I think my computer might just have killed itself… AGAIN :( I don't know what's wong

[Shmee150]

I have had a torrid last year. Off the top of my head I’ve had 4 computers go down to the dust in 12 months so I’m seriously hoping we’re not on number 5

I was just sitting in my room, wiggled the mouse on my pc to bring the screens up, but 1 didn’t come up (running off FX5200), so naturally really confused and assumed a restart would fix it but before I could do that the computer just jammed completely. So press the switch and back on, screen doesn’t load obviously, shut it down because I needed to go out and left it.

When I got back and pressed on, no screens turn on. The computer makes the noises I expect from it on boot, cards/drives whirring up etc… but there is no image on an screen. Something of note is that when I tap the power switch it goes stright off rather than needing to be held down.

So does anybody have any ideas with what might have happened? Can’t thinkn of any cirumstances that had changed from working to not and I have completely verified that the screens are functioning off other machines and are wred correctly.

Please!

Many thanks,

Tim

[TAKTAK]

try booting with only the bare minimum in the system...

[peterb]

any beep codes? If so what are they? If not, it is likely that the computer is failing to POST - so it isn't loading the BIOS code. If there are, what are they?

Shutting down the computer by powering off ios more likely to damage the filesystem in Windows, which it will generally repair itself. However if it had frozen, the sysetm had already failed, so the results are less predictable. Freezes like tghat are often indicative of memory failure (permanent or intermittent) but a beep code might (only moight) tell you that.

If it isn't getting to POST, then the next step is to remove all the comonents apart from the minimum (graphics - unless there is a default on board graphics adapter) and one stick of RAM and see if it boots to that.

However before getting to that stage, if you can remember what the key press is to get into the BIOS set up screen, try pressing taht combination. If that doesn't work, try clearing the CMOS (the BIOS configuration settings) as that will rteturn the bios to its default settings.

If that doesn't work, then start from scratch - but by that time things will be pretty serious and you might be looking at damaged components. The fact that the power switch is brhaving differently is an indication that the CMOS settings may (only may) be corrupt as that is a user configurable setting.

[Shmee150]

any beep codes? If so what are they? If not, it is likely that the computer is failing to POST - so it isn't loading the BIOS code. If there are, what are they?

Shutting down the computer by powering off ios more likely to damage the filesystem in Windows, which it will generally repair itself. However if it had frozen, the sysetm had already failed, so the results are less predictable. Freezes like tghat are often indicative of memory failure (permanent or intermittent) but a beep code might (only moight) tell you that.

If it isn't getting to POST, then the next step is to remove all the comonents apart from the minimum (graphics - unless there is a default on board graphics adapter) and one stick of RAM and see if it boots to that.

However before getting to that stage, if you can remember what the key press is to get into the BIOS set up screen, try pressing taht combination. If that doesn't work, try clearing the CMOS (the BIOS configuration settings) as that will rteturn the bios to its default settings.

If that doesn't work, then start from scratch - but by that time things will be pretty serious and you might be looking at damaged components. The fact that the power switch is brhaving differently is an indication that the CMOS settings may (only may) be corrupt as that is a user configurable setting.

peterb, many thanks for jumping in to help again, it has been most appreciated before now. You may remember helping me in this thread once: http://forums.hexus.net/help-technic...es-static.html

I have tried all the suggestions that you made in your thread and am very tempted to assme the same thing has happened in that the voltage supply in my building is playing around and causin problems. At current the system is sitting with just the cpu, 1 stick of ram and my gfx card and cannot post even after resetting the CMOS.

My debate I now have is that my machine is a Shuttle barebone, so should I be buying a new PSU, buying a new barebone (inc mobo), or trying some sort of RMA somewhere. I am rather keen to get it up and running as soon as I possibly can and have just checked every one of my hard drives in external caddy's and they are all still alive.

Or do you/anybody think that maybe this might be fixable with what I've got?

Many thanks again,

Tim

[peterb]

If the shuttle is still in warranty - RMA it. It isn't healthy (or working!) but at least the data on your drives is intact (which at the end of the day, is the most important thing).

If the shuttle is out of warranty, it might be worth replacing the PSU - although there is the risk of throwing good money after bad if something else is wrong.

The other option is to cut your losses and buy another barebones machine (Asus do quite a good range) preferably choosing one that allows you to re-use as many of the components as possible - CPU and RAM (most of the ASUS barebones systems have on board graphics, so you will be up and running quite quickly, and if you need to, you can add the graphics card later).

While I have built several Asus BB machines in the past, the PSUs, while adequate, aren't outstanding, so you might want to replace that with an FSB microATX psu - about an extra £30 from Scan.

Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK