it. If it's simple enough for me to do myself, I wouldn't be opposed to that at all, and if it's more complex than I can handle, at least I'd have more info to go on when interacting with the repair technician. The house is about 8-9 years old. We are the first owner/resident. Thanks in advance for any assistance that anyone is willing to offer...

Inside unit is ON and blowing air BUT outside unit just makes a click sound and nothing happens. No Fan is ON and no compressor is ON. I saw that capacitor was bulged out so I changed the new one but still the same issue. I then called my regular Technician and he said I need a new unit. Before I spend over a thousand, is there any way I can fix and use it as long as I can? There are only 4 things in outside units that could go wrong: 1. Capacitor (which is new now) 2. Contact (I don't know if it good or bad but I don't see abnormal sign there) 3. Fan Motor (I don't know how to check if it is dead) 4. Compressor (I don't know how to check if it is dead). My unit is at least 15 years old and the brand is YORK. Any enlightenment would brighten my life to cool down everything else Thanks