PC died - won't go past memory check

[Dustie]

hi all

like the title says, my PC has completely died on me. it's been playing up
for a week or so now by just constantly freezing up for no reason
whatsoever. tonight, it locked up again, I rebooted and it recovered then
immediately locked up again. did another reboot and just as the desktop
came up it came up with the blue screen of death. did yet another reboot and
it wouldn't even boot up to the desktop anymore but froze up on the "loading
XP" screen...

now, after several more reboots, it won't even get past the memory check.
it literally switches on, counts up to 512mb then just freezes. Pressing
the "Del" key makes no difference - it's stuffed.

A friend thinks the motherboard may have simply blown.

I tried replacing the hard drive but it made no difference....

Any ideas at all? I'm at a loss.

Cheers

 

[DaveW]

It certainly sounds like your motherboard has died.

 

[Ghostrider]

hi all

like the title says, my PC has completely died on me. it's been playing up
for a week or so now by just constantly freezing up for no reason
whatsoever. tonight, it locked up again, I rebooted and it recovered then
immediately locked up again. did another reboot and just as the desktop
came up it came up with the blue screen of death. did yet another reboot and
it wouldn't even boot up to the desktop anymore but froze up on the "loading
XP" screen...

now, after several more reboots, it won't even get past the memory check.
it literally switches on, counts up to 512mb then just freezes. Pressing
the "Del" key makes no difference - it's stuffed.

A friend thinks the motherboard may have simply blown.

I tried replacing the hard drive but it made no difference....

Any ideas at all? I'm at a loss.

Cheers

Of course if it is not the motherboard, then it is certainly the CPU.
Has all the symptoms of over-heating, perhaps from a failing heatsink
fan. You did check the heatsink fan?

 

[Dustie]

Of course if it is not the motherboard, then it is certainly the CPU.

Has all the symptoms of over-heating, perhaps from a failing heatsink
fan. You did check the heatsink fan?

hi there

the fan's working fine - it was replaced just a few months ago. also, if it
was the CPU overheating, the symptoms would be completely different (as it's
happened before - the PC beeps a lot then shuts down automatically...)

 

[Jon Danniken]

hi all
now, after several more reboots, it won't even get past the memory check.
it literally switches on, counts up to 512mb then just freezes. Pressing
the "Del" key makes no difference - it's stuffed.

Unplug the computer. Reset the BIOS by placing the jumper in place for a
few seconds.
Disconnect everything from the mainboard except for the RAM, PSU, GPU (if
add-on) + monitor, and CPU (and the on power switch connector).
Plug the computer back in, and turn it on.

What happens?

Jon

 

[Michael Hawes]

hi there

the fan's working fine - it was replaced just a few months ago. also, if
it
was the CPU overheating, the symptoms would be completely different (as
it's
happened before - the PC beeps a lot then shuts down automatically...)

CPU overheating, or faulty PSU. Check/reseat heatsink, test with another
PSU.

Mike,

 

[larry moe 'n curly]

like the title says, my PC has completely died on me.

But then you said it didn't:

I rebooted and it recovered then immediately locked up again.
did another reboot and just as the desktop came up it came
up with the blue screen of death. did yet another reboot and
it wouldn't even boot up to the desktop anymore but froze up
on the "loading XP" screen...

now, after several more reboots, it won't even get past the
memory check. it literally switches on, counts up to 512mb
then just freezes. Pressing the "Del" key makes no difference - it's stuffed.

A friend thinks the motherboard may have simply blown.

I tried replacing the hard drive but it made no difference....

So it's _not_ completely dead.

Try unplugging and replugging the memory modules, cards, keyboard,
mouse, and power connectors.

If these problems happen right when you start the computer after it's
been turned off for a few hours, you can rule out heat unless the
heatsink came loose. Otherwise try running it with the side panel
removed to keep the inside cooler and check all the fans, including
the ones inside the power supply, and for lots of dust on the CPU
heatsink (vacuum it out, taking care to not to let the nozzle come
close to anything but the fan and heatsink because fast air flow can
generate damaging static electricity).

The motherboard has at least one switching voltage regulator, for the
CPU, and it often develops bad capacitors (see www.badcaps.net for
lots of information about this). A buddy who's really good at
soldering/desoldering can fix this in about 15 minutes, but you'll
need to buy some special capacitors.

Have you tried another power supply? PSUs can also develop bad
capacitors.

It wouldn't hurt to take voltage measurements of the PSU and CPU
voltage regulator with a digital multimeter. However finding the CPU
voltage requires checking each pin of those black square plastic
MOSFETs and not shorting any pins together (stuff pieces of cardboard
between the pins to prevent this).

A few mobos become funny when the CMOS battery runs down, and I've
seen a couple that couldn't boot at all with a bad battery.

 

[dustie]

Of course if it is not the motherboard, then it is certainly the CPU.

Has all the symptoms of over-heating, perhaps from a failing heatsink
fan. You did check the heatsink fan?

ok, I got a brand new MSI 845PE Neo-L motherboard from Ebay and just rebuilt
the PC from scratch. It's booted up fine now but I'm a bit wary that
there's a new motherboard underneath everything now so, I've gone to the MSI
site here:

http://global.msi.com.tw

...and am all set to use their "live update" service but , do I need to
uninstall anything related to the previous motherboard? in my "Add/Remove
programmes" list, there's a "Intel(R) Pro Network Adaptors and Drivers" - is
it safe to get rid of this? (I don't want to suddenly sever my internet
connection!!)

Cheers

 

[dustie]

Of course if it is not the motherboard, then it is certainly the CPU.

Has all the symptoms of over-heating, perhaps from a failing heatsink
fan. You did check the heatsink fan?

ok, I got a brand new MSI 845PE Neo-L motherboard from Ebay and just rebuilt
the PC from scratch. It's booted up fine now but I'm a bit wary that
there's a new motherboard underneath everything now so, I've gone to the MSI
site here:

http://global.msi.com.tw

...and am all set to use their "live update" service but , do I need to
uninstall anything related to the previous motherboard? in my "Add/Remove
programmes" list, there's a "Intel(R) Pro Network Adaptors and Drivers" - is
it safe to get rid of this? (I don't want to suddenly sever my internet
connection!!)

Cheers

 

[96camaroz28]

hi all

like the title says, my PC has completely died on me. it's been playing up
for a week or so now by just constantly freezing up for no reason
whatsoever. tonight, it locked up again, I rebooted and it recovered then
immediately locked up again. did another reboot and just as the desktop
came up it came up with the blue screen of death. did yet another reboot and
it wouldn't even boot up to the desktop anymore but froze up on the "loading
XP" screen...

now, after several more reboots, it won't even get past the memory check.
it literally switches on, counts up to 512mb then just freezes. Pressing
the "Del" key makes no difference - it's stuffed.

A friend thinks the motherboard may have simply blown.

I tried replacing the hard drive but it made no difference....

Any ideas at all? I'm at a loss.

Cheers

you might wanna test your memory