HELP! Pc Problems!

[Erlend_G]

Hi guys.

My pc is a homebulit one, with an AMD 2200+ processor, MSI mainboard, and around 512mb ram. Yesterday, it started acting up, which is wierd since it's been functioning perfectly for three years.

So, here's the symptoms:

-Yesterday, i were sitting by the PC, when all of a sudden the screen went black. The PC wouldn't respond to anything, not even the on\off button or the capslock lights on the keyboard. Totally frozen. So, i had to pull out the power chord turn it off.

-Today, when i were going to turn on the PC, i just got a black screen, a gruesome noise, and red\black\green digital lines for about three seconds, before the PC turned itself off.

I managed to get it up and running though... but i wonder when this will happen again. I think the problem is the power supply, do you have any idea?

Thanks,
-Erlend

[chrisola]

is your PC overclocked?

is your graphics card overclocked?

does the pc get really hot in use?

It can fail straight out and not give any errors when things are overclocked, or if you have LOADS of stuff connected (eg 2 dvd drives, 2 hds, loads of USB devices, ultra powerful GFX card).. all depends on how much juice your power supply puts out and how hot the pc gets...

Also power spikes from the mains supply can cause havoc, should always use a surge\spike protector mains adapter :)


^^ probably no help but there ye go!

[Bainzy]

My old PC's been doing something similar too - half the time it boots up fine, then the other half it gets to the "press delete for bios" screen and freezes - making a loud humming noise and a fire engine noise, lol.

[donovan.x]

Re-Format and re-install windows. Over a period of time windows becomes unstable. Make sure everything is not covered in dust inside.

My next bet would then be to spend out on a new H/D, I wouldn't have thought it would be your power supply though.

[Muttley]

Re-Format and re-install windows. Over a period of time windows becomes unstable. Make sure everything is not covered in dust inside.

My next bet would then be to spend out on a new H/D, I wouldn't have thought it would be your power supply though.

Windows will have nowt to do with this problem.  It's definitely hardware related, but a new hard-drive won't help in the slightest.

TBH it'll probably be power supply or graphics card.

1st step, open her up and get a vacuum on all that dust (might be clogging the cooling fans which will cause things to overheat).  Make sure you don't bash/break anything.

Next, power it up with the case open and visually check all the fans are working.

Got a spare GFX card you can throw in to take that out of the equation?

Muttley

[Kilby]

If you are overclocking, set it back to normal, overclocking can cause componants to become less tolerant of overclocking over time.

However: Heat is most likely your main enemy.

Check your fans, Processor, northbridge, any gfx card fans, case fans and finally PSU fans, and replace as nessicary.

don't forget the thermal paste / tape for anything mounted onto chips.

Reseat your RAM if it's not properly seated, heat can make it creep out of place if it's not properly in place.

If it still plays up reseat your cards

After that try updating any old drivers, gfx cards where notorious for such problems, followed by sound cards.

If it still arses about check the temperature and voltage figures in the BIOS setup, if any voltages are a bit low then I would suggest a new PSU

Try remove any unnessicary cards (yeah I know you need them all) along with any unnessicary harddrives (firewire, USB or internal) as some devices start drawing too much power when they are going duff.

If it behaves after that add one card / drive at a time and see what happens.

Hope this helps a little.

[donovan.x]

Re-Format and re-install windows. Over a period of time windows becomes unstable. Make sure everything is not covered in dust inside.

My next bet would then be to spend out on a new H/D, I wouldn't have thought it would be your power supply though.

Windows will have nowt to do with this problem.  It's definitely hardware related, but a new hard-drive won't help in the slightest.

TBH it'll probably be power supply or graphics card.

1st step, open her up and get a vacuum on all that dust (might be clogging the cooling fans which will cause things to overheat).  Make sure you don't bash/break anything.

Next, power it up with the case open and visually check all the fans are working.

Got a spare GFX card you can throw in to take that out of the equation?

Muttley

We'll see, We'll see. Mmmmmm

[chrisola]

+1 on not being windows (plus you can just defrag and re-sort yer hd without formatting)

it generally causes software faults where a file you have never heard of mysteriously deletes itself one day or some such...

Its heat\lack of power\components near death ;)

[b0ng0]

You say it was making weird noise - any idea where it was coming from?

It seems strange that your monitor would go blank and the power light on the keyboard went off. Sounds like a grpahics card problem (but I don't know why the keyboard power light should go off unless its a PSU problem).

If it's working fine now then I would post your problem on www.custompc.co.uk forums. Those chaps know their stuff.  :shock:

It's a bit hard to tell what it is if it has only done it once but check the events log in control panel in the system tab and see if an error message came up about the time your pc c--kd up.

[chrisola]

good job you didnt format then ;)