Computer problems... Can someone help?

[Gemini]

got a brain freeze after reading cpmike's post , you guys are waayyy outta my league. I hope you get it running Mike(deev)

[Pandemic]

power supplies could cause this problem. That'd be my step 1. Get ubuntu or some other disc, replace the psu, and try to boot. If it does the same thing then that's ruled out.

Step 2 would be to swap mobo's. ... before that, when you power on, listen to the hdd. if it makes clicks and weird noises - shut it off and dont power it on again. If the hdd is going dead, data is going to be surely destroyed if you keep trying to boot from it. I'll check this in the morning now that I've got a PC up and running.

[benji]

You could try just unplugging all of the peripherals you have so you are down to the mouse and keyboard, and then open up the case and unplug the cd drive, and any cards you have in slots. If you have two (or more) sticks of memory, pull one out. Basically, strip your computer down to mobo, mouse, keyboard, one stick of memory, and hard drive. Try starting it up then, and if it does, then just plug things in one at a time until it stops working. If it doesn't the first time, swap the memory sticks. One caveat to this is, though, that if your PSU is going bad, removing all of the devices might make it start working OK again (less draw on it, like turning your radio off if your alternator is gone), so keep that in mind.

BSOD are almost always caused by hardware (if you have a NT based system), so removing as much hardware as you can is always a good start. It's always best to write down the hex numbers that came up, because you can usually just google them and get an idea for what caused the error, making it easier to fix.

[lil_dcb7]

100% sure its hard drive failure.

This EXACT thing just happened to me two weeks ago. If you try to re-install windows, or go through the recovery console, it will reboot itself just like it is now. Im sorry deever, its a definate hard drive failure.

if you want to save some things, see if you can get another hard drive and use that as a master, and set up your current, busted hard drive as a slave, and navigate it that way. I cant gurantee that you'll save a damn thing, because my hard drive was so toast, that it was detected but access to it was "denied" to most of my files. I managed to save very little.

if the information on it is CRUCIALLY valuable, you can take it some where and have them PHYSICALLY take the data off, platter by platter. but that is EXPENSIVE.

you can also try the ATAPI to USB thing. I have yet to try it, but I will some time soon.

[deevergote]

Ok, starting with cpmike...

The boot options are:

Safe Mode
Safe Mode with Networking
Safe Mode with Command Prompt

Start with last known working configuration

Start Windows Normally


I'd select my boot option, and it would restart immediately. Monitor said "off mode in 5 seconds", meaning it was sensing no signal from the computer.


This morning, I got to the WinXP load screen for a second. Then the BSOD popped up again, and showed PFN_LIST_CORRUPT
I'm going to google that now to see what it could mean. It only got that far twice, then went back to the normal stuff.




The drive isn't making any noise. The only new hardware installed is a video card, and that's been in there for 2 months. Not an extremely crazy one, either.


I've never run a scandisc. I'm going to try it again to see if i can get the hex numbers written down.

[deevergote]

Ok, just took benji's advice and pulled all but mouse, keyboard, video card, and one of my two sticks of ram.

I'm in Safe Mode.


Would that indicate a failing psu perhaps? Or bad ram?

I'm going to try to get it on the network again, and transfer my work files to my laptop. if I can save that, I'll be MUCH better. I can deal with the loss of music... but I need my work!

[deevergote]

Ok... running with nothing at all, it's been fine for over an hour. 28 more minutes, and all 3 gigs of work records will be transferred to my laptop. Then I can breathe easy! I don't want to lose my other stuff (pictures, music, etc...) but at least I can deal with that being gone. Work is messing with my money (need good records for tax time!)

I'll plug things back in one by one to see which is causing it to stop working. Perhaps it IS the psu... That would be nice, as it's cheaper and much more convenient than a new HDD or mobo!

[accordaffair]

plug things back in one at a time until it fails again, and there's your culprit

[Pandemic]

ahem - power supply

[deevergote]

You're probably right, Matt.

Any suggestions on a good one that won't kill my bank account? I think I got the cheapest 400 that I could find last time!



btw... this is typed from my desktop. Running really fast now, oddly... weird, since it's doing so with half the amount of ram!

[Pandemic]

You're probably right, Matt.

Any suggestions on a good one that won't kill my bank account? I think I got the cheapest 400 that I could find last time!



btw... this is typed from my desktop. Running really fast now, oddly... weird, since it's doing so with half the amount of ram!

That's strange - swap out the psu from that other pc that you said you had, put everything back in and try to run it. if it runs, put the old psu in and try to run it again - just to make sure it IS the psu.

[benji]

plug things back in one at a time until it fails again, and there's your culprit

X2.

Did you look up that error code? I only looked at a few things, but they all said it's from a bad driver, so I'm inclined to go after your other hardware, and not your PSU. You might check your logs in the System Management console, that might give you more info (look for things that failed).

[sandman61377]

You're probably right, Matt.

Any suggestions on a good one that won't kill my bank account? I think I got the cheapest 400 that I could find last time!



btw... this is typed from my desktop. Running really fast now, oddly... weird, since it's doing so with half the amount of ram!

If all your data is transfered over, switch the ram modules out and see if it still runs the same. If it does, put both in and check. Then, keep adding things back in till it starts acting up again. Whatever the last thing was that you added when it started rebooting again, take it back out (obviously), but keep putting anything else left in one at a time, to see if something else can make it act goofy again. I've seen things like this happen with any kind of part you can think of, (except the power supply. Not ruling it out, I've just never personally seen it happen), and there are times when its a combination of things. If you get to a point where its acting fine, but you can't add anything else in (and there are still a couple pieces left), add one thing in and take out something else, and see if it runs ok. It may be that the power supply starts causing trouble when there's too much power drawn from it. Unless you can get it down to one item only that makes it mess up, its hard to pin down the problem. If it is the power supply, I may have an extra one I can get to you. Kinda shy on any other spare PC parts right now.

[deevergote]

I had a network card in there that seemed to be really loose... kinda strange. I used it when my onboard adapter didn't work. It's working now, so I pulled that spare card. I wonder if the loose card caused an error? Gonna shut down now and reinstall stuff.

The computer has been up and running, quite well, since about 8am.

[deevergote]

Ram everything... even the megabytes!


It was a bad ram module. I put it all back together and found that when I started it with the second ram card, it did the same crap again. I looked more closely at it, and I saw that it had baked off one of the stickers on it... so it must've overheated. Working fine now, possibly even better than with that ram installed! I need to get another module... maybe it's time for a pair of 1gig DDR sticks!