Computer Help Blog - Page 6

shinosai

United States1577 Posts

July 02 2010 18:10 GMT

#101

This can happen if I'm actively using the computer for several hours, or if I leave it alone for several hours. Activity seems to make no difference.

edit: And what I mean by that is, I can literally have the computer freshly restarted, turn off all applications, and it will still restart during the night while I sleep. Or I can be doing something as simple as browsing firefox or watching a movie, and it will restart in the middle of it.

At the moment the computer has been on for several hours and is no doubt going to restart soon. The temperature of all the cores according to your program are between 44 and 48 degrees Celsius.

palanq

United States761 Posts

July 02 2010 18:27 GMT

#102

Thanks, hope you can help me out.

I recently bought a pre-built computer and it worked fine. I then installed 2 GB more RAM, and it still worked fine. Then, I unplugged and re-plugged the hard drive so I could check out the side bars, but when I started up the computer again, it gets stuck on the BIOS screen, and the keyboard won't go into the BIOS setup. The screen has the energy star and "Dual BIOS" logos on it and this text:
+ Show Spoiler +

Award Modular BIOS v6.00PC, An Energy Star Ally
Copyright (C) 1984-2007, Award Sofware, Inc.

AMD 790X BIOS for GA-MA790X-DS4 F2

Processor : AMD Phenom(tm) 9600 Quad-Core Processor
<CPUID:00100F22 Patch ID:0035>

[lots of blank space]

<DEL>: BIOS Setup [...etc]

So it's like it recognizes the motherboard and the processor but then just hangs. I also cannot enter BIOS setup - my USB keyboard doesn't seem to be sending any signals.

I thought I might have messed up the motherboard by scratching it when I was trying to take out the hard drive. The motherboard is this: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=n82e16813128075

And the area of the computer that potentially got messed up looks like this:

+ Show Spoiler +

I'm pretty sure the HD connections as I put them back are still fine, as well:
+ Show Spoiler +

So my bet is that it's something to do with that unhooked connection with the negative sign, but I have no idea where it might have been initially.

Thanks a lot!

RumZ

United States956 Posts

July 02 2010 19:35 GMT

#103

On July 03 2010 03:10 shinosai wrote:
This can happen if I'm actively using the computer for several hours, or if I leave it alone for several hours. Activity seems to make no difference.

edit: And what I mean by that is, I can literally have the computer freshly restarted, turn off all applications, and it will still restart during the night while I sleep. Or I can be doing something as simple as browsing firefox or watching a movie, and it will restart in the middle of it.

At the moment the computer has been on for several hours and is no doubt going to restart soon. The temperature of all the cores according to your program are between 44 and 48 degrees Celsius.

Can you play a game, like the UMS training map perhaps, and see how hot your GPU and CPU gets after about an hour of play?

I want to see how severe the temp fluctuation is so we can consider it a symptom or rule it out.

RumZ

United States956 Posts

July 02 2010 19:38 GMT

#104

On July 03 2010 03:27 palanq wrote:
Thanks, hope you can help me out.

I recently bought a pre-built computer and it worked fine. I then installed 2 GB more RAM, and it still worked fine. Then, I unplugged and re-plugged the hard drive so I could check out the side bars, but when I started up the computer again, it gets stuck on the BIOS screen, and the keyboard won't go into the BIOS setup. The screen has the energy star and "Dual BIOS" logos on it and this text:
+ Show Spoiler +

I'm pretty sure the HD connections as I put them back are still fine, as well:
+ Show Spoiler +

So my bet is that it's something to do with that unhooked connection with the negative sign, but I have no idea where it might have been initially.

Thanks a lot!

Where is the SATA connection on the motherboard? Can you show a picture of it?

Second, the BIOS probably has the USB device to use on operating system, if you have an old PS2 keyboard, you can press Del on it to enter the bios, and change the USB compatibility from on Operating system (That's not the correct term for what it says there, but it's similar) to on Bios for functionality of a keyboard.

Use the PS2 keyboard to access it like I said.

It sounds like you managed to tweak a hard drive configuration, possibly not booting off the drive or recognizing it either. Once you can get into the bios, we can discuss this further.

palanq

United States761 Posts

July 02 2010 20:22 GMT

#105

+ Show Spoiler +

On July 03 2010 04:38 Joey.rumz wrote:

Show nested quote +

Okay, I got into the BIOS setup. I think I'm on the relevant page - Standard CMOS Features. It says the following stuff:

+ Show Spoiler +

> IDE Channel 0 Master [HITACHI GD-2000]
> IDE Channel 0 Slave [ None]
> IDE Channel 2 Master [ None]
> IDE Channel 2 Slave [ None]
> IDE Channel 3 Master [WDC WD1600AAJS-22PSA]
> IDE Channel 3 Slave [ None]

and some other stuff. So yes, it looks to be recognizing the drive... does the order matter or something?

The SATA connection on the motherboard looks fine, too
+ Show Spoiler +

One other thing.. I can't always get into the BIOS even with a PS2 keyboard. Maybe it's the keyboard's fault, but I've tried 3 times so far and it only worked the 2nd o.O

RumZ

United States956 Posts

July 02 2010 20:27 GMT

#106

Did you mess with where the SATA cable was seated in between having no problems and having problems?

