[harry569]

For about a month now I've had so much hassle with my pc. It's about 2 years old and has been updated a few times with better parts. About a month ago I got it shipped from France to England and when it arrived it had had mild outer box damage, but seemed to be working fine.


Note : PC Specs

2GB DDR Ram
Intel Duo 6200 2.0ghz (I think)
Nvidia 7800GT Graphics Card
Maxor 250GB SATA 7500RPM Hard Drive
600W Decent Quality PSU (Brand New)

Anyway, so within the last couple of weeks, I've had a lot of weird problems with my pc. I will list as many as I can remember.

- Random Restarts
- Random Freezes
- Loss of Sound, then mouse and keyboard go too and then Pc freezes.
- Computer not starting up properly(Have to turn off and on again to work)

I have to reformat the PC one a week, because after a week, a nice new error appears. Everytime its to do with either Windows being corrupted somehow, or a hard drive problem.

Also my computer had 6 USB Ports/Slots, over the past 6 weeks, 3 of them have now broken, and cannot be used. The freezes always start with USB Slots and Audio slots at the back of pc not working so entire pc just freezes.

I talked to a mate, we thought it was the PSU which was making very strainy sounds, so I bought a new one and for about 2 days it was flawless. Then it started doing all of the above again, I manage to sort it again by removing one of my gfx cards which seemed to be over heating, and again that more or less fixed the problem for a few days,

Now Im back to square one, pc is fine when not playing games, but after playing World of Warcraft for 10 minutes, my pc just freezes completely. It's not an over heating problem, I know that for sure, my GFX Card is at 80 degrees when playing and doesn't overheat.

My hard drive makes very weird noises and vibrates repetitively sometimes.


I honestly don't know what to do now. I got a new PSU and it didn't fix it, I reformat and it doesn't fix it. I remove my bad GFX Card and it doesn't fix it.

The problem seems to be something to do with the USB/Anything Slots at the back of the PC, but it could also be the hard drive...or motherboard bad maybe? or even corrupted Ram.

I honestly don't know and I just really want someone to help me figure this out, I just need to find out what is the problem so I can get it fixed. This problem is so irritating and I feel like im wasting money lol, since PSU didn't fix it.


Any ideas or help very much appreciated, and if you need me to get you any more info please say so and I will asap. Thanks for reading

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Welcome to GeeksToGo,

My name is Cbarnard I hope I may be of some assistance to you.

Please keep in mind this is not our job and I'm not here 24\7. It can take a little bit of time for me to reply back to you,
if it has been more than 48hrs since a reply, please PM me and I will be with you as soon as possible.

With that said lets take a look and get this problem taken care of.

I would say first off:

Eliminate as many possibilities at once.

(Please ground yourself to the computer and power down and unplug before working inside the tower)

Check all connections in the tower.

Check for dirt and dust on fans, vents, heatsinks, and other components. (clean with can of compressed air)

Make sure all fans are operational (PSU, CPU, Case fans)

It sounds like a overheating issue. (touch the heatsink on the CPU with your finger, if it burns your finger its overheated)

Also remove all but one stick of ram and make sure it is seated correctly.

If the computer is OC'd reset to default timings.

Remove all PCI devices, and usb devices. (you want to see if it is stable with bare essentials)

Reboot

If the computer is still not working properly:

Remove these parts from the tower:

• Motherboard (MOBO)
• Hard drive (HDD)
• PSU

Place the MOBO on a piece of cardboard on a table:

Plug the Keyboard and Mouse and Video cable into the MOBO.

Plug the PSU into the MOBO

Plug the HDD into the PSU (don't forget the data connection on the MOBO)

This will test to see if you have a short in the tower (due to the rough treatment it received from shipping)

Boot it up and let it run if it is stable and doesn't exhibit the issues then it is possible there was a short (or it was other hardware not currently installed causing the issue)

Make sure when you reinstall the MOBO that you use proper standoffs, and washers. They help insulate the MOBO from shorts to the case. (It also helps with cooling the MOBO)

Once you have those components installed back in the tower, continue to operate it and make sure it is stable.

If you determine it is stable slowly add (one at a time) each other component make sure it is stable before installing the next one.

I hope this helps.

