Computer help
at my wits end..
Thursday, June 7, 2012 by vStyler | Discussion: PC Hardware
K so, My bro-in-law got his PC around the same time I did.. about 2 years ago..
Its an i7 940, 8 gigs of Ram.. MSI X58 Pro-E motherboard. Win 7 x64
It had some bad ram a while back that was causing it to blue screen, got new, fixed that, then same sort of issue with a video card, replaced that.
Been running fine for a while now, but then started just restarting every once in a while by itself.
Has gotten worse and worse, now i cant hardly get it to boot at all, if it does boot up its usually restarted itself within minutes but most the time it resets itself before it even starts booting.. goes back to the logo screen.
Ive checked the ram, checked the video card, with the ones from my own PC... still doing it.
The lights on the motherboard, fan etc dont even go off, its not shutting down so to speak, almost like someone is hitting the reset button.
Unlikely its a virus Ive ran numerous virus and spyware apps, clean as a whistle, is used only for music production - Offline.
any suggestions at this point would be appreciated..
Cheers.
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Reply #23 Thursday, June 7, 2012 10:16 PM
The worsening intermittent reboot is usually caused by fluff or dust in the system somewhere and completely cleaning everything - including the back of the motherboard - usually fixes it.
I have a friend who keeps one of her pc's in a very dusty place despite my protestations. Every six months when it starts to reboot by itself she gives it to me to "defluff."
A couple of weeks after the last time though, the bearing in the graphics card fan had finally had enough (dust) and consequently the gpu fried. When she brought it here I told her that she should just take it to the local shop, buy something cheap and cheerful in a graphics card and have them install it while she was there. But a day later she rang to tell me that the tech had informed her that the computer was "dead" and had sold her a new pc which she was picking up that afternoon. I asked her if I could have the old one and she said sure.
Put a new graphics card in it and now I have an extra pc.
Her hubby hit the roof.
Reply #24 Thursday, June 7, 2012 10:16 PM
If there was a lot of gunk in there John, heat might have been the problem.
Reply #25 Thursday, June 7, 2012 10:23 PM
Starting to look like it may have been CMOS battery.... and I say that, as it has gotten progressively worse over past couple of days, as if battery was on last legs... Possibly also the PSU, as i did replace it, but before i reset \ replaced battery, nothing changed.
Perhaps combination of bad PSU and confused bios...
Possible?
could also have been dust related.
1 Hour and counting. 
Reply #26 Thursday, June 7, 2012 10:58 PM
Hrrrumph. An hour? And you haven't finished a new skin yet? 
Reply #28 Thursday, June 7, 2012 11:16 PM
Sorry Doc. That box marches to a different drummer. 
Reply #31 Friday, June 8, 2012 12:36 AM
Chances are it was nothing more than a loose/unseated connection which 'fixed itself' with you totally dismantling/reassembling.
Contacts can 'fret' loose through heat cycling....
Reply #32 Friday, June 8, 2012 1:02 AM
Did anyone mention a UPS or better yet a line conditioner? Power brown-outs and drops will do misery to a machine. You can check it quick by moving it to where the proper machine lives and see if it continues. Pity anyone who lives in London during the next few months, the power irregularities will be horrible.
I won't do without my line conditioner and it's reassuring "click" that indicates it is turning on. On one circuit the UPS often clicks as well, that circuit is a mess. I could tell stories of an entire 75 seat computer lab going wacko about three times a week, all because of power irregularities. Don't forget a real UPS - not a surge suppressor.
Reply #33 Friday, June 8, 2012 5:22 AM
Reply #34 Friday, June 8, 2012 8:13 AM
If it was just the battery, the worst that would have happened was your BIOS settings would keep resetting to the defaults, unless it was so bad it was leaking. It wouldn't cause your computer to restart like it was. More likely it was dust + psu, and the battery was just complicating matters.
Glad it's up and running!
Reply #35 Friday, June 8, 2012 11:21 AM
Thanks everyone for some great technical advice.
The PC has been on all night, so I'm thinking I'm good to go.
On a positive note, It got completely cleaned also.
Like a new PC now.
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Reply #21 Thursday, June 7, 2012 9:51 PM
After completely removing the motherboard, removing ram, removing CPU and cooling fan\sinks, cleaning, vaccuming everything, tightening all screws, connections... also removing\replacing battery, and replacing PSU..
Its booted....
Now, will it stay booted...
The great wait begins..
30 mins and counting..