Re: PC died - won't go past memory check
- From: larry moe 'n curly <larrymoencurly@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 3 May 2007 05:23:00 -0700
Dustie wrote:
like the title says, my PC has completely died on me.
But then you said it didn't:
I rebooted and it recovered then immediately locked up again.
did another reboot and just as the desktop came up it came
up with the blue screen of death. did yet another reboot and
it wouldn't even boot up to the desktop anymore but froze up
on the "loading XP" screen...
now, after several more reboots, it won't even get past the
memory check. it literally switches on, counts up to 512mb
then just freezes. Pressing the "Del" key makes no difference - it's stuffed.
A friend thinks the motherboard may have simply blown.
I tried replacing the hard drive but it made no difference....
So it's _not_ completely dead. ;)
Try unplugging and replugging the memory modules, cards, keyboard,
mouse, and power connectors.
If these problems happen right when you start the computer after it's
been turned off for a few hours, you can rule out heat unless the
heatsink came loose. Otherwise try running it with the side panel
removed to keep the inside cooler and check all the fans, including
the ones inside the power supply, and for lots of dust on the CPU
heatsink (vacuum it out, taking care to not to let the nozzle come
close to anything but the fan and heatsink because fast air flow can
generate damaging static electricity).
The motherboard has at least one switching voltage regulator, for the
CPU, and it often develops bad capacitors (see www.badcaps.net for
lots of information about this). A buddy who's really good at
soldering/desoldering can fix this in about 15 minutes, but you'll
need to buy some special capacitors.
Have you tried another power supply? PSUs can also develop bad
capacitors.
It wouldn't hurt to take voltage measurements of the PSU and CPU
voltage regulator with a digital multimeter. However finding the CPU
voltage requires checking each pin of those black square plastic
MOSFETs and not shorting any pins together (stuff pieces of cardboard
between the pins to prevent this).
A few mobos become funny when the CMOS battery runs down, and I've
seen a couple that couldn't boot at all with a bad battery.
.
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- PC died - won't go past memory check
- From: Dustie
- PC died - won't go past memory check
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