88 240 Kaput HELP!

[Liz W.]

Hey, found this site to look for help..
I have an 88 Volvo 240 Wagon. Last night my boyfriend was trying to jump his car from mine, and he started it once and then it wouldn't start again. My father suspects that he messed up the internal computer somehow (he suspects my boyfriend put the jump cables on backwards ) or something else.
Is this a good estimation of what happened, or are we forgetting something? My boyfriend assumed (i guess) that there was some kind of fuse or back up that would keep something like this from happening if a mistake like that was made.
Who's right? As it is, my car will turn over, chug chug, but not start, kick in and go. If we have all overlooked something PLEASE tell me. This is my only car and as it is I'm going to have to borrow another (unsafe, pontiac sunfire) from someone to get around until my father can replace my car (yay for dads.)

thanks!

[matthew1]

Mmmm tough one. So it was running alright until the jump, now it turns over but doesn't catch. I don't think it's a computer thing. I think it's coincedence, and that something got pulled off or something when you two did the jump. It was at night, right? The reason I say that is that he wasn't sure if the cables were on the right pos/neg terminals.

Look around for things that look disconnected in the engine bay like vacuum lines. It does have fuel, right?

By the way, be careful jumping cars. Crossing wires can cause car batteries to explode, spewing acid everywhere.