Please Help, Computer been shutting off randomly, cant do my work.
Hi, I have been looking through other forums and websites incase that people had the same problem as me. The problem I have is that the Computer monitor shuts off randomly. It normally takes me 2 hours to turn the computer on where it will actually work. This is what happens...When the computer is running, the monitor suddenly turns from a green light to a yellow light, the cpu tower...the cdrom light is on constantly without flashing or anything, its just on, both the green light and cpu light on the tower are on, no flashign or anything, they are just lit. I have had the problem ever since I got the computer, I got the computer for free, since my sisters boss gave up on it and they wanted to throw it away, and I tried to Salvage it.
I have checked the problems from the video card to the monitor... but it keeps on doing it, I unplugged everything and checked for loose connections, ive done this about x10. The computer sometimes has its good days and would run for 10 hours and if im lucky it ran up to 2days straight. Im afraid to turn it off because after I turn it off lets say overnight, itll take me 3 hours to start it up in the morning. When the computer doesnt start in the morning, right when I press the power button the cdrom light is continously lit and so is the green and yellow light on the tower. Basically i have no idea whats going on, and I basicaly keep turning it on and off until it loads up in its "good mood".
I have been playing world of warcraft lately, it has been very difficult, I was actually able to play for 5 hours straight but lately my log sessions have been from about 10 minutes of play and at max 40 mins or so, I have checked if anything is overheating, I even opened the case and put the fans right next to the system.
These are my specs:
Ge Force fx 5200
Amd Athlon 1.40 ghz
512 mb of ram
I have checked the problems from the video card to the monitor... but it keeps on doing it, I unplugged everything and checked for loose connections, ive done this about x10. The computer sometimes has its good days and would run for 10 hours and if im lucky it ran up to 2days straight. Im afraid to turn it off because after I turn it off lets say overnight, itll take me 3 hours to start it up in the morning. When the computer doesnt start in the morning, right when I press the power button the cdrom light is continously lit and so is the green and yellow light on the tower. Basically i have no idea whats going on, and I basicaly keep turning it on and off until it loads up in its "good mood".
I have been playing world of warcraft lately, it has been very difficult, I was actually able to play for 5 hours straight but lately my log sessions have been from about 10 minutes of play and at max 40 mins or so, I have checked if anything is overheating, I even opened the case and put the fans right next to the system.
These are my specs:
Ge Force fx 5200
Amd Athlon 1.40 ghz
512 mb of ram
0
Comments
mobo
videocard
psu
ram
it just seems like a comp that was thrown away for a reason to be honest...take out the harddrive..and the videocard....and use it in another system...other than that..i think the comp will just keep giving u problems until u start replacing stuff...cuz something is definatly wrong with it... like i said..if u have the parts..start swapping one by one...id start with the vid card..then psu..then mobo...if u still have this problem...hit us up again
When i was trying to fix this my first idea was the mobo, any hints on how to tell if the mobo is broken or defective?
How do I test the ram, do I just take it out and put it in one of my other comps.
Also kinda of a stupid question but what is Psu, I just dont know this term at all.
As a start, see if the small chipset fan on the MB is working. The fact that it takes you a while to get the computer to turn back on makes me think it might be a heat issue.
Give it a pass or two of Memtest-86.
Power Supply Unit. If your power source is shaky you'll get all sorts of weird problems. See if you can find out what the 5V+ and 12V+ rails are actually supplying. You should also look on the PSU itself and tell us what the Amperage rating is for those two items.
I think this is very weird, I have left the computer on and it has been on for about 14 hours now. The computer mainly shuts off during when I play games, but it happens occasionally when I am browsing the internet or just chatting on aim. I wonder if that can clue any of you guys in on whats happening.
The Psu (sry I am not very good with computers), how do I find out the AMperage and all that other stuff. I see a label on my Psu that has volts and stuff but I dont wna be writing useless stuff thats not needed.
I am going to go over my friends house later to test my ram sticks on his computer to see if their working.
Btw guys thanks for the quick reply, I really appreciate you guys trying to help me.
See the areas I marked in the attached picture. The 12V+ and 5V+ Amperages are the most critical.
I'm definitely leaning toward a PSU problem here. See what the voltages read in the BIOS. If you can get a program like Motherboard Monitor 5 or SpeedFan installed, you'll be able to monitor the voltages in Windows, too.
The program I linked to earlier runs from a bootable floppy disk. (There is a cdrom version available, too). If your memory passes in your friends machine you'll still need to test it in your own computer. (Some RAM doesn't agree with some systems, but runs fine in others.)
The plus side is, by running it off a boot disk you'll be eliminating any potential factors like a Windows glitch or a driver problem. If it stays on for hours and hours under those conditions it might help narrow down the problem.
It's our pleasure.
I installed speedfan in and this are the readings, +5v is 5.05v and then +12v is 11.56v
This all sounds like a bad power supply.
The power for the 3.3v is 3.23 v
Question #2: Possibly.