computer issues

[guy 27]

just tried helping out our neighbour with some computer issues hes got and thought it was all good but no luck.

pretty much turning the computer on is hit and miss. sometimes it will start up fine, other times it will beep 4 times and monitor wont turn on but the computer still sounds like its starting up and sometimes it will start loading and then just freeze up. In all cases when it doesn't start or freezes up the lights on the keyboard turn off.

It had an issue about 12 months back and installing new ram into it fixed that up so i don't think its that.
I also managed to run a virus scan and adware software while it was running before and that didn't bring up anything.

Only info I can give you as its now being a pita and not wanting to start up is that its an XP sp3 machine with 4gig ram. It was built as a gaming machine so has a 1gig graphics card and an asus motherboard of some type.

If anyone has any suggestions on what i can try to get it going again.

[AfterBurner]

Beeps are hardware related...

lookup the mobo manufact website & look for a guide, or just google the beep codes, remember they are usually long/short beeps.

Sounds like RAM or Video Card - usual suspects...

[hazrd]

as above
how many ram chips are in it? try and boot it with just one chip in it and try it one by one, the ram he got 12mths ago could be faulty

otherwise see if u can pinch the vid card out of your computer (if its the same AGP/PCI-e port) and try that

[guy 27]

yeah i was leaning towards the video card aswell as its got 2 ports so i changed the one it was using and it worked fine for about 30 minutes then died in the arse again. cant use mine as my one is part of the motherboard.

there are 2 sticks of ram. tried swapping where they are and each one individually but that was a no go.

[metry]

could be the graphics card. when it freezes does the picture go funny, like green (or any colour) artifacts pop up?

[guy 27]

could be the graphics card. when it freezes does the picture go funny, like green (or any colour) artifacts pop up?

nope. just freezes at whatever is showing on the screen.

also when it freezes pressing ctrl alt del a couple of times does not reset it.

[dutchy]

Dust

[Ice]

Does it have on board Graphics ? try without if you can. Maybe try update the MB firmware. You should be able to tell what type it is like in this pic. see p7p55LX

I reckon next time you get in back up what you can and then wipe the HDD and reload Win XP and see if its the OS. The fact that its beeping suggests its a hardware fault. Ram is usually only 2 beeps. is this guy in Vic guy ? i have a crappy video card that works but can have to see if its that otherwise buy a really cheap one. If this does work, uninstall all remnants of the old graphics card and try again reloading with the latest drivers. see link below for a cheap card....mine cost more than ten times that but oh well, lol

http://www.centrecom.com.au/catalog/product_info.php?sort=3a&products_id=40056

Another quickie, does the agp card get hot...i mean almost hot to touch ? is the fan on it running ok ?


http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj123/hoppe777/P1000334.jpg

[Ice]

Dust


Dust conducts heat yes but it needs to be practically untouched for years and years before it kills your PC so it has time to build up and make a thick layer over vital components. Always best to clean it everynow and then.

[guy 27]

nah its very clean inside and practically no dust.

pete hes in bris but cheers anyway.
gfx card does not get hot and fans are all working fine.

[brc]

Dust conducts heat yes but it needs to be practically untouched for years and years before it kills your PC so it has time to build up and make a thick layer over vital components. Always best to clean it everynow and then.

WITHOUT a vacuum.

Take the GFX card out, try again. See if the beeps change. And try RAM, with one DIM at a time. Whatever your problem is it is most definitely hardware related and can be easily sorted by viewing the MB manual and looking up the beep codes.

Good luck, if you need any help just ask. My forte~

[guy 27]

Will give it a shot tonight. Thanks guys.

[Calibrated]

I can come out and have a look ;)

[Calibrated]

WITHOUT a vacuum.


you get anti-static vaccum's for cleaning PC's btw ;)

[guy 27]

I can come out and have a look ;)

If it ends up being too much for me to fix I'll give you a call.

[Calibrated]

no problemo

[guy 27]

fingers crossed its all good now.

took both sticks of ram out and installed one from my computer and seems to be working fine.

[guy 27]

just got a call from him. still got the same issue.

screen froze on the xp loading screen. he had his speakers on though and a couple of seconds after it froze it played the windows logon tune.

would i be right in saying video card?

[poita]

pretty good chance yes