Computer has (finally) died

[escomm]

I've been experiencing some problems lately with my computer slowing down to the point of it being nauseatingly slow (especially when playing graphically intensive (well, more intensive than usually.. they are like 3 years old) games like Enemy Territory and World of Warcraft). This is a computer that I built myself with the help of Newegg about 3 years ago, and I've built every desktop I've owned going back to my 386/25 from 13 years ago, so I do have a good grasp of this arena and am probably more familiar than most with the internal workings of a PC.

So I took the heatsink off my CPU and found about 1/2 inch of dust at the top of the fins, right under the fan, so obviously this had to be shot out in the general direction of my cat with compressed air.. the slow down problems magically disappeared, but a day or so after I did this my computer began randomly powering down. Well, I'd call it more like a reset with no reboot. The power supply remains on, and I have to hold the power button on the power supply for about 10 seconds to be able to restart the computer.

Now, it's gotten to the point where the computer will either reset about 15 seconds after Winblowz is done loading, or it will reset while it's booting up.

Here's what I've done so far:
-Order a new tube of Arctic Silver & regreased the CPU. Seemed to help somewhat, as the computer stayed on for about 15 minutes after the first application, but now it's back to where it was.
-Reseated heatsink. I don't think it's the CPU overheating as this is happening within seconds of the bootup and I know there's a good flow between the CPU and the heatsink.
-Moved the video card to another slot, just for giggles, no help.
-Disconnected the CD Rom, thinking it might be a power supply issue and trying to free up some more current from the power supply.

None of these have worked. Here's my vital system specs:
P4 2.4GHz CPU (about 3 years old, not one of the new fancy ones)
Soyo Dragon Mobo
Random ATI Xpress Video Card (middle of the road 3 years ago)
1GB RAM

I've basically written this system off, and have a new set of guts on the way to me from Newegg, but I'd like to get this thing fixed as a backup nonetheless.

My educated guess is that this is a power supply issue, perhaps it has crapped out and is no longer able to supply the needed power. Before I go to Fry's and spend 1/2 hr in line to buy a new supply to swap into my tower, I'd like to know if indeed I am barking up the correct tree.

If I'm not, what else can be easily looked at? I mean, the only only other thing it could really be is a bad CPU or the motherboard (or maybe faulty memory, but I'm going to rule this out for now), but the power supply is the next cheapest part to exchange and I am not interested in buying a CPU or Mobo just to play around




Sorry for the ebook-length post

[Bruce1807]

I would also be looking at the supply.
Put a meter on it and check to see if the voltages are stable whilst under load

[kd5wyu]

I also vote for power supply. <bones> it's dead, Jim </bones>

Once you get it replaced I would also put the machine through a battery of diagnostics (run memtest86+ on the RAM, HD diagnostics on the HD, etc) to make sure that the power supply dying didn't get anything else on the board.

-b-

[escomm]

OK guys, thanks for your input. I think I'll just go to Fry's and get a replacement PS and pop it in and see what happens. It turns out I will have to go stand in line to return something else so if turns out the new PS does not solve my problems it won't be any extra skin off my teeth to stand in line and return it.

It's just that their lines are so crazy and you'd be hard-pressed to find an employee there that speaks English fluently...

[tvsjr]

More than likely a power supply. And, don't go buy a bottom-end Frys piece of junque. Take a look at a real power supply, like an Antec... they cost more - they're also significantly cleaner on all the rails, much tighter voltage tolerances, and they'll actually produce the wattage they're rated to produce.

[wavetar]

Did you use a static strap while you had it apart? 99% of the time, you can get away without it...but there's always that 1%...I would suspect if static was the cause, the mobo took it harder than the power supply would've.

You can use memtest86 to test your RAM in the meantime. You boot it from a floppy, so it'll also eliminate any sort of OS issue if it runs for any length of time.

Or maybe try running Unbutu Linux off a live CD or something...you could even disconnect your hard drive while doing this (and during memtest) to see if that isn't causing an issue.

Ultimately, it's very easy to check the power supply through a spare drive connector while under load to see if it's stable.

Todd

[440roadrunner]

I can only offer a few suggestions. A few days ago, someone posted a link to a bunch of handy utilities from Microshaft. If you're interested, I'll try to find them.

I too, started experiencing random shutdowns, and it did turn out to be the power supply--a supposed good one, 450W, from newegg, less than 2 years old. The computer is now running with an old 300 watter that I had lying around, and hasn't missed a beat.


Also, I've got one eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeMachine that shuts down when you wiggle the power connector on the motherboard. I've spent a lot of time trying to fix it.

Also, are you aware (I've forgotten how) to change a windows setting so that the machine is forced to a blue screen, instead of spontaneous reboot?


Here's part of it:

===============================================
System Properties - Advanced Tab - Startup & Recovery Settings and UNcheck "Automatically Restart". Next time the system encounters an error, instead of restarting you'll see a blue screen with an error message
===============================================

[escomm]

Yeah, I've got the hold before reset feature activated because of issues I was having with the video card a couple years ago that forced the computer to reboot at will. I have ruled it out being an OS issue though since it sometimes happens before Windows even starts loading

This thing just dies after the power goes, pretty much now it won't even make it past the Windows screen, or if it does it dies within 30 seconds of the desktop coming up.

Static is probably a non-issue, it's been years since I've used a strap and now I'm just very good about keeping a hand (or a good portion of my wrist) against the frame for good grounding.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll get some time to poke around Fry's and get my hands on a power supply.