Also, what exactly inspired you to crack open your case? Just curious.

palanq

United States761 Posts

July 02 2010 20:30 GMT

#107

Nope, I didn't mess with the cable, in the same place where it was when it was working.

I cracked open the case to add in 2 additional sticks of RAM - it was working then. The 2nd time I opened the case was to try installing a 2nd hard drive before I realized I didn't have the hard drive rails or the 2nd data cable I needed to do it =(

The only thing I think I did between having no problems and having problems was trying to take out the original hard drive (unplugging the two cables for it) so I could take a close look at those rails. Maybe the HD itself is damaged?

edit: I mean that I unplugged the HD-end of the SATA cable, the motherboard end has stayed

GLORIOUS UPDATE: I took out the SATA cable from the motherboard connection and put it back in again. now it works. what magic.

thanks!

RumZ

United States956 Posts

July 03 2010 01:03 GMT

#108

Glorious epic win.

Wala.Revolution

7579 Posts

July 03 2010 05:03 GMT

#109

Ok I'll post a detailed account of what happened to my computer after this post.

But if my mobo/HD/PSU is broken, is it possible that 'sometimes' it works, especially after long periods of disuse (24+hours?)

FragKrag

United States11535 Posts

July 03 2010 05:09 GMT

#110

have you looked closely at your motherboard or PSU for swollen capacitors?

I suppose it is possible for the swelling to go down after a long time of not working.

pikaaarrr :3

United States593 Posts

July 03 2010 05:43 GMT

#111

On July 03 2010 05:30 palanq wrote:

GLORIOUS UPDATE: I took out the SATA cable from the motherboard connection and put it back in again. now it works. what magic.

best and worst part about trying to fix a computer

RumZ

United States956 Posts

July 03 2010 05:43 GMT

#112

On July 03 2010 14:09 FragKrag wrote:
have you looked closely at your motherboard or PSU for swollen capacitors?

I suppose it is possible for the swelling to go down after a long time of not working.

Pretty much this, check for tears in the caps.

Wala.Revolution

7579 Posts

July 03 2010 06:03 GMT

#113

So for a year, I've neglected my computer in many ways: I never cleaned the dust, left it on for days, didn't do any 'care' stuff (defrag, etc) and when it 'crashed' (turned off for no reason), I simply let it rest for hours and just (a)bused it.

When my computer crashed, it froze without any symptoms (lots of programs running, but that shouldn't be a problem) and there wasn't any high-pitched noise. When I pressed reset button, it would 'reset' for .5-1 second and simply turn off. After, I couldn't turn it on for hours, usually more than 10. I turn the power supply off and on, and didn't use it. That happened probably about 8 times now, excluding the recent crashes.

I moved (in real life) and the computer was in a warm car for 8+ hours. I covered it from the sun and it was in the backseat so I don't think that was a problem, and after I moved I just set it up again. The first crash happened when I slightly leaned on the headphone cable which was stretched due to bad table design and my huge (CRT) monitor. It made periodical series of noises, and computer froze immediately. I think I couldn't turn it on for a while, and when I did, it loaded normally, until the black backgrounded windows logo with loading bar. During that, computer would project a blue screen (not sure BSoD, way too fast) and it would automatically restart. Then it would display options of loading windows in safe modes (generic, networking, and with command prompt), with last good config, and normally(?).

I only tried 'generic' safe mode and that never failed to load, but without sound and don't think it wouldn't load games for me (HoN, Civ4). It also indicated that it was in XP SP2.

WOAH I just checked my computer and it says it's SP2.

Wtfwtfwtf I updated this shit.

I update and update.

Wala.Revolution

7579 Posts

July 03 2010 06:18 GMT

#114

Ran the update through here:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/help/learn-how-to-install-windows-xp-service-pack-3-sp3

Re-doing it (still indicated SP2). Will post again after restart.

Frag you there in vent?

RumZ

United States956 Posts

July 03 2010 06:29 GMT

#115

I see Frag and X in some channel in vent. If he can walk you through to some solution or progress, let me know. But for now, I need sleep. I'm about 50 hours straight, half of it working, some of it on here, I need some shut eye.

See you in the morning Wala (or hopefully not?)

Wala.Revolution

7579 Posts

July 03 2010 06:35 GMT

#116

Thanks for the help, good night Joey.

RumZ

United States956 Posts

July 03 2010 14:51 GMT

#117

Okay, back to business.

Wala - Any progress on service pack 3 upgrade? (Strange bug imho.)

Shin - What happened to you?

Wala.Revolution

7579 Posts

July 03 2010 17:20 GMT

#118

Update successful. Haven't crashed in 5 boots.

Today or tomorrow I'm going to buy canned air to clean out my computer. Tuesday I'll get some more computers to start replacing parts to see what is broken.

shinosai

United States1577 Posts

July 03 2010 17:45 GMT

#119

On July 03 2010 23:51 Joey.rumz wrote:
Okay, back to business.

Wala - Any progress on service pack 3 upgrade? (Strange bug imho.)

Shin - What happened to you?

Hey, just woke up. No serious changes in temp while playing the UMS, nothing ever went above 50.