Comp Trouble

[Eomer]

Sorry for yet another one, but this one has me stumped. My parents have a P4-2.4ghz system that's about 2-3 years old. Not a great computer, but it's done it's thing without any problems to this point. However, in the past couple days it's been refusing to boot for some reason, and it has me stumped.

When you hit the power button, it briefly turns on and starts spinning up the fans and HD, but within about 2 seconds they all shut down. However the power light remains on until you hold the button in for a few seconds. No beeps, nothing. It doesn't do this every time, sometimes it boots fine.

Right away I thought "oh, it's memory" and made a memtest86 bootable. And sure enough, each and every time it gets to the third test, it freezes solid (stops responding, and the light on the USB MS mouse blinks on and off). I went and picked up a new stick of ram, and installed it. First time I attempt to boot, it fails. I get it to boot into memtest86, and again it fails on the third test. Symptoms remain the same.

Any ideas? Something DOES seem goofy with the memory, because in the BIOS it listed the RAM as 505 or something with the old 512 stick, and now with a 1gb stick it's listsed at 1016mb. Is the motherboard or CPU done? Any surefire ways to test?

At this point it just looks like they'll have to get a new computer, cause replacing the CPU or motherboard would be difficult if not impossible (not sure on socket or chipset, I don't follow Intel, but it's a genuine Intel board).

[Blaezenfury]

first question i have to ask... Is it a hewlette packard?

My mom just bought one of those package deals from best buy and this exact same problem is happening... if its even a problem at all? I don't know why but every so often the LCD screen also changes its positioning or some shit, and it kicks me out of a game for like 5 seconds then i have to alt tab back into it.

I'll have to check in the bios to see if the memory is doing the same thing as yours.

[Eomer]

Nah, it's just a POS clone.

[Rythonn]

Any local bestbuy or comp store should be able to test your ram and CPU in a matter of seconds. You said you don't get any beeps? You should be getting the "all ok" beep when you start up. Also have you checked the temp?

[Bralkan]

Eomer - The motherboard / Cpu may be busted.

While memtest86 does test RAM, there is a slight problem:

Originally Posted by Memtest86 website

Troubleshooting Memory Errors
Please be aware that not all errors reported by Memtest86 are due to bad memory. The test implicitly tests the CPU, L1 and L2 caches as well as the motherboard. It is impossible for the test to determine what causes the failure to occur. However, most failures will be due to a problem with memory module. When it is not, the only option is to replace parts until the failure is corrected.

[Cathan]

My first thoughts are mobo there. I don't know that I've had the same problem but enough similar ones that if the ram and processor are ok but it doesn't boot.... prolly mobo. I'm not sure exactly why it would be hard to get another one for it. I see old ass parts all over the internet still.

[Eomer]

Maybe it wouldn't be all that hard to find parts, but it would hardly be worth it when I could just buy a new mobo, cpu and ram that are current. I'd have to buy a new mobo or CPU or both to even determine which is the problem as I don't have any spares, cause it's definitely not the ram. Probably the memory controller on the mobo.

Yeah, I get the okay beep when it actually starts up, but when it doesn't boot up properly there is no beep whatsoever.

It's not a temperature issue, because it can be off for hours and refuse to boot, or it will boot and run without problems for days, so long as you don't shut it off (it's only being used for email and web, so nothing intensive that might cause it to work hard and crash).

[Rythonn]

Well if that is all your parents use it for, before you buy new MB, CPU etc etc dell has a low end system for 279 bucks free shipping.

[Bralkan]

So it starts sometimes, and does not boot others? I was under the impression it was no longer booting at all?

If it does boot some times, try clocking the memory down. If that doesnt' do anything (or you are sure the RAM is good), try clocking the CPU down. If clocking the CPU down works, its probably the CPU itself.

Onboard gfx, or other? When it doesn't boot, there is no POST beeps at all?

[Eomer]

Onboard graphics, yes. When it doesn't boot, no beeps. And yes, it boots sometimes, sometimes not. Once it boots, it's fine and runs for days.

I underclocked the original memory, and that did seem to help (it was running at 266 or DDR 533, set it back to 200/400 and it seemed to boot more often). But when it still had problems, I went and bought some brand new Kingston generic stuff, all they had was PC3200 so I just set it at 200/400, and the lack of booting still persisted.

I just decided fuck it, not even worth trouble shooting, I'll pick up a budget board, cpu, and new memory this weekend and just replace them.

[Lenardo]

it COULD be the powersupply... i had problems semi similar to this a while back and everything else was fine but the powersupply needed replacing.

[Eomer]

Shit, you know, I hadn't thought of that. Although I'm pretty sure it's already on it's second power supply, an Enermax. But I could be wrong on that.

Maybe I will just take it in somewhere and let them fuck around with it, before I waste money on buying new components. I really don't feel like dismantling either of my computers to get my hands on a power supply.

[The Dauntless One]

see if its overheating... my friend bought a new computer and didn't install the heatsink right ... it would load windows and instantly restart

[Eomer]

It's not a temperature issue, because it can be off for hours and refuse to boot, or it will boot and run without problems for days, so long as you don't shut it off (it's only being used for email and web, so nothing intensive that might cause it to work hard and crash).

At least pretend to read previous posts!

[Bralkan]

It could be the PSU, but i'd be suprised. The cost to get it troubleshooted by a shop will probably cost as much as a new cpu and mobo will.