Extreme PC Problems

Hi,
For about 2 weeks now, my pc has started rebooting randomly, today its gotten worse, a lot worse. I went in bios, and checked my CPU temp and it was 63C, i got some software to see what the CPU heat is in windows, and its 64C while idling, and reaches 71C or more while playing a game. I opened up the pc, and cleaned the CPU Fan, and heatsink, under the heatsink there was a bronze colored circle, and some silver paste on it, i didnt touch that, just cleaned around it, and put it back on, it might have spread when i put the heatsink back on, i didnt check for any splash damage as i couldnt see any. I booted up the PC as usual, and nothin was different. Same CPU temp.. I went in BIOS again and set the settings to Fail-Safe, and booted the pc up. It was running at 1.5Ghz, and had 54C temp. But ofc i wasnt satisfied with that, so i decided to switch it back to optimal settings, and boot up the pc to find another solution. I read on some forum that the mobo drivers could be the problem, so i put the mobo driver cd in the cd-rw. Surprize: PC rebooted after 30sec, then just wouldnt boot up winodws with the cd inside. I removed the cd and booted up normally, and tried again, to have the same success as last time. PC rebooted.. I tried removing the IDE cables and power cables from the CD-RW, and whenever i booted up windows, it would reboot in about 30seconds from reaching the desktop, or just not boot at all, with the yellow light on, but monitor off. Randomly, the monitor flickers when i open the PC. I dont know what else to do, ive been on this all morning, trying to figure out a solution. I tried deactivating auto reboot, but the pc reboots without any BSOD. I asked a few friends too, but none have encountered this problem before.
My Specs: AMD Athlon XP 2400+, 512RAM, ATI Radeon 9600SE, 80GB HDD

So please, any help would be greatly apreciated. Help me i beg you :cry confused

 

Seems to be running a little hot, but go back to basics.
Remove power plug, take care for static- wrist strap, or touch the casing before touching anything inside, and do not touch hard drive for at least 15 seconds.Press and hold down the insert button on your keyboard for 15 seconds.
Unclip the ram, and remove. Then replace--If two 256 mb, leave one out for now.
Remove cdrom/ide cable, and power to cd rom.
Replace power plug, and restart.
Then come back here, and let us know if anything different happened.

 

nothin wrong with my ram, already checked it ;o any other suggestion?

 

Welcome to Major Geeks

You have already failed to get a solution from another forum. Co-operation is the way. Baklogic offered you what is easily the most common cause of Windows constantly restarting and we don't have the result of the standard way to test.

If the system was shutting down from overheating it would stay shut down.

Windowskey +break/pause>advanced tab>startup & recovery>settings
In the sytem failure section
make sure the that the two boxes write to the system log and diplay and administrative alert are ticked. Make sure the restart bos is NOT ticked.

Next time the system fails it will stop and display an error code. Post this.


Studio T

 

already read that somewhere else, tried it, and i still dont get no bsod

 

You write a little curtly, and sharp.
Obviously you are pulling your hair out, but we all want you to be up, and running.Studiot is exceptionally good at delving the more technical - even if you have tried it all, it would be nice to see you say, Thanks, but....
Now, calm yourself down, and we will see if we can help you solve it.
This list is just to know what you have tried, and find something you have not - so take it in the right spirit.I will post a few at a time, as others may also have something to offer you.
1/ Have you tried a replacement psu ?
2/ With power cable disconnected, as before,if you have any thermal paste - most of us recommend artic silver- remove heatsink and fan, clean the base of the heatsink with a non fluffy wrag, and the top of the cpu. Squeeze a small blob of paste(less than a peanut) on the cpu, and replace the heatsink and fan.

 

The artic silver may well help it run a little cooler.
3/ Have you run a test on the hard drive - download the Hard drive manufacturers tool -usually here at majorgeeks downloads.

 

If you can get into Windows long enough - Do as Studiot says.

 

4/ Motherboard drivers can help, but I think you misunderstood the other forum, as you need to go to the motherboard Manufacturers site, and download UPDATED DRIVERS, if there are any for your motherboard.
5/ An updated Bios may be available - if you post your motherboard details, we might help you find these 2 items.- If you don't know the motherboard name- you will have to look at the board (assuming you cannot get into Windows for long enough to install Everst 220, or, Baleric Advisor), and let us know whatever is written anywhere on it for us to check.

 

6/ While looking at the motherboard, have alook at the little round things near the cpu (capacitors) - do they look swollen, , very round, or, neat little wire rolls.?

 

7/ Have you got a spare video card, or, is there on-board video (not being used , at the moment) - If so try changing it.
8/ What , if any, beeps do you here as it starts up - 1, or, 1-1-1, or, 3 -1-1-, - Give us that information , as it all helps.

 

I am going off-line now, but I will look in tommorrow - perhaps Studiot will be able to give you more help.

 

That's very useful information!

