Problems that happen only some of the time are usually harder to diagnose than those that happen all the time, be it computers or cars. So this could be a tough one.
My desktop PC (Windows XP Pro, 2 1/2 years old with no previous problems) has very abrubtly begun:
Powering up without accessing the monitor. The fans are on and sound normal, but nothing else happens. No monitor activity at all, and a frozen keyboard. I’ve checked the monitor and all connections - they’re both OK. It’s definitely the PC, and this happens about half the time I try to boot up.
When it does boot properly, it freezes. No stuttering, no beeps, just a freeze. Have to hard reboot, at which point it often goes into problem #1.
It did this for about two days, then began not booting at all because a Windows .dll file was corrupted. I reinstalled Windows today, which worked. But we’re back to glitches 1 and 2 again. I’m lucky it’s stayed unfrozen long enough for me to write this.
I think it might be the video card or the RAM. Ideas? PLEASE??!!
Have you tried a different monitor? If a second monitor doesn’t work, I’d bet money on a defective display adapter. Try removing the display adapter and rebooting, and see if you get any beeps after the power on self test.
On the PCs I work with, I regularly see both of the problems that you’re describing. The most common cause, by far, is the accumulation of dust on the motherboard, CPU heat sink, hard drive and power supply board. The dust traps heat, ergo the SNAFUs.
To clean, simply open up your computer and spray liberally with a can of aerosol dust remover spray. You’ll need to remove the power supply to open it up and thoroughly clean there as well.
Once cleaned, check any and all cooling fans for proper operation. These tend to have a short lifespan, but they’re easily replaced.
If none of this helps, I’d first suspect the power supply, as these tend to fail most often, in my experience, particularly if they’ve overheated.
No, but you will get a different beep code. I have seen display adapters that were fubar’d such that the POST hung and did not complete. If that is the case here, it would be an indication that the display adapter should be replaced.
I had thought of the dust too, and have already cleaned the fans. Perhaps I need to put more elbow grease into it though, so I’ll give it another once-over.
However, a friend of mine says the .dll file corruption makes him think this is not a hardware issue. Does anyone agree or disagree? If so, why?
You may have more than one problem. If you are having an intermittent problem booting that doesn’t even get past the power on self test (nothing on the screen, no beeps) I doubt that the dll problem is causing it.
If you’re going to use canned air to do this, I would suggest doing it out doors. For some reason computer dust tends to be kinda greasey like and not only makes a mess but seems to stain things like walls and carpets.
WRT the computer freezing up, one thing to make sure you do it un-seat and re-seat all cards/SIMMs/DIMMs on the MOBO. Something as simple as RAM that has become unseated can cause intermittent freezups. Make sure everything is in and secured.
The best way to test this (and it’s not really intermittent if you can reproduce it half the time) is to go back to the most basic things your computer needs to start up, which are
[ul][li]Power supply connected to motherboard[/li][li]One stick of RAM in slot 0[/li][li]Video card[/ul][/li]
Take everything else out and try it. If it doesn’t break on startup, start adding stuff back in one at a time until it does. When it does, whatever you last added broke things.
If it breaks even with that minimal hardware, then one or more of those hardware pieces are broken. You’ll need a spare (working) computer that you can test them in. Whichever one, when added to the working computer, breaks it is the bad part.
Today I borrowed a spare machine to troubleshoot. I removed the video card and started up: no change. Then the RAM, same thing.
So I’m now thinking it’s either the hard drive or the motherboard. But I can’t test the hard drive because this old Dell I borrowed won’t take the physical connector.
Any reason at this point why I should not just buy a new computer?
I’m bumping this thread because I’ve recently replaced the power supply, but got no change. The machine still runs, but no monitor or keyboard activity or beeps.
I can’t see any physical damage to the motherboard. Any suggestions on where to go from here? For example, how can I distinguish between a motherboard problem and a bad hard drive?
If you’re not getting any beeps, I don’t see how it could possibly be a hard drive problem. That’s done by the BIOS immediately on start-up, before it even checks that it has a hard drive, let alone uses it.
It sounds to me like it’s either a motherboard problem or a CPU problem. The only way to tell would be to swap out one of the two, which would be hard to do.
It sounds like a good excuse for to do a motherboard and CPU upgrade to me, but that is expensive. You’re almost certainly going to have to replace one of them, and upgrading both would give you more flexibility anyway(if you just upgrade the mobo, it has to be compatible with your existing CPU, and vice-versa).
It really could be anything. You hard drive may be failing, thus the corrupting of files and the corrupt files causing problems upon booting. Or it could be a failing harddrive controller. Sometimes heat buildup causes problems, so check the fans of the CPU and Video card. RAM is the next most likely failing device.
So in order of things I’d try:
Clean dust bunnies out of fans.
Check for secure connections on all your components.
Boot from CD and see if it runs stable, if so it could be a harddrive/controller issue.
I don’t think the hard drive could be responsible. Your computer has a BIOS (Basic Input Output System) chip on the motherboard that has to be able to talk to your monitor and keyboard, and the other basic hardware in your system. That has been true since the original IBM PC and that’s what those cryptic screens are when you turn on older computers, it’s an inventory and status display of what hardware the BIOS has detected.
The BIOS initilization will work without any sort of hard drive or CD drive in your system. But apparently something is going wrong during that process. Since you’ve replaced the power supply, and you’re having keyboard AND monitor problems, unfortunately you’re probably looking at a motherboard, CPU, or memory problem. You could get a memory testing program to test the memory, if you have a floppy drive this one should work well: http://www.memtest86.com/
If the memory checks out you’re looking at a new CPU or motherboard. The CPU is easier to replace than the motherboard, but you’ll have to do some research before tackling it yourself if you’ve never done it before.
Even though I’m a computer dude I normally deal with problems like that with a new motherboard or new computer, now that they’re only around $400 for a basic computer it’s a better use of my time and money to just get a new one.
i had this, or a very similar at least, problem a while ago - same system, about the same age… turned out my problem was smoke particles binding dust to the motherboard & power supply.
thourough cleaning, new power supply, and not smoking in the same room as the computer anymore (actually, smoking outside now, which helps not just the compy, but the whole house.) and all is well.