Issues with friends system - Help please, Urgent!

Soldato
Joined
17 Jul 2005
Posts
9,679
Hi all, I need some urgent help with a friends computer as I am completely stumped why its doing what its doing.

Basically initially it was constantly rebooting at the same point, I completely reformatted the C: Drive as on closer inspecition the windows install was naff.

Initially this worked however roughly 2 days later it has started completely and ramdomly crashing (hard locking) for no apparent reason.

So far I have ruled out: (with reasons)

1) The power supply - The random crashings have all the symptoms of lack of power however using my psu (which works perfectly) the issue still remains.

2) The ram - Once again I tried my ram in this machine and it causes the same problem

3) Hard drive - I have attempted to install windows on a completely different hard drive within this machine however this crashes as well.

4) The graphics card works fine

5) I don't believe the problem lies with the cpu (A64 3200+) as occasionally it refuses to boot at all whereas at other times it will get into windows and then crash.

EDIT: 6) Bios could be an issue (see below about it being pre built) although clearing cmos does nothing to help and as the pc has no FDD and without knowing the exact model flashing it would be tricky.

Basically I am now out of ideas.

Booting into safe mode just underlies the same issue (possibly ruling out software issue this time).

I am wondering whether it could be the motherboard however I have no means of testing the system due to no spare board.

Rough spec guide:

A64 3200+ (Skt 754)
Gigabyte G8-VM ( I am assuming this is a SKT 754 mb as it only has 2 ram sockets which have no mention of dual channel around them)
Radeon 9550
250gb Seagate Barracuda HD
DVDRW & rom

It is a prebuilt system from the purple land and as such has virtually not options available to me in the bios.

Sorry for the long post but this has left me quite frustrated as what initially appeared to be a simple issue has turned into a right nightmare.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Cheers :)
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
7,781
Location
Surrey
Hmm..a strange one.If I didn't know I'd say either ram or psu but as you've ruled both those out it can't be.Problems persisting in safe mode indicate hardware problems.If you've swapped out the graphics and hard drive then it doesn't leave a great deal...must be the motherboard.Problem is testing it..without a suitable replacement 754 board you can't.The only thing left to try really is have it running outside the case with the bare basics to rule out case shorting problems..can't see this helping though with the problems you've mentioned.

If it's still in warranty take it back and hope to talk some sense into the tech people (a fruitless waste of time in my experience but maybe you'll have more luck than me)..otherwise they'll blame your friend in some way claiming software issues or something.

If it isn't in warranty your friend needs to start spending money I think :D
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
17 Jul 2005
Posts
9,679
ExRayTed said:
Hmm..a strange one.If I didn't know I'd say either ram or psu but as you've ruled both those out it can't be.Problems persisting in safe mode indicate hardware problems.If you've swapped out the graphics and hard drive then it doesn't leave a great deal...must be the motherboard.Problem is testing it..without a suitable replacement 754 board you can't.The only thing left to try really is have it running outside the case with the bare basics to rule out case shorting problems..can't see this helping though with the problems you've mentioned.

If it's still in warranty take it back and hope to talk some sense into the tech people (a fruitless waste of time in my experience but maybe you'll have more luck than me)..otherwise they'll blame your friend in some way claiming software issues or something.

If it isn't in warranty your friend needs to start spending money I think :D


Cheers mate.

Unfortunately the computer has just gone out of its warrenty and they have already had virtually everything replaced at their cost by the purple people to try and fix the problem (which still persists).

I think I may have a look at a cheap Skt 754 board for £20 or so as I can't think it would be anything else now. (will look at the case shorting).

Cheers

Owen
 
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