One of the boxes I asked you to tick writes a log if Windows encounters an error. Reading this log will identify software errors with programs, windows or drivers. also some hardware errors.

IF NO LOG IS WRITTEN this means that windows & co were cut off in their prime and can only be a hardware fault. So baklogic is quite right to work systematically through the hardware.

One service technique not yet suggested (here) is to remove everything possible and re-introduce them one at a time until the fault reccurs.

In order to run stably you need 1 good memory stick, 1 processor, NO video, no audio ,no keyboard, no mouse, no ide, no sata, no floppy. If your mobo will not boot and continue to run in this configuration (watch fans, lights, beeper) then it has a fault, or a flat battery.

Studio T

 

Okay, you may be miunderstanding my problem, or im failing at trying to explain it. My PC only reboots when inserting a CD, Random reboots when playing some newer games, like nwn2, lineage II, but doesnt reboot when playing Godfather, or other less demanding games. When i removed to IDE cables to the CD-RW, the pc started rebooting right away, or when it got to the windows desktop. Today, when i first started the pc, it DID boot, unlike yesterday, when i had to power it off and power it on again, coz the yellow light was on, the monitor was flickering, and i could here the pc reboot continuousely. I read on some other forum that Nero, and the programs i start my PC with could be the problem, and recommended me that i disable all the start-up programs and services from msconfig. Ive left my PC idling today, in lineage II, and it didnt reboot, so something has changed for the better. But when i tried to place a disc in the CD-RW, the pc rebooted. I tried 2 more times, for testing purposes and it still rebooted. I know you're trying to help, and im sorry for acting the way i did, but as u said, i was extremely iritated and annoyed. So thanks for the help.

LE: Ill also try removing each component one by one as studiot said, but i have no way of testing if the fault occurs or not, bcoz if i remove the CD-RW, i wont be able to boot windows, so i dont know exactly what to do ;o. Btw my audio card is onboard, ive got a Gygabyte GA-7N400E mobo, just installed the latest drives, i didnt flash bios yet, as i fail to find a floppy disk (???), i uninstalled my vid card, then reinstalled it

 

Your pc must be as dizzy as my head, no wonder it keeps wanting to shut down.

I will try one last time to help. All our advice is based on what you tell us and only going to be as good as the answers you supply. Just be glad you are not going through the Malware Mangle with Chas!

My understanding of your pc history is

The pc was working satisfactorily some while back. - How Long?

You started to experience random restarts - What was the last change you made before that?

You continued to use the pc and even installed new programs

The problem got worse

You fiddled about with hardware and bios, trying to check on overheating.

The problem got worse

You fiddled about with various software suggestions and found that the problem could be stimulated by action with the CD drive.

The problem got worse

Now you have made so many changes, without undoing them if ineffective, that the situation is all tangled up.

I think you are heading for a complete reinstallation unless you slow down.

If one of your latter software additions contained cd writing elements (eg a save game to cd function) it may well have screwed up your pc. In general you can't have more than one cd writing software installed as they conflict.


How far back does your System Restore reach? I think your best bet is to restore back before any problems and rebuild your software more carefully.



Studio T

 

Okay, so i figured it out, the problem is the power supply. We opened it and saw that some Caps were swolen, so im getting a new power supply soon. Thanks for all the help.

 

If some capacitors are swollen, this can indicate the motherboard as your problem.
Before replacing anything, as Studiot said, try System Restore - if you can restore it to an earlier date, documents and data are saved, only programs installed later than the system restore may be lost.
Then, if the problem persists, think of spending your hard earned pennies on anything.

 

The Capacitators on the Power Supply were swolen, not the ones on the mobo. I changed the power supply, and im not rebooting anymore. So thats gotta be it. Thanks for all the help, i apreciate it.

 

Glad to hear you have replaced a failed module. All credit to you for identifying it too!
However be warned that power supply caps do not usually fail on their own, within pc timescales. Something was drawing greater current than the old psu could handle. Hopefully the replacement is sized accordingly. It would also pay to monitor things in future, in case a latent fault elsewhere is still drawing excess current.

good luck
Studio T

 

Yes, we are pleased you found the answer, - I misunderstood about the capacitors in the psu, as I did not expect you to open THE PSU, as this is not recommended , I thought you meant on the motherboard- but as it showed you the swollen capacitors, and you will not be using it again, big bonus.
Happy computing.

 

I kno that opening the psu isnt recommended, but i invited a friend of mine over, he knows a lot about electronics, and together we checked every piece of the pc. We installed two extra coolers, and changed thermal paste, so the temp on the cpu atm is 56C, which is better then my previous 64C while idling. And yes the power supply was being overused. My friend told me that it could be the cpu cooler, it has 3 wires (???). I didnt understand how could that have caused my failure but.. I bought another power supply, unfortunately its same voltage, 400, coz i couldnt find a 450 one at the time, and i was too lazy to go somewhere else (???) well.. Thanks a lot, and goodluck to ye all