M
Mick Walsh
I would be very grateful if anyone could help me with this fault on my PC.
For anyone who has difficulty getting to sleep at night or who has an
afternoon to spare, I've listed all the symptoms and my actions and findings
below.
In addition to that, I've also tried the very helpful suggestions made by
Michael W Ryder, Anna and Paul in response to daviddschool's message
"Computer shutting down randomly" on 30/5/08, including running Prime 95,
but have found nothing obvious.
THE KIT
Motherboard MSI MS6743
Processor - Intel Pentium 4 (Prescott) 3.4 GHz with hyper threading enabled.
RAM - 4 X 1GB DDR-SDRAM
Graphics - Nvidia GeForce 6200
Sound - Soundblaster Live! 24 bit
HDD - Samsung 500GB SATA 2 (Replaced a 300GB SATA Maxtor and 200GB IDE
Seagate drives which were in use when fault first appeared)
OS - Windows Media Centre
Age - 3 Years
Overclocking - No part of the PC has ever been overclocked
THE FAULT
PC just falls over at random - can be after a few minutes or hours or can be
whilst starting up.
CONDITION AFTER FALLING OVER
Screen goes blank (Monitor generated message "Entering Sleep Mode" message
appears on screen, followed later by "No Video Input")
There is NO thud in loudspeakers when system falls over
All fans continue to run and all LEDs on MB and LAN remain lit or flashing
All voltages (measured with digital voltmeter) are spot on and the same as
before falling over
Reset button not effective.
No amount of key presses or mouse abusing brings the PC back to life.
Only way to restart is to press power button for several seconds to turn
device off
On re-powering up, PC might startup but often falls over between the black
Windows screen and the blue Welcome screen which follows it.
THINGS I'VE NOTICED
If I start in Safe Mode it doesn't fall over.
If I run a game (a large game like Silent Hunter - not Solitaire or
Freecell, etc) it doesn't fall over, even after several days. This is also
the case if I run the game in a window instead of full screen.
THINGS I'VE TRIED (System tested after every action and fault still there)
Removed SP3
Tried to use System Restore but failed every time, no matter what date I
tried to restore to. Have used System Restore a few weeks ago and it worked
OK then.
Changed PSU
Removed top 2GB of RAM
Replaced bottom 2GB of RAM with previous top 2GB
Replaced CPU fan and sink
Disconnected FDD & DVD drives
Disconnected each HDD in turn
Disabled all startups and services in MSCONFIG
Removed sound card
Removed graphics card
*By this time, the Microsoft piracy protection kicked in and told me that I
had 3 days to reactivate Windows. I assumed that when I put everything back
this demand would be lifted, but it wasn't.
Bought a new SATA HDD and installed a new, clean OS
Ensured all unneeded onboard devices disabled.
Even swapped the monitor.
I'm lost now and don't have a clue what else to do. I suppose it must be a
hardware fault as I've completely changed the software, but I don't
understand the fact that it doesn't fall over whilst in safe mode or while a
game is active. The game doesn't have to be in full flow, just having it
sat there ticking over is enough to keep the PC happy.
The only H/W I haven't changed are the CPU and the MB. As these are £90-ish
each, I want to have a good idea which one is faulty before I break open the
piggy bank.
It's getting harder to get it started at all now. Can anyone PLEEEEEEEASE
help.
Regards,
Mick
For anyone who has difficulty getting to sleep at night or who has an
afternoon to spare, I've listed all the symptoms and my actions and findings
below.
In addition to that, I've also tried the very helpful suggestions made by
Michael W Ryder, Anna and Paul in response to daviddschool's message
"Computer shutting down randomly" on 30/5/08, including running Prime 95,
but have found nothing obvious.
THE KIT
Motherboard MSI MS6743
Processor - Intel Pentium 4 (Prescott) 3.4 GHz with hyper threading enabled.
RAM - 4 X 1GB DDR-SDRAM
Graphics - Nvidia GeForce 6200
Sound - Soundblaster Live! 24 bit
HDD - Samsung 500GB SATA 2 (Replaced a 300GB SATA Maxtor and 200GB IDE
Seagate drives which were in use when fault first appeared)
OS - Windows Media Centre
Age - 3 Years
Overclocking - No part of the PC has ever been overclocked
THE FAULT
PC just falls over at random - can be after a few minutes or hours or can be
whilst starting up.
CONDITION AFTER FALLING OVER
Screen goes blank (Monitor generated message "Entering Sleep Mode" message
appears on screen, followed later by "No Video Input")
There is NO thud in loudspeakers when system falls over
All fans continue to run and all LEDs on MB and LAN remain lit or flashing
All voltages (measured with digital voltmeter) are spot on and the same as
before falling over
Reset button not effective.
No amount of key presses or mouse abusing brings the PC back to life.
Only way to restart is to press power button for several seconds to turn
device off
On re-powering up, PC might startup but often falls over between the black
Windows screen and the blue Welcome screen which follows it.
THINGS I'VE NOTICED
If I start in Safe Mode it doesn't fall over.
If I run a game (a large game like Silent Hunter - not Solitaire or
Freecell, etc) it doesn't fall over, even after several days. This is also
the case if I run the game in a window instead of full screen.
THINGS I'VE TRIED (System tested after every action and fault still there)
Removed SP3
Tried to use System Restore but failed every time, no matter what date I
tried to restore to. Have used System Restore a few weeks ago and it worked
OK then.
Changed PSU
Removed top 2GB of RAM
Replaced bottom 2GB of RAM with previous top 2GB
Replaced CPU fan and sink
Disconnected FDD & DVD drives
Disconnected each HDD in turn
Disabled all startups and services in MSCONFIG
Removed sound card
Removed graphics card
*By this time, the Microsoft piracy protection kicked in and told me that I
had 3 days to reactivate Windows. I assumed that when I put everything back
this demand would be lifted, but it wasn't.
Bought a new SATA HDD and installed a new, clean OS
Ensured all unneeded onboard devices disabled.
Even swapped the monitor.
I'm lost now and don't have a clue what else to do. I suppose it must be a
hardware fault as I've completely changed the software, but I don't
understand the fact that it doesn't fall over whilst in safe mode or while a
game is active. The game doesn't have to be in full flow, just having it
sat there ticking over is enough to keep the PC happy.
The only H/W I haven't changed are the CPU and the MB. As these are £90-ish
each, I want to have a good idea which one is faulty before I break open the
piggy bank.
It's getting harder to get it started at all now. Can anyone PLEEEEEEEASE
help.
Regards,
Mick