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Geek Culture / Computer death. Any ideas?

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Fallout
22
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Joined: 1st Sep 2002
Location: Basingstoke, England
Posted: 3rd Nov 2009 09:24
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My PC died last night. The previous symptoms before death were:
- Occassionally refusing to start up. Power would come on, CD drives would make some noise etc, but didn't boot.
- Then that became a common thing. The first button press never worked. Had to switch off, and try again, then it would work.
- Recently I got a few msgs saying "BIOS failed to load. Using defaults". I'd then have to go into the BIOS and setup again. This happened twice, and then the PC ran ok for a few days. The windows clock/date was reset too.
- Last night, it wouldn't boot up as usual, but I now it never boots!

I'm pretty sure the HDs, GFX, RAM etc. are fine. I'm wondering if this could just be MoBo battery?

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Van B
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Joined: 8th Oct 2002
Location: Sunnyvale
Posted: 3rd Nov 2009 10:25
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Maybe a corrupt bios, worth trying to flash it with the latest version. Also check your memory - that can cause all sorts of symptoms, make sure it's seated nicely, and if possible try a different memory set, even just borrowing 1/2gb from somebody.

Then if that makes no difference, I'd say it's time to look for a new motherboard. Even if your mobo battery is missing, your PC should still boot, you'd just have to set everything each time, like the time and date.


Health, Ammo, and bacon and eggs!
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Fallout
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Joined: 1st Sep 2002
Location: Basingstoke, England
Posted: 3rd Nov 2009 11:28
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Good shout. I reckon if any hardware is gone, I'll buy a new base unit. My PC is a good 4 or 5 years old now. I can't change the mobo without changing the GFX card, as I got some crazy gigabyte dual GPU combo thing, that only works with that mobo. I'll just move my SB platinum across, and HDs.

Fingers cross it's just the battery!

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Fallout
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Location: Basingstoke, England
Posted: 7th Nov 2009 18:04 Edited at: 7th Nov 2009 18:05
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Thanks for your suggestions Van. They helped.

I replaced the BIOS battery, and reflashed the bios from back-up (I have a cool dual bios feature on my mobo). Initially I thought that had worked, but then it failed again. So I replaced the PSU with a spare I had. It then booted straight away, but crashed when it got to the desktop.

So basically I decided I would take the plunge and just build a new system, but today I decided to take my entire machine apart, hoover everything (including all connectors) and get rid of all the dust. I then put it back together, and now it's running fine .... so far.

So I think it was a combination of problems. Bios corruption, PSU was old, and also a loose connection. So that's £600 saved, for now at least.

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Phaelax
DBPro Master
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Joined: 16th Apr 2003
Location: Metropia
Posted: 8th Nov 2009 03:39
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My first thought was the CMOS battery. Reset to defaults wouldn't cause the clock to reset like that, which is why I'm suggesting battery.

Worst case scenario is a bad motherboard. Most common reason I've seen for motherboards that cause random or inconsistent issues is blow capacitors. You can visually check for that.
I'm happy my new Abit I got 2 years ago has solid state caps.


Could've been loose connections or, if you had a lot of dust, a heat issue. But cool, it works!

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Fallout
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Location: Basingstoke, England
Posted: 10th Nov 2009 14:48
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Well I spoke too soon Phaelax. Thanks for your suggestions, but it has blown up AGAIN! My mate suggested it could be the PSU doesn't have enough juice. I think I've traced all the issues back to when I switched my GPU to dual GPU mode (it's an old GFX card with two GPUs on it, but I only ever ran 1). Maybe that over juiced the system. Maybe if I can get it to boot, I can disable one of the GPUs and get it running again.

That £600 new system is calling to me again. Trouble is, I just bought a new guitar and amp .... so I'm a bit skint this month.

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Van B
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Location: Sunnyvale
Posted: 10th Nov 2009 14:58
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Ahh, sounds a bit more familiar Fallout, I had some issues with my 7950 dual SLI card like that, ended up replacing it. I used to have it run in combined mode, so both cards are sharing the load, then I tried to hook up my TV to one of the outputs and went for separate mode, only to find that it would crash at random times. I'm sure that one of the GPU's failed, so in combined mode they would work, but the extra they needed to work separately was just too much.

I think it's a flawed design, dual SLI or whatever they call it - my brother had the same issues with his identical GPU about 6 months after mine.

I say you should try and swap the GFX card, even if it's a cheap and nasty £30 job - trying to narrow down the issue will save you a lot of money, I know, I've not long spent a fortune fixing a cheap problem (replaced my whole PC then later found it was a memory issue all along). Trying a cheap but stable card should tell you if it is your GPU, and then you can spend a third of your budget on a new GFX card, instead of what might end up being a mostly sideways upgrade.


Health, Ammo, and bacon and eggs!
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Fallout
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Posted: 10th Nov 2009 15:23
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Good shout. My mate bought a 9600 a few months back, and has since bought a laptop and no longer uses his desktop. I might try that card out if I can't fix things, and see what happens. In the meantime, I could use the onboard GFX to get it booting.

I'll report back.

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zeroSlave
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Location: Springfield
Posted: 10th Nov 2009 15:46
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Quote: "Trouble is, I just bought a new guitar and amp ...."


Sounds like an unfortunate super win!

There's something in this room that makes you can't speak well.
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Fallout
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Location: Basingstoke, England
Posted: 10th Nov 2009 21:28
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It is a mega lose win. A strange situation where everything is good, yet incredibly messed up.

I can't sort the compo. I've tried running it with bare bones power, and it won't boot. The general rule now seems to be: It boots the first time, when I've not booted it for a long time, and not afterwards. That doesn't make any sense does it?

I'm fed up with it. I'm going to buy a new computer. I'll just have to eat nothing but crumbs and run my car on farts until next pay day.

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