Computer restarts itself and monitor freezes!!

[loopy]

hey guys, wonder if you can help....

i've just had my harddrive wiped by my local pc shop. took computer home, plugged everthing in and it worked fine. the next day i booted it up the screen froze and i had weird broken lines across the screen. so i restarted it using the power button but now i get to the welcome screen and this goes blue with those broken lines all over the screen.

i heard it could be a graphics card prob so i restarted in safe mode and uninstalled the display adapter, then restarted and it booted XP fine. but, (and i'm sooooooo frustrated about this!) after 15 mins it restarts itself and then i've gotta go through the whole process again - running safe mode etc.

can anybody help me?

 

[muckshifter]

Sorry but we are going to need a lot more information on the specification of your PC an Operating System. Suggest you download 'Everest Home Edition' and run it, if you can get it stable enough, as it will give you all the information we need.

I'll concur that it looks like a video card problem with drivers, especially as you have had the HD cleaned. Not all 'shops' know what they are doing.

Does it operate, within constraints, in Safe Mode ... does it restart in safe mode? or can you keep working?

 

[loopy]

Ok, I've downloaded Everest and this is my Summary:

Computer
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
OS Service Pack Service Pack 2
DirectX 4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0c)
Computer Name BELL (Lou)
User Name Owner

Motherboard
CPU Type Intel Celeron, 1800 MHz (18 x 100)
Motherboard Name Gigabyte GA-8SIML (3 PCI, 1 AGP, 1 CNR, 2 DIMM, Audio, Video, LAN)
Motherboard Chipset SiS 650
System Memory 480 MB (DDR SDRAM)
BIOS Type AMI (07/07/02)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM1)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM2)
Communication Port ECP Printer Port (LPT1)

Display
Video Adapter SiS 315 Integrated
3D Accelerator SiS 315 Integrated

Multimedia
Audio Adapter SiS 7012 Audio Device

Storage
IDE Controller SiS PCI IDE Controller
Floppy Drive Floppy disk drive
Disk Drive ST340810A (40 GB, 5400 RPM, Ultra-ATA/100)
Optical Drive HL-DT-ST DVD-ROM GDR8160B (16x/48x DVD-ROM)
Optical Drive SONY CD-RW CRX230ED (52x/32x/52x CD-RW)
SMART Hard Disks Status OK

Partitions
C: (NTFS) 38162 MB (32374 MB free)

Input
Keyboard HID Keyboard Device
Mouse Logitech USB First/Pilot Mouse+

Network
Network Adapter Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC (192.168.1.3)

Peripherals
Printer Lexmark X1100 Series
Printer Microsoft Office Document Image Writer
USB1 Controller SiS 7001 PCI-USB Open Host Controller
USB1 Controller SiS 7001 PCI-USB Open Host Controller
USB Device Generic USB Hub
USB Device Generic USB Hub
USB Device Lexmark X1100 Series
USB Device Logitech Microphone (Zoom)
USB Device Logitech QuickCam Zoom
USB Device Logitech USB Camera (Zoom)
USB Device Logitech USB First/Pilot Mouse+
USB Device USB Composite Device
USB Device USB Human Interface Device
USB Device USB Human Interface Device
USB Device USB Printing Support


It works in safemode for slightly longer but as soon as I open up Word or IE it gives up and restarts itself again.

 

[muckshifter]

the term I'm looking for is ... beyond econimical repair :-(

If the system is restarting in Safe Mode then you have an underlying hardware problem. Unfortuantly I suspect the video chip may be overheating or failing. I say 'chip' because you do not actually have a video 'card' to pull out and replace.

Sorry to say, and I'm not know for the delcate way I write things, but who put XP on this system originally?

Anyway, you could look for an inexpensive AGP Video Card, and I would not spend anymore that £15 for it either, because you just may be throwing that money away. We are talking an older type card here also.

Do you 'trust' this shop of yours? we're not talking PCWorld here are we?

In my opinion your PC is 'not worth it' but phone up the Shop and ask how much it would cost you for them to "test" putting an AGP card in. If it were my shop you would get that 'service' free, but shops need to make money.

SiS are a 'cheap' and nasty chip maker, we avoid them at any cost ... you were not to know this so just use that as information.

Sorry to sound blunt ...
Mucks.