Let me know how this works out for you

Good luck

Cbarnard

[cbarnard]

Welcome to GeeksToGo,

My name is Cbarnard I hope I may be of some assistance to you.

Please keep in mind this is not our job and I'm not here 24\7. It can take a little bit of time for me to reply back to you,
if it has been more than 48hrs since a reply, please PM me and I will be with you as soon as possible.

With that said lets take a look and get this problem taken care of.

I would say first off:

Eliminate as many possibilities at once.

(Please ground yourself to the computer and power down and unplug before working inside the tower)

Check all connections in the tower.

Check for dirt and dust on fans, vents, heatsinks, and other components. (clean with can of compressed air)

Make sure all fans are operational (PSU, CPU, Case fans)

It sounds like a overheating issue. (touch the heatsink on the CPU with your finger, if it burns your finger its overheated)

Also remove all but one stick of ram and make sure it is seated correctly.

If the computer is OC'd reset to default timings.

Remove all PCI devices, and usb devices. (you want to see if it is stable with bare essentials)

Reboot

If the computer is still not working properly:

Remove these parts from the tower:

• Motherboard (MOBO)
• Hard drive (HDD)
• PSU

Place the MOBO on a piece of cardboard on a table:

Plug the Keyboard and Mouse and Video cable into the MOBO.

Plug the PSU into the MOBO

Plug the HDD into the PSU (don't forget the data connection on the MOBO)

This will test to see if you have a short in the tower (due to the rough treatment it received from shipping)

Boot it up and let it run if it is stable and doesn't exhibit the issues then it is possible there was a short (or it was other hardware not currently installed causing the issue)

Make sure when you reinstall the MOBO that you use proper standoffs, and washers. They help insulate the MOBO from shorts to the case. (It also helps with cooling the MOBO)

Once you have those components installed back in the tower, continue to operate it and make sure it is stable.

If you determine it is stable slowly add (one at a time) each other component make sure it is stable before installing the next one.

I hope this helps.

Let me know how this works out for you

Good luck

Cbarnard

[Broni]

1. Disable "Restart on error" feature...

1. Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Click the Advanced tab (Vista: click Advanced system settings).
3. Under Startup and Recovery, click Settings to open the Startup and Recovery dialog box.
4. Clear the Automatically restart check box, and click OK the necessary number of times.
5. Restart your computer for the settings to take effect.

You may see some error message. If so, post back what it says.

2. Navigate to: C:\Windows\Minidump folder.
If you see any .dmp files, zip all of them, and attach zipped file to your next reply.

3. Download, and install SpeedFan: http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php
Post your computer temperatures:

[harry569]

I installed a different Hard Drive and Im still basically having the same problems. I tested the ram and that also is fine (according to memtest), surely this means its my Mobo dying which makes sense?

[Broni]

Good possibilty.

[harry569]

could anyone point me in the direction of new Mobo that is good enough to support my PC (and SLI When I get another gfx card).


Pc specs are in main post (my Old Mobo is P5N-E SLI Asus


If you could pick one from the list from pcoption would be great. Link is here : http://pcoption.co.u...ards/index3.htm


Note : I don't have loads of money, so Im really looking for the cheapest thing but will run my system with no problems.

Edited by harry569, 11 May 2009 - 03:35 PM.

[Broni]

I propose, you start a new topic under Hardware (include the link to this thread).

[harry569]

Oh god. I just took my Pc apart, and put it back together, to see if it would somehow revive my system for a bit longer, and I noticed that for the past couple of weeks, one tiny little black & white cable (really small), was not plugged into the motherboard (even tho the pc still turned on etc). I've plugged it all back in including that one now, and so far (10 minutes lol) no problems.


Please don't tell me (actually do) that that little black&white cable is probably the reason for the frequent freezing + restarts lol!

[Broni]

You never know....keep us posted

[harry569]

Well it didn't fix the problem, but it seemed to help a little. Anyway i'm going to go ahead and order a new motherboard sometime today or tomorrow. I have a question though, I have the P5N-E SLI Motherboard, will all motherboards fit in my pc, or are certain ones too small, big etc?


(My pc is fairly standard size, but it seems to be bigger than my Dell PC)

Thanks again for all the help so far, really appreciate it.

[harry569]

Double Post : Sorry

Edited by harry569, 14 May 2009 - 08:55 AM.