My computer has been freezing and it is steadily getting more and more
frequent i.e it rarely manages to complete a boot any more before just
freezing. A lot of people say that this could be due to the power
supply but there are also many other possible causes. Is there any way
I can check that it definately is the power supply without having to
buy a new one and risk wasting money on something I don't need?

Some possible causes:

- I have a Dell 5000 which is about 1 and a half years old.
- Recently I completely reinstalled windows and repartitioned my only
drive (C into 5 smaller ones.
- I opened up the side and brushed out all the dust I could get to
without taking anything apart.
- Installed the new Windows Vista Beta 2 version and so have 2
operating systems installed - the other being XP.
- I think I must have pushed the Power button in too hard some time
because i discovered it jammed in. I have since managed (with a
screwdriver) to lever it out back into its original position. Maybe
this has something to do with it.

Despite all this my computer has been running very smoothly for about
2-3 weeks until now with these freezes.

This is what should happen when I turn it on:

I press the ON button and the little light shines orange for about 1/2
a second then changes to a yellowy green. From there everything boots
up and is fine.

This is what actually happens:

I press the ON button and the little light turns orange but stays
orange. The fan (I think the main CPU one) speeds up and gets
increasingly faster and louder. nothing else happens - screen is
completely blank. I have opened the side again since and felt the heat
sinks after several attempts at booting and they are very hot - maybe
overheating.

Sometimes if I am lucky I can get the computer to load up properly and
I get a choice of operating system but it often crashes before reaching
the desktop and doesn't last long if it gets that far.

When I say my computer is crashing I mean that it just completely stops
in its tracks, you cannot move the mouse and the screen is still -
nothing happens and you have to reboot. Then it has problems with that
as I wrote above.

I think its either going to be down to the power supply, overheating or
a virus - I have an out of date version of McAfee which I've been
meaning to upgrade but haven't got round to it.

If anyone can give any help what so ever it would be much appreciated.
Also I'm not that familiar with techie language so any responses need
to be simple to read and understand. - As many responses as possible
please!

Thanks very much

Tim Hancock

did you do the test to see if your pc was "actually" a vista ready machine?

--
~~~~~~~~~~~
"To be a 0 or is it to be the 1 ?
That is the data".......W.Gatespeare


"(E-Mail Removed)" wrote:

> My computer has been freezing and it is steadily getting more and more
> frequent i.e it rarely manages to complete a boot any more before just
> freezing. A lot of people say that this could be due to the power
> supply but there are also many other possible causes. Is there any way
> I can check that it definately is the power supply without having to
> buy a new one and risk wasting money on something I don't need?
>
> Some possible causes:
>
> - I have a Dell 5000 which is about 1 and a half years old.
> - Recently I completely reinstalled windows and repartitioned my only
> drive (C into 5 smaller ones.
> - I opened up the side and brushed out all the dust I could get to
> without taking anything apart.
> - Installed the new Windows Vista Beta 2 version and so have 2
> operating systems installed - the other being XP.
> - I think I must have pushed the Power button in too hard some time
> because i discovered it jammed in. I have since managed (with a
> screwdriver) to lever it out back into its original position. Maybe
> this has something to do with it.
>
> Despite all this my computer has been running very smoothly for about
> 2-3 weeks until now with these freezes.
>
> This is what should happen when I turn it on:
>
> I press the ON button and the little light shines orange for about 1/2
> a second then changes to a yellowy green. From there everything boots
> up and is fine.
>
> This is what actually happens:
>
> I press the ON button and the little light turns orange but stays
> orange. The fan (I think the main CPU one) speeds up and gets
> increasingly faster and louder. nothing else happens - screen is
> completely blank. I have opened the side again since and felt the heat
> sinks after several attempts at booting and they are very hot - maybe
> overheating.
>
> Sometimes if I am lucky I can get the computer to load up properly and
> I get a choice of operating system but it often crashes before reaching
> the desktop and doesn't last long if it gets that far.
>
> When I say my computer is crashing I mean that it just completely stops
> in its tracks, you cannot move the mouse and the screen is still -
> nothing happens and you have to reboot. Then it has problems with that
> as I wrote above.
>
> I think its either going to be down to the power supply, overheating or
> a virus - I have an out of date version of McAfee which I've been
> meaning to upgrade but haven't got round to it.
>
> If anyone can give any help what so ever it would be much appreciated.
> Also I'm not that familiar with techie language so any responses need
> to be simple to read and understand. - As many responses as possible
> please!
>
> Thanks very much
>
> Tim Hancock
>
>

Yes. But neither of the operating systems work. XP or Vista.

databaseben wrote:
> did you do the test to see if your pc was "actually" a vista ready machine?
>
> --
> ~~~~~~~~~~~
> "To be a 0 or is it to be the 1 ?
> That is the data".......W.Gatespeare
>
>
> "(E-Mail Removed)" wrote:
>
> > My computer has been freezing and it is steadily getting more and more
> > frequent i.e it rarely manages to complete a boot any more before just
> > freezing. A lot of people say that this could be due to the power
> > supply but there are also many other possible causes. Is there any way
> > I can check that it definately is the power supply without having to
> > buy a new one and risk wasting money on something I don't need?
> >
> > Some possible causes:
> >
> > - I have a Dell 5000 which is about 1 and a half years old.
> > - Recently I completely reinstalled windows and repartitioned my only
> > drive (C into 5 smaller ones.
> > - I opened up the side and brushed out all the dust I could get to
> > without taking anything apart.
> > - Installed the new Windows Vista Beta 2 version and so have 2
> > operating systems installed - the other being XP.
> > - I think I must have pushed the Power button in too hard some time
> > because i discovered it jammed in. I have since managed (with a
> > screwdriver) to lever it out back into its original position. Maybe
> > this has something to do with it.
> >
> > Despite all this my computer has been running very smoothly for about
> > 2-3 weeks until now with these freezes.
> >
> > This is what should happen when I turn it on:
> >
> > I press the ON button and the little light shines orange for about 1/2
> > a second then changes to a yellowy green. From there everything boots
> > up and is fine.
> >
> > This is what actually happens:
> >
> > I press the ON button and the little light turns orange but stays
> > orange. The fan (I think the main CPU one) speeds up and gets
> > increasingly faster and louder. nothing else happens - screen is
> > completely blank. I have opened the side again since and felt the heat
> > sinks after several attempts at booting and they are very hot - maybe
> > overheating.
> >
> > Sometimes if I am lucky I can get the computer to load up properly and
> > I get a choice of operating system but it often crashes before reaching
> > the desktop and doesn't last long if it gets that far.
> >
> > When I say my computer is crashing I mean that it just completely stops
> > in its tracks, you cannot move the mouse and the screen is still -
> > nothing happens and you have to reboot. Then it has problems with that
> > as I wrote above.
> >
> > I think its either going to be down to the power supply, overheating or
> > a virus - I have an out of date version of McAfee which I've been
> > meaning to upgrade but haven't got round to it.
> >
> > If anyone can give any help what so ever it would be much appreciated.
> > Also I'm not that familiar with techie language so any responses need
> > to be simple to read and understand. - As many responses as possible
> > please!
> >
> > Thanks very much
> >
> > Tim Hancock
> >
> >