Thread: Is something dying?

Hi Dullbird
Power supplies are built to a price and can die, This type of failure can easily be caused by filter capacitors in the power supply failing, they cause erratic behaviour. Don't consider repairing a power supply though, its not worth it, they are relatively cheap.
The easiest way to check the 5 and 12 volt power supplies is to take the side of the computer and find a flat power plug on wires coming from the power supply. These are the ones that supply power to the older style hard disks and dvd players. the two middle black wires are earth, the two outer wires are 5 and 12 volts. They should be close to these voltages.
If the computer won't power with the case open, there will probably be a small micro switch somewhere activated by the side panel. Tape it up.
With a little common sense there is no problem in pulling a computer apart, the main thing to be careful of is static electricity. I normally leave the mains plug connected with the power point turned off.
The plugs and memory etc all come off without too much force. If they won't move have a close look for catches etc.
Vacuum dust from the cpu cooling fan if its not clean.
I probably would not remove the CPU or its cooling fan.
Best of luck
Greg

If it is a usb power drain then get a self powered usb hub. Lets me run about 15 devices with spare ports.

I had the same symptons and swapped in a spare psu but it gave the same errors (found the fan wasnt spinning ), i thought the hdd was going to die so i backed up all my photo's etc onto a usb hdd. Bloody thing would take a few button pushes and even had to switch of at the mains to get it to start and it would also shutdown of its own accord. New psu fixed the problem and also runs quieter, new 808 gig WD hdd also alievated errors due to hdd being nearly full - just over 1TB of storage which is nice to have.

Quote: "Vacuum dust from the cpu cooling fan if its not clean."

I have been having a restart problem. XP Home, ASUS Motherbord about six years old in a tower - never been cleaned; 40GB harddrive about three quarters full. After a bit of research I came to the conclusion it may have been dust build-up. Sure enough it was all covered inside.
I then found this program that monitors various temperatures, the fan speeds and voltages:
Download SpeedFan - Access temperature sensor in your computer
Before cleaning things I installed it and the temps were running at 63 (don't know what that one was ) and the ACPI was 61 degrees respectively. The harddrive (I think) was around 30 degrees.
After cleaning the fan speed was running slower instead of at maximum and the temperatures had all dropped - the most significant were the two that were over 60 degrees - now they are around 55 max and 50 degrees respectively.

Since the clean I have had two only restarts, both while using Skype - just like before the clean. It had never happened before this recent problem and the only other recent change to the system was the installation of a new Brother HL-2140 laser printer that was a nightmare in itself to install. Now okay however. Driver error - who knows.

I even tried to stop the system restarting after an error to see what the error was but nothing! and no desire to error-report to Microsoft.

Anyway the Speedfan also reports voltages - its a neat program - pity I don't know how to use it properly.. The voltages look very close to 12V and 5V also.

Bob

A very good point Bob, i also took my pc outside and blew all the dust out with the air compressor, the cpu heatsink was blocked solid with dust. This improved some of my initial symptons but the new psu was a permanent fix, i will dissaasemble the old psu and clean it out as it may well be good enough for a spare non relied on pc.

Dont fix it...

Use this as an opportunity to back all your files up and convince hubby that a new MAC should be on the menu

Originally Posted by Tombie2

Dont fix it...

Use this as an opportunity to back all your files up and convince hubby that a new MAC should be on the menu

well dont really like Mac's and after paying 2grand for it I would like o fix it

Before you do anything. Back up your data. Documents, pictures and the like. Burn them to CD/DVD and then check that they have actually copied across. You'd be suprised at how few people actually back up their data and hardly anyone actually checks that their backup has actually worked. It's too late when you do a restore and there's nothing there.
Place your PC in a well lit area, and remove all connectors except the mains cord which should be left plugged in the wall outlet. check that the wall outlet is turned off. Check it again to be sure. Lay the PC on its side and remove LHS cover, usually two screws, and have a look inside. Make sure all connectors are firmly seated. It's quite common to have loose connections especially if the PC has been moved. The power cord is left in to ensure a good earth so that the possibility of ESD (elecrtostatic discharge) is minimised when you have your fingers inside. This is quite important.
Good point about the motherboard battery, as stated usually a CR2032, same as in a D2 key fob, but it would be unusual for one to fail so soon. The most common symptom of a battery failing is usually the on board clock starts playing up. Can be measured carefully with a digital volt meter, should be > 3volts.
Power supply problem, maybe. You can often check the power supply voltage rails from within BIOS, depending on the motherboard. This is when you hit Del during startup and follow the prompts, but be careful here, if you start changing things and then save changes you could end up convincing the PC it's a hair dryer. If you're not confident doing this, the only real way to check the power supply is by substitution. The power supply is often the cheapest and nastiest part of a PC and is a potential culprit. Usually the fan starts to get noisy before it fails electrically.
Be careful if you are going to remove/refit the RAM sticks, it is easy to put them back the wrong way round. When removing lift the tab on each end and the stick should pop up. When puting back, leave the tabs up and push firmly on each end in turn, you should hear a definite click as each end locks in. It's quite common for dust to settle around the RAM sockets. Brush gently away with a soft brush, don't blow it out with the compressor.
Dust/fluff in the CPU cooling fins/fan blades can be removed the same way.
It could also be a start-up software problem. Try this. Fire up PC. Go start, run, type in msconfig, select startup, select disable all and reboot machine. What this does is disable a number of non essential startup items. This tool can be used to diagnose and isolate startup problems. Nothing you disable here will cause the PC to fail but may temporarily stop things like your virus scanner for example from starting.
But first of all back up your data.
Sorry if I've appeared a bit pushy here, computer fault finding isn't rocket science, but it's important to do it the right way.

Deano