[wm_hunter]

I was playing some CounterStrike-Source today, and all of a sudden my computer completely locked up. I tried alt-tab, nothing. I then tried alt-f4, nothing. Ctrl alt delete and tapping power button, nothing.

I figured something went really wrong, so I held the power button down until it forced a shut down.

I left my computer alone for five minutes or so, in case it was an issue with heat (but I doubted it was). When I went back and turned my computer on, I got nothing but a black screen and a single white dash in the corner.

I have a copy of SpinRite, but I am not sure if it is harddrive failure or something else. I was wondering if anyone has a good idea what it might be, and what I will need to do to fix it.

Windows XP SP2 (Home)
Intel Core2 Duo 3.14ghz
ATI Radeon x1600 pro
2x 512 DDR2 Ram (Kingston)
500GB SATA2 HD

I am nearly positive my computer is free of malware\greyware, but that still is a possibility

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

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Reboot the computer and try to access the BIOS with, DEL or ESC or F2 or F1. At this point you might be able to discern whether the BIOS has lost the hard drive settings and simply can not see the drive or if there is another issue. If there is a "Load Default Settings" item then you could try that. Essentially, as you have said, this is a No POST issue and without a POST we can't discern much. If you can get back to the point where you can see the BIOS at work and maybe get to the hotkey to do a system recovery then you might have a little more than a doorstop. If you have data on the disk which is important you may want to consider adding the disk to a second system as a second drive and see if you can retrieve and copy data off it to the host system that you have placed it in. That way you could save your data and restore to a recovered O/S. There is the possibility that the hard drive has died. If the second computer cannot see the drive at all or gets an error when you try accessing it the drive has failed.

SRX660

[SRX660]

Reboot the computer and try to access the BIOS with, DEL or ESC or F2 or F1. At this point you might be able to discern whether the BIOS has lost the hard drive settings and simply can not see the drive or if there is another issue. If there is a "Load Default Settings" item then you could try that. Essentially, as you have said, this is a No POST issue and without a POST we can't discern much. If you can get back to the point where you can see the BIOS at work and maybe get to the hotkey to do a system recovery then you might have a little more than a doorstop. If you have data on the disk which is important you may want to consider adding the disk to a second system as a second drive and see if you can retrieve and copy data off it to the host system that you have placed it in. That way you could save your data and restore to a recovered O/S. There is the possibility that the hard drive has died. If the second computer cannot see the drive at all or gets an error when you try accessing it the drive has failed.

SRX660

[wm_hunter]

I am sorry for the late reply.

It did not work 30 minutes after shutdown - however after an hour or so it was able to reboot. I have experienced no problems since.

I think it may have been that I played a high graphical game for 4-5 hours +. I may need a better heatsink or just re-seat because this seems to be a heat issue to me (re-seat because I have never had an issue in the past but recently I changed chips *not a significant heat difference* so that may have caused a problem).

Thank you for your time, and again sorry for my late reply.

[happyrock]

I am sorry for the late reply.

but recently I changed chips *not a significant heat difference* so that may have caused a problem).

what do you mean by that

[wm_hunter]

Not a significant heat difference in the two chips, they both run at about the same heat. The changing of the chips may have effected the heat sink, maybe not sitting properly or needs more thermal grease, but the chips really cannot be the problem as they both have about the same heat to them. (Was just trying to figure out why I suddenly have a problem where before I did not).

[happyrock]

are you talking about the CPU...or chipsets..AKA ...northbridge or MCH...OR
southbridge...ICH

[wm_hunter]

CPU

[happyrock]

if you can play games for several hours before it hangs ..you probably just need to add another case fan...if your case supports it ..get a 120 MM fan...install it in the front blowing air into the case...if you can't do that then install it in the back blowing out of the case...look for the fans that move the most air (CFM ...higher is better)at the lowest noise(dBA ..lower is better)

Edited by happyrck, 26 March 2007 - 07:32 AM.