My PC took a dump this PM...WTF!

efeezy

efeezy

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Oct 5, 2007
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Yesterday I had to move every project I own to new servers...today, my PC takes a shit. So I could either go get drunk, or I guess I could figure out my next move.

From some research, I'm pretty sure the motherboard is shot. It starts up, loads Windows and then once at the desktop it will instantly shut off. To restart, I have to unplug for 5 seconds and then try again. Does the same in safe mode. Everything is cleaned out and dust free and I'm pretty sure it's not the power supply.

Anyway, I've got a nice dual head vid card and the hard drives are still good. I don't build PC's so I don't want to get into trying to jam a new MB in there.

I can't work on my laptop on a daily basis without going crazy, so I need to do something quickly. Any suggestions? Go buy something new with a decent amount of RAM and put my HD's and Vid Card in...or get someone to just build me a new one with my good hardware?

I haven't bought a PC in so long I dont even know what's good out there right now.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9156511&type=product&id=1218038551739
 


That should work just fine, drop a nice graphics card in there to run dual monitors and you'll be good to go.
 
Honestly it's probably easier/faster to fix your current machine if you have some level of experience. Just make sure it's the motherboard and buy a new one, they honestly aren't that hard to install.
 
Sounds like your problem is overheating. Have you checked to how well your cpu fan is running or if it came loose? A motherboard will automatically shut off once the CPU hits a certain temperature to keep it from frying its self.

The shear fact that you can make it past bios->post->OS makes me think its not the motherboard. To test this you can start the computer after waiting a few mins, go to your bios and find the system status in there. I don't remember what its called but it shows you all your fan speeds and cpu temperature. It auto updates so just watch it for a few mins and see if it spikes and turns off.

edit: Though if it still dose not turn off it might mean the cpu is not under enough load to heat up. But since your computer is still on its not your motherboard, so good news!

Before buying or doing anything else though I would buy a new heatsink+fan. Should cost about $30 for a basic one at any comptuer store.
 
Checked the BIOS. No settings in there that show CPU temp or any other temps. It's a Dell Inspirion from several years ago. However it doesn't shut down when I was in the BIOS. But as soon as I get out and try to start normally it shuts down.
 
And I checked the error log in the BIOS and it has had a Keyboard failure the last 3 times it restarts and then shutsdown. I swapped out keyboards and it started up ok and hasn't shut down yet. Could it be that simple? It's the same keyboard I've been using all along.
 
I've got 16gb running on a server with windows 2008 server,, very few apps will utilize the memory so I run a bunch of vmware workstation instances.. 4gb is more than enough unless you have a need like I did and run a 64 bit OS..

I'd check that RAM out first, boot up with just 1 DIMM board..
 
Any component, keyboard included, can cause a computer to shut down unexpectedly. If that's what the BIOS is telling you and the computer is still working after changing out that piece I see no reason not to believe it.

The amount of RAM you need is really only dependent on what you do, and how many applications you have open at any time. I use 5GB right now on a Mac (the new 8 core Mac Pro). 1GB is dedicated for Windows XP through Parallels. Then I almost always have Dreamweaver and Fireworks CS4 running, and occasionally Photoshop too. iTunes is always running. Firefox with multiple windows and extensions. Thunderbird. Terminal. And I do video conversions into mp4 to iTunes and almost never hit performance issues.

My Vista laptop only has 2GB and isn't as bad as it seems like it should be, but I don't do as much on that.
 
Years ago, I had a problem with a series of MSI mobos I installed in a bunch of PCs. The caps all started popping and leaking acid. Apparently they bought a bad batch from some shady supplier. The system would start up then crash. Ignorant to the real problem, I eventually trashed all of the data on my hard drives (not backed up) rebooting and trying to fix the problem through software.

In your shoes, I would take the system in to the most reliable local repair shop, and let them troubleshoot it. Time is money, and it is hard to make money if you are doing the tasks you are less suited to succeed at.
 
Well I double checked all the fans, blew out everything with air, reseated the RAM and dumped that keyboard and it's currently not shutting down now. I'll see what happens tomorrow and go from there. Thanks for the tips.

I've only got 2GB so i think I'll upgrade to 4. It's all my MB can handle.
 
I caught a piece of spyware that I couldn't shake. Instead of waiting for it to be resolved in one of the forums (which it eventually was) - I went out and bought a new computer. Very pleased. Time is money.
 
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