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What's wrong with my computer?!

H

Hal Emmerich

n00b
Joined
Jan 13, 2009
Messages
22
Earlier I moved my computer from one room to another, plugged everything in and turned it on only to find it turned off straight away.

Kept trying it and the computer was only staying on for maybe 1 minute maximum before it shut off. First of all I thought that when I moved my PC maybe I knocked the circuit in the PSU and it broke, so the PSU was failling. I opened it up and checked all the connections, then tried again. Same problem.

So after browsing the net for a while I read that a lot of the symptoms associated with RAM failure are also present in PSU failure. So to test whether it was RAM failure I removed one stick of RAM, tried it again and got the same problem. I tried the other stick of RAM and it booted up and managed to stay up for around 5 minutes before I turned it off, I booted it up again and it stayed up for 5 minutes before I turned it off.

At this point I was almost positive it was RAM failure, the first stick of RAM was failling near on everytime and the second stick was leaving the PC on for as long as I liked, although I never tested it for more than 7-8 minutes.

Anyways, then the RAM that I thought was working.. stopped working. It started to suffer the same fate as the other stick of RAM and was turning off after a few seconds/a minute or two. Because of the inconsistency I had no idea whether I am dealing with a PSU problem or a RAM problem..

I tried running memtest on the stick of RAM that initially worked, got halfway through test 4 and the PC shut off.. but there were no errors shown up to test 4.

It also seemed that in the early stages the longer I left the computer turned off, the longer it'd turn on the next go, which made me think it may be overheating. However all fans work, the PSU fan works etc.

Right now I'm thinking PSU problem, because of the memtest not showing any errors.

Oh, I have dual channel RAM, and when I run the PC with nothing in channel 1 and a stick in channel 2 the PC keeps restarting, which I presume it should.

A few things that crossed my mind:
  • Reset the bios
  • Try with new RAM altogether
  • Take it to a shop and try a different PSU

What do you think? Oh and this might help:
Current status of each piece of hardware:
First stick of RAM: Boots, but will power off after a few seconds or a minute. Time varies.
Second stick of RAM: Boots, lasts longer than first stick, but still inevitably powers off.
PSU: God knows, could be working (it sends power to everything) but could be failling (random power offs)
 
Update is that neither RAM show any errors in memtest but the PC doesn't run long enough to do any more than 2 tests. Still shutting down at random times.
 
What model PSU are you using and how old is it? I have had problems like that in the past with previous computers after the PSU goes bad.
 
because of the fact it's a random time that the PC shuts off after, i'm pretty sure it's the PSU that is broken.
 
Have you tested the PSU with a multimeter?

What does the rest of your build look like? How old are the other components?
 
Are all of your fans running, your CPU heat sink firmly attached? Moving a PC around can some times cause a poorly mounted heat sink to pop loose or a hanging wire to get caught in a fan. Most modern mobos can shut down a computer if it reaches a certain temperature. Easy to check and easy to fix if it turns out to be the problem.

Reseating all addon cards can't hurt either.
 
The entire build is only 6 months old. I don't have a multimeter to test the PSU.

All the fans run, but the CPU is fan is pretty poorly attached. It moves a lot but still seems to be in contact with the CPU so I never thought that was the problem. Guess I'll try securing the CPU fan before I go returning anything.
 
Well I've disconnected the CPU cooler which was a Pro 7 Cooler.. Looks like the holders that secure it onto the motherboard were all broken so I'll have to buy a new one. Just hope that this is the problem.
 
Hal Emmerich said:
The entire build is only 6 months old. I don't have a multimeter to test the PSU.

All the fans run, but the CPU is fan is pretty poorly attached. It moves a lot but still seems to be in contact with the CPU so I never thought that was the problem. Guess I'll try securing the CPU fan before I go returning anything.
Click to expand...

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
 
Please tell us the rest of the components. I don't have enough information to help you narrow down the source of your problem.

Get a cheap multimeter and follow the steps listed in the troubleshooting sticky on troubleshooting your PSU. Saying that you think the PSU is bad and/or the CPU fan is poorly attached isn't enough for us to confirm whether or not they're the problem.
 
Azureth said:
:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Come on now, that shit just happens some times.

Hal Emmerich said:
Well I've disconnected the CPU cooler which was a Pro 7 Cooler.. Looks like the holders that secure it onto the motherboard were all broken so I'll have to buy a new one. Just hope that this is the problem.
Click to expand...

Yeah, replace the cooler, it should work after that so long as nothing fried. Once installed, the cpu heat sink should be immobile without using a great deal of force.
 
Last edited:
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