I had a bit of trouble earlier. I was performing several CPU intensive tasks (Messing about with video files) when I smelt hot plastic. It became clear that it was my computer making it when all it's fans turned onto max and the screens went blank. I opened up the case and found a thick layer of dust, so I let the fans roar away and got the hoover out, then cleaned out the dust by blowing it and catching the clouds with the vacuum wand. Then I turned the computer off and on again, and it booted up fairly normally.
However, soon after I logged in, the screens went black and the fans on my GFX cards went full on again. (Not every fan this time)
I'm a bit confused by this, because it consistently happens the same every time. The computer turns on, asks me if I want to go into safe mode, then [del]goes to the login screen. I log in, it displays my desktop, icons start appearing in the notification area and then[/del] after a little while (no matter what I do) the screens go black, the fans turn on and nothing responds anymore.
My keyboard lights go off, the notification lights go off, none of the front buttons (normal power, emergency reboot) do anything, and the fans run on full until I flick the switch on the PSU.
All three screens (over two cards) work fine up until that point, displaying everything in their native resolutions, and safe mode (which I am now in) works apparently fine too.
What do?
Old speccy:
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/SBBUt.png[/IMG]
The ATi card was bunged up with dust at the time, I cleaned it out and it returned to normal iirc. Possibly worth noting that it was bunged up with dust again this time?
I can't take a new one because safe mode.
Fans goto max if they lose their input (for safety).
Did you by any chance remove the heatsinks or, touch any parts with your vacuum?.
Nothing internal.
See if you can get into the bios and get some temperature readings from there.
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/2mvKu.jpg[/IMG]
[editline]9th May 2012[/editline]
It took me so long to get that image onto my computer that the CPU and system are now at 55 and 33 respectively.
55 with no load isnt very good, but it shouldnt crash like this.
Try resetting your bios (by removing the battery for 10 minutes) and removing all ram stocks but one.
Switch the ramstick around if the problem persists.
That may be rather hard, since it's a compact(ish) case and both the battery and ram are underneath things.
It ran uncomplainingly for hours in safe mode while I backed up some stuff, so it can't be an overheating issue can it?
get HW monitor and prime95 and install them in safemode.
Open HW monitor and run prime 95 for 10 minutes.
Post results of hw monitor.
It's now no longer giving me the option of safe mode, and instead is offering "Startup Repair".
Slightly worrying is that if I leave it for a while on the "Do you want to restore your computer using System Restore?" prompt, it does the blacking out thing.
I believe you need to hold down F8 before you can get into Safe mode.
Try and uninstall your drivers while in safe mode for your graphics card and boot into windows normally and see if this makes any differences.
Has there been an update for your graphics card recently?
Right, I now know that it still dies even if I leave it waiting on the login screen. On the bright side, it gave me the option of safe mode again so I'll try the HW monitor.
[editline]11th May 2012[/editline]
Should it not show more info than this?
[img]http://i.imgur.com/de3Pc.png[/img]
Anyway, 'bout to start prime95
[editline]11th May 2012[/editline]
Well I turned if off nearly immediately because I started smelling toast which can't be a good sign. I also noticed that my main card is spitting out heat like it's an apprentice paint stripper. I'm going to try booting with only the secondary in.
[editline]11th May 2012[/editline]
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/OlXLn.jpg[/IMG]
Good lord, I nearly choked to death. There was [b]a lot[/b] of dust hidden inside those fuckers.
[editline]11th May 2012[/editline]
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/bLQZb.jpg[/IMG]
I think maybe I should look into water cooling...
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/pyxzP.jpg[/IMG]
Right so, I left it there for three hours and the hottest it got was 39ºC.
So it [I]was[/I] overheating, but it's not anymore. It still dies after a couple of minutes on normal boot or "Windows Startup Repair" boot. Safe mode is still unaffected.
Tried system restoring back to the 6th, still won't work.
[editline]12th May 2012[/editline]
I've bought a SSD from amazon, I'm going to try installing a new copy of win7 onto it when it arrives on Monday.
I take out and clean my pc every 4-6 months or so once my pc starts to heat up a bit more than average. That looks like too much fucking dust to have been just 4-6 months, when's the last time you actually cleaned out that thing? Farrkk...
Also, the Corsair Hydro Series are good water coolers, if you have a bit more money then I'd highly suggest getting one of them. (for your cpu)
[QUOTE=Ruzza;35926135]I take out and clean my pc every 4-6 months or so once my pc starts to heat up a bit more than average. That looks like too much fucking dust to have been just 4-6 months, when's the last time you actually cleaned out that thing? Farrkk...
Also, the Corsair Hydro Series are good water coolers, if you have a bit more money then I'd highly suggest getting one of them. (for your cpu)[/QUOTE]
Nope, they are expensive, leaky and sound like jet engines.
And it looks like he alreaddy has a non standard cooler.
Well. I've owned the computer for a bout two years and this is the first time I've done more than vigorously spray an air canister into it.
I had a look at water cooling systems and they seem both expensive and complex.
I have neither money nor spare time at the moment, so I've settled for moving it from the carpet to my desk. I'll see about doing a rebuild in a couple of months, with a nicer case + water cooling etc.
[editline]12th May 2012[/editline]
[QUOTE=taipan;35926188]Nope, they are expensive, leaky and sound like jet engines.
And it looks like he alreaddy has a non standard cooler.[/QUOTE]
Nope, everything's stock. That's just the top of the CPU heatsink with the fan popped off.
Ok, I just booted it up on a Linux live CD as a precursor to reinstalling Win7 and it died [I]again[/I].
I'm going to try timing it to see if it's consistent, but other than doing this I have fuck all idea what to do.
[editline]14th May 2012[/editline]
Right, an average of 1 minute 43 seconds after leaving the "Do you want to boot into safe mode" screen, it dies.
Hanging around on the safe mode screen doesn't change this number.
I have tried resetting the bios and using one ram stick at a time/one graphics card at a time.
It does it with every combination of hardware I try.
If it had an integrated graphics card, I'd have tried just that, but it doesn't.
SoOoOo...
Run it without a gpu and see how long it lasts then.
If all else fails you can try to remove the heatsink from both the gpu and cpu and cleaning them out.
Then remove the old thermal paste and apply some new paste (artic silver or something)
Kinda hard to tell when the screen goes black without a screen. :v:
Luckily the numlock light goes off when it dies so I guess I'll watch that.
I've currently got Memtest running, and I'll try that when it finishes.
I also bought [url=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004MU3F88]this Nvidia 8400GS[/url] so I'll try with that in too, just in case.
[editline]16th May 2012[/editline]
Possibly predictably, it won't start up without a graphics card installed.
[editline]16th May 2012[/editline]
Replacement graphics card does not change anything.
[editline]16th May 2012[/editline]
Memtest result:
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/iEng7.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/3dSIs.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/KfLVH.jpg[/IMG]
Welp, I guess the mobo's dead
Yeah thats a fucked power regulator.
You might be able to fix it by replacing it but there is a very big chance that it will have taken out stuff down the road from it.
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.