Alright so my pc has been playing up recently.. pretty badly. Started about a week ago when the desktop icons would start losing their default icons and all going to the same style and then a few minutes later going back to normal..

then i started to get a lot of freezes when searching around in my drives etc, the last 3 days the computer has started to take like 5-10minutes to load.. sitting blank on the windows background screen for a few minutes to.. so i figured virus.. ran a check for viruses.. none found, did a clean with spybot only 6 bits of spyware so not to bad... however i backed up some of my files and decided to format

anyway installing windows took wayyyy wayyy longer then normal, finally it installs and goes to reboot and the monitor never turns back on after u see the "intel chipset start screen"... reset a few times finally works.. get into windows download the latest radeon drivers for my x800 (3 year old pc.. prob the problem...) and then the monitor goes hay-wire, like someone went into PS and added a f*** load of noise to it, moving mouse around cleaned it and then it just returned... so i reset... again monitor just never booted up and pc sat blank for 10min.. reset a few more times finally worked, got into windows went to put on the basic drivers for sound etc and where the mouse was the monitor spazzed and it froze..

so i turned it off for about 10min, turned it back on and now it wont even get off a black screen so im assuming it's pretty much f***ed, now i know next to nothing about pcs so i really go nfi where to start... i was planning on getting a new pc in about a month for my 21st... might have to bump that up a bit...

any ideas? :| fresh format same problems cept worse. (on 2nd pc to post this)

ill take a random stab in the dark because i didnt read everything you type cause im lazy like that and deserve to be flamed but i rekon your mobo might be f***zored.

edit i'll throw some of the specs in

p4 3.2g, 2gig of ram, x800, couple fans f***ed if i know what the mobo is

if your able to/smart enough to be able to open the case the mobo details will be written somewhere on the board, have a look, even a serial number and brand you will be able to chase to find out what model.

What size psu?

also, id check that video card is seated correctly to try fix the monitor proble, i got 2 iffy video cards and need moving each time i plug a monitor in to them.


also is your hdd working louder then normal?

psu is 300, i mean the pc is 3 years old so it seems about that time for it to be carking

and no hdd seems to sound the same, im getting a random beeping sound from the pc when it starts up sometimes to, like just not the normal boot up vid.. but neway im tired as bugger gonna try figure it out tomorrow

I'd start replacing the old hardware anyway (if I had the money). Might fix the problem and had to be done eventually anyway. Just the mobo and psu. Salvage the cpu and ram

you want to sell your computer as is? cash deal... give you $60 for it. pickup today.

I'm gonna go with borked mobo too. And why would it be because its 3 years old now? My PC is 5 years old and touchwood, is still going strong.

Before doing anything else have a look at the motherboard, check all the capacitors and make sure none are bulging/leaking. If your PSU is no longer under warranty crack the lid off (obviously while it is off and not plugged into mains power) and do the same. Any busted caps and that piece of hardware is toast.

1) test ram using memtest or goldmem

2) test HDD using the manufacturers diagnostic tools (seatools, WDDiag) or use DFT (hitachi drive fitness test)

3) try a different videocard if you have access to one

4) try different PSU

You should be able to google up the above mentioned tools, or go to the actual manufacturers site. seagate.com westerndigital.com

It dumb just to say mainboard without any backing. It is one of the most difficult things to diagnose, so eliminate the easy ones you can test first.

last edited by rubba-chikin at 10:49:13 16/Jun/07

turned on fine this morning, im wondering if it could be stress on a part of the pc that's f***ing up, but i was planning on upgrading in a month since it's my 21st.. to a quadcore 2.4, 8800 gtx etc.. i just wanted to wait until the price drop in the intel chips hit

psu is 300, i mean the pc is 3 years old so it seems about that time for it to be carking

I have a pc that's over 10 years old I reckon, the motherboard was just sitting in my closet, the cpu & ram cards were just in a drawer, the PSU was outside probably got a little damp but the other month I put it all together and f*** me it still works. The age of a PC doesn't necessarily determine when it will die, it's the quality of the parts. Hell my 3 or so year old p4 is still going like the day I built it, my old 866mhz p3 still works as far as I'm aware.


Your problem sounds quite similar to what happened to my AMD system, good old abit and their dodgy capacitors that like to explode and leak all over the motherboard. Open up your case and check the power capacitors near the CPU socket, if any of them look bulgy on top they're most likely shagged.

capacitors seem fine from what i can see, some were tilting thought if that means nething

tilted is fine. The disappearing icons & increased read/write time sounds like file corruption either through dodgy hard drive platters or shagged RAM, but the video artifacts seem to suggest rooted video memory. I'd say your PC got hit with a power surge or by voodoo magic & the entire thing is probably fried.

well it kinda did a while ago, massive storm took out the net which in turned fried both of my pcs onboard network + the router.. however they didn't see any other damage when it happened.. mabye they just missed it and it has slowly gotten worse.. or it's something else.. but whatever it is my pc is borked.. i cbf even trying to install anything cause of all the crashes

massive storm took out the net which in turned fried both of my pcs onboard network

ROFL, this information would have been good to know earlier!

I mis-seated some RAM once, turned on the pc and heard zaps and smoke came out. Memory stick was fried, but the PC seemed ok. In reality it was not and caused much frustration with instability from then on.

instability would be a compliment to what's going on, might just try not turning it off until i can get the new pc :|

Have you tried just removing everything and cleaning them for every spec of dust etc? I had a similar problem a few months ago, I took it all appart and cleaned it out and it all turned out ok. I was told that dust settles on your mobo, and while dust isn't really a good conductor, atmospheric moisture can settle in the dust and cause power to leak in the mobo. I don't know how true that is, but cleaning the PC fixed the problem for me.

Unplug all your bits.

If you have onboard video use that.
If your puter boots past Post then add bits 1 by 1 untill it fuxors.
If it dosnt post, cut your losses and go get a new PC.

I hear http://www.msy.com.au/ Has good prices. I got my PC bits from there and everything went fine. Often cheaper then Umart.