PC Behaving Badly!!

[gooner71]

Hi all

Last night my PC turned itself off while converting a film from avi to dvd - as it was under load and quite warm inside I thought it was probably time to clean out the cpu fan and heatsink!! But, I found that after doing this and trying to restart it wouldnt start at all - It seems the PSU has packed up so I got a spare from another PC. It then booted but after getting to the windows xp desktop it froze and wouldnt respond to the mouse or keyboard? Restarting again it wouldnt even get to the bios screen and even thought the pc fans were all running the monitor wouldnt kick in. To me it seemed like a heat issue so I stripped the heatsink and cpu fan and cpu out and replaced the cpu with my older one (single core and working perfectly up until about a month ago when i replaced it for a dual core model) I applied thermal paste and re-assembled and once again it all booted to the xp desktop and then froze!!

I then removed and changed the ram memory to rule that out so I am now thinking it may be the motherboard - is it possible that it could boot then freeze and then not boot until it cools down if it is a mobo issue?

Its a pain in the neck and I could really do without splashing out on a new mobo so is there anything else I can try??

Thanks

 

[oneman]

Is there a heatsink on the northbridge controller that you could have knocked while cleaning the case.

 

[gooner71]

Yeah its built in non removable and seems pretty solid - just noticed a couple of bulging caps on the board though - maybe they are giving up the ghost!!

 

[Spectre]

You were probably getting away with it using a CPU with lower power requirements.

There may be a capacitor kit available to repair your board (they are strange sizes on mainboards to save PCB real-estate and usually low ESR types). You need a decent soldering iron though due to the large copper planes in the board sinking the heat.

Sometimes it is not an economical repair though.

 

[gooner71]

As it boots to the same point with both cpu's and configs of ram im sure its something to do with the mobo!! Thanks for the comments - it would make sense that the more powerful cpu may have tipped the balance!! Looks like a new mobo then - just need to find one now that will take the cpu, IDE drives and also DDR2 as I definitely cant afford new ram and HDD's and DVD's!!

 

[sfuk2010]

Blown Caps = Buggered Board. The only way a cpu would cause your caps to bulge is if you had not cooled it properly. In my experience when the caps on the board bulge its usually time to get a new board. I agree with spectre that you can get caps but tbh if it is something else then you spent all that time for basically sod all. go out get yourself a new board. You will probably be pleasantly surprised when you connect it all up and find it works nicelly. DONT FORGET - check your memory as well.

SFUK

 

[techquest]

Bulging or blown caps are those that are being stressed by the PSU and very little to do with cooling!

As Spectre says caps can be replaced but you might find it to be a costly process.

As for the memory then as long as it is correct for the board then not a problem.

You have proven the cpu, the memory and the psu to a certain extent but it could be a source of your problem.

Try reseting the bios by shorting the jumper, whilst the PC is unplugged form the mains, to see if that gets you past the freeze.

What MB is it?

 

[gooner71]

Bulging or blown caps are those that are being stressed by the PSU and very little to do with cooling!

As Spectre says caps can be replaced but you might find it to be a costly process.

As for the memory then as long as it is correct for the board then not a problem.

You have proven the cpu, the memory and the psu to a certain extent but it could be a source of your problem.

Try reseting the bios by shorting the jumper, whilst the PC is unplugged form the mains, to see if that gets you past the freeze.

What MB is it?

Its an ms-7222 ver1 with the latest bios update that enabled dual core cpu's - Im pretty much resigned to buying a new board but I am struggling to find something with 2 ide ports. Everything now seems to be sata and maybe one token ide!!!

 

[techquest]

Will take a look at the Manual etc for the MB. Meanwhile you could purchase ide to sata converters if your drives are ide and that would bet ok on a new mb. Hang fire though, if you can, as you never know what might come to light.