PC Booting Problem / Dead PC!! - Please help!!!

[Northern_Dragon]

I'm a little reluctant to post here begging for help, given that I've not contributed anything as yet, but sadly desperation forces me (and it is afterall why I've joined!)...

The problem basically, is that my home built Media PC has had a fit and stopped booting up. It's difficult to say exactly what the problem is, since one of the symptoms is that the display cuts out after between 5 and 15 seconds - worryingly this has nothing to do with the stage that has been reached in booting up since it still happens even if I open the bios

If I let it try to boot it starts normally then the display vanishes (no signal being output) and then it usually just sits there seemingly doing nothing (can't hear the hard drives going), or sometimes it will reboot itself -occasionally serveral times. I've once managed to get it far enough to boot into safe mode but the display cut out before windows (MCE) loaded so I can't really say how far it got, except that I got no startup music.

Other info:
The machine has been running fine for just over a year.
I was running Vista beta 1 (dual boot) immediately prior to the problem started; I'd selected restart to boot into MCE but the above problem started so it never got that far. I generally don't use vista but the interface is pretty and the way it manages music is a little nicer, and it's never caused any problems before.

Relevant Spec:
MOBO - Asus A8N-SLi Premium
CPU - AMD 64 3500+
RAM - Corsair TWINX2048-3500LLPRO
Graphics - Leadtek WinFast PX7800GT TDH PCI-E PX7800GT myVIVO
HD - 2 x Samsung Spinpoint P120S SP2504C
PSU - Seasonic S12-600

If anyone can help at all or can point me in the direction of someone that can I'd be very very grateful - we're definitely talking beers here!

 

[Anon_F]

Hmmmmmm Beer

Welcome to the forum

Is everything seated properly in the pc & all cables connected up OK?
I have no knowledge of Vista But others on the forum do.

 

[Northern_Dragon]

Thanks for the welcome feckit!

Everything should be seated ok, it's been running for months now without anything being touched so highly unlikely that anything should have come loose. I ahve checked the cables though and they were fine sadly - I only wish it were that simple!

 

[Rush]

Can you see on start up if the graphics card fan is ok and running

 

[Northern_Dragon]

Opened the case and everything seemed fine, if a little dusty...

Took the whole thing apart and cleaned out all the dust and crap, put it all back together again and it seems fine (so far). So I guess either it was dust related and/or something wasn't sitting right or connected properly, though it's hard to say what.

Thanks for the help guys

 

[Rea1ity]

The Lessons Learned

Hello everyone!

I'd just like to take a moment to mention here that the repetitive heating and cooling cycles of a PC - as you power down and power up - will cause some components to loosen in their slots; that same cycling can cause varnishing of the contacts. Usually both symptoms can be remedied by removing a re-seating the components. This includes everything from the video card to the CPU. The CPU is not likely to move, but it can get varnish on the pins. While you're in there, you may as well blow everything off with your handy-dandy can of compressed air, and check that your cables aren't hindering the airflow through your case. (I recommend replacing Ribbon Cables with Braided Cables.) And for the love of whatever you hold holy, make sure your fans are facing the right direction! I've lost count of how many systems I've been called in to fix, when just one of the case fans was blowing the wrong way.

Your description indicated to me that at least part of your trouble was caused by overheating. Keep it clean in there, and shut it down immediately and check the above solutions if it ever reboots on it's own and without warning.

I check and clean my box once a month, and during the summer (when it can be 110 degree F here in the house) the inside of my box is a cool 73.

 

[Alf]

this is especially true with SATA connecters, annnoying little things- dont stay put sometimes