 

[loopy]

ah that sucks! i managed to get it working for longer yesterday by downloading an updated driver and everytime it restarted i didnt get that blue screen with broken lines again.

i trusted the shop as they look after our work pc's too so (fingers crossed) they'll get this problem sorted for me.

i got the pc from a mate who bought it from Curry's. reason i wiped the hard drive was cos it was causing me probs before eg just random crashing. well at least i was told wiping the hard drive would be the better option!

appreciate all the help given

 

[muckshifter]

ah that sucks! i managed to get it working for longer yesterday by downloading an updated driver and everytime it restarted i didnt get that blue screen with broken lines again.

i trusted the shop as they look after our work pc's too so (fingers crossed) they'll get this problem sorted for me.

i got the pc from a mate who bought it from Curry's. reason i wiped the hard drive was cos it was causing me probs before eg just random crashing. well at least i was told wiping the hard drive would be the better option!

appreciate all the help given

Ah, now then, ... XP is a mean beast when it comes to hardware of the likes of your PC, and it is NOT very forgiving. SiS are also very crap at producing decent drivers.

Were the 'original' probelms also under XP ... ??

 

[loopy]

ok its running ok at the moment but only cos i stuck a great big fan near the PC unit!!!

the original prob i.e before i wiped the drive, was everytime i started it up if i clicked on the start menu it would take 5 mins to open or if i tried opening a program it too would tak a long time to load BUT if i logged on as another user the programs ran fine

 

[muckshifter]

ok its running ok at the moment but only cos i stuck a great big fan near the PC unit!!!

Get the shop to check for overheating ... CPU and Video chip ... overheating, as I already mentioned, can cause what you were seeing.

If they look at you a bit blank about the Video chip overheating, ask them to put a small passive heatsink on it anyway, they only cost them a few pence.

 

[bodhi]

Try running it with the case lid off and that fan on it to see if it is more stable. Also, why dont you stick windows 98 on it? You will probably find it is more capable with that and will not be so slow. OR, ive just had a stroke of genius here, stick Linux on it, ask Mucks how to go about that! ;-)

 

[muckshifter]

... OR, ive just had a stroke of genius here, stick Linux on it, ask Mucks how to go about that! ;-)

I'm watching you ...

 

[bodhi]

Haha, what did i do?!

 

[loopy]

ok i took the case lid off and found that the chipset felt kinda hot. i left the case open and had fan on it too but this doesnt help. i have a win98 copy but i'm not so good at all this installing windows malarky - do i need to take winXP off first?

i also downloaded from SiS's website their drivers for the video card but this doesnt help either. when i go to add/remove programs to get rid of it, computer restarts again.

at the moment i'm getting by by hitting F8 at the startup and using Last Known Good Configuration but it doesnt last long. would it help if i changed stuff in BIOS? like the Chipset Configuration???

 

[loopy]

oh yeah, if i go and buy a AGP Video Card, which slot should i put it in? I have one black slot free, one brown one and three white ones...

after i've put this card in, should i just disable the SiS card?

 

[Me__2001]

you need to disable the onboard and put the card into the very top slot, should be the brown one

 

[muckshifter]

oh yeah, if i go and buy a AGP Video Card, which slot should i put it in? I have one black slot free, one brown one and three white ones...

after i've put this card in, should i just disable the SiS card?

You really do have a 'tired' old beastie there ... you could well just be chucking good money away ... if the 'shop' does you're business PCs, I'm sure they'll 'test' the PC for you.

 

[loopy]

ok so i took my pc to another computer shop and they tested it with a chipset heatsink. still made no difference. they reckon since my mobo can only run 4x and my chipset is 8x its causing a problem. especially seeing as i've wiped the hard drive and placed another copy of XP on it.

do you think putting win98 on here is really gonna help?

 

[bodhi]

Yeah, listen to mucks, it might just be a waste of money to keep this thing running. It is never going to be up to date and might not be worth spending money on. To install windows 98 you would need to boot from a floppy, fdisk and format your hard drive and then install it. Ask the shop if they can lend you a windows 98 boot disk with fdisk on it and CD drivers. If you get that then we could talk you through the install.

But why dont you do as Mucks says and try and get the shop to test it for you? Did you pay a lot of money for this system or could you happily write it off?!

 

[bagaaz]

In line with the other comments here, it sounds like some sort of overheating problem. Probably the CPU. My guess is that they've removed the CPU heatsink and replaced it the wrong way round. I've done this once myself and it lead to a system that rebooted itself. A failing graphics card won't cause a reboot. I've assumed that you've checked that all the system fans work correctly.

Hope this helps.

 

[loopy]

its my home pc but i use it when i'm working from home so i'm not really paying anything, work does!

my local shop says its prob likely the CPU is overheating but it's showing the wrong values.

to be honest guys, i'm a real newbie to all this hardware stuff but i wanna learn and its so frustrating when you don't know how! thanks for all your help, i get my pc back today so i'll let you know the verdict!

 

[loopy]

not got pc back but shop has told me that there has been significant damage to the mobo (like its been dropped!) and also putting more memory in it has also caused damage but i'm not sure how that could affect anything? they are getting a new mobo in (same model) and putting a new gfx card in it and testing the memory. fingers crossed eh!!!!