TehSilencer

Through the past month, I've been hit by two kind of blue screens of death :

During random times, at random intervals, while I'm using the computer
And when I leave my PC idle, with nothing open, for about 25 minutes.

After those blue screens, sometimes I'd have trouble making it turn on again in the right conditions. Usually I removed the power plug for a couple of seconds, and started the PC, that worked fine with no problems.

But now, it doesn't work anymore. I press the power button, the lights turn on, I hear the HD's and the DVD drive, and the fans keep spinning at full speed (which should only happen on the first 2 seconds, but here they stay at full speed until I turn it off by force). But the thing is, both my 2 screens are blank and I hear no beeps at all (which should happen when the PC starts), not even when I keep spamming the OPEN BIOS key, trying to get any sound out of my PC.

I've had this PC for a year and a half now. It's a Quad Core Q6600, 8800GT, 2GB ram 800Mhz, has a ESI MAYA 44 sound crad (used for recording) and 2 250GB HD's, with another 250gb external HD. The power supply is 475W.

Any ideas.. Last time I had a problem somewhat similar and they asked me to remove a battery to 'reset' the bios, should I do that again

Poyol

Just remove the CMOS battery that looks like a watch battery, Silver coin shape, use a paper clip for this. Be careful

Leave the CMOS battery out for ten minutes and then put it back in the right way it came out..

Hope this helps

Poyol

TehSilencer

Tried doing it, problem persists.

spongmonkey

Hi from what you say it sounds as though you don't even see a POST screen, is that correct?

If so then I'd take the following action

1. unplug the PC
2. hold in the power button for 10 seconds
3. reconnect the power and turn on again

Does it issue any "beeps" when you turn on? It sounds to me like a fault with motherboard or PSU (but it could equally be RAM or CPU).

If the above steps don't work, try removing the RAM and powering on, does the machine beep now? If not then I'd be inclined to suspect a motherboard fault.

Have a look inside at the motherboard capacitors, are they all nice and flat or are any "bulging" or leaking?

TehSilencer

Yes, not even a POST screen.

Should I be holding the POWER button while reconnecting and unplugging the power

--Edit--

Ok, done the steps. Unplugged, held power button, let go of power button, plug again. No beeps whatsoever.

Performing your other steps now

spongmonkey

literally just remove the power cable, then hold in the power button (with cable disconnected), then stop pressing the button and reconnect the power lead. Then try and boot the PC again as normal.

TehSilencer

Removed the RAM sticks. No beeping.

spongmonkey

bad times. Have you looked to see if the capacitors on the motherboard are OK? Sometimes these can fail and either leak or bulge at the top.

If they look OK then I'd suggest some of the following actions, but they're quite involved.

1. reseat the processor (remove it and put it back, renewing thermal grease as appropriate)
2. reseat RAM (which you've done by removing it)
3. remove everything connected to the motherboard and back panel except: PSU, monitor, processor, RAM, graphics card and front panel cables to allow you to turn on and off
4. if the machine fails to post with just the CPU, RAM and monitor attached, I'd suggest the mainboard, CPU or RAM are faulty.
5. Test as per scenario 3 with a known working PSU if you have a spare?

TehSilencer

The capacitors look good from here.

I'm starting to get a bit nervous in here. So I've done the RAM reset, I've removed EVERYTHING inside already including the hard drives. I have no spare PSU's or anything, and I have no thermal grease whatsoever to apply in case I have to do a processor reset.

If it helps, usually when I got my PC working after the problems, my PC would start saying in red letters : PREVIOUS OVERCLOCKING CONFIGURATION HAS FAILED. And something saying press anything but DEL to continue.

I have NOT overclocked my stuff, and this happened many times in the past. There was a pre-overclock from the factory, but since I had that message a long time ago, my overclock was 'tuned back' to the default settings.

spongmonkey

I thought the caps would be OK, it's generally and older machine problem but there are the odd faulty ones sometimes.

I'm afraid it doesn't look good, is there a local shop you can get to test your PSU for you or try your parts in one of their machines or vice versa? That's what I'd be doing now but obviously you can't if you don't have a machine of similar age to test parts with.

Usually if an overclock goes back the motherboard can recover with default settings which is probably why removing the battery has worked in the past. As a last ditch attempt you could try removing the battery for longer with the power lead also disconnected.

Final possibility is to do the processor reseat and hope there is enough grease left to not renew it. Turn the PC on and if it POSTS turn it immediately off, go to the shop and buy some new grease before using the machine for any period of time.

TehSilencer

How am I supposed to remove the processor. I got a HUGE fan right in front of it.

In case my motherboard is indeed faulty, what should I do. Buy only a new motherboard and keep the HD's, RAM, Processor, Video card .. or get a new motherboard and processor while keeping everything else

Or should attempt in calling someone to fix it

spongmonkey

Hi,

you have to remove the heatsink and fan to get to the processor (thus by doing so you generally need new grease as removing the heatsink usually takes the grease with it).

You could buy a new mainboard and keep other components but you need to establish that it's that component and only that which is faulty.

I'd personally take it to someone or call someone in, print this thread so they can see what has been done so far and take it from there. Let us know the result?

TehSilencer

I dont think I will reset the processor. I will end up damaging my own working components.

Ok, so I will give someone a call and ask them to identify what is faulty and what should I buy.

No chance this has to do anything with the powersupply right

And what should I do to make sure my future motherboard is compatible with everything im currently using

spongmonkey

Hi, at the moment it could be any of the following things that are faulty

CPU, PSU, RAM, Mainboard

So make sure you treat everything with care until you know for sure which is faulty. Tips for future motherboards are really:

read up on reviews
buy a trusted brand, ASUS, Gigabyte and other big brands and avoid stuff like PC Chips
spend fair money on one (I've never spent less than £60 which is still cheap, current one was over £100 but is well spec'd)
try and get one with a longer warranty

TehSilencer

Ok, thank you for your attention.

You sure about the RAM though, because I didnt have one problem with it since I bought the PC.

spongmonkey

I'm not sure of anything as it stands as we've not been able to sucessfully rule it out. RAM can go faulty and cause all manner of errors, but usually it'll still POST and do wierd things within Windows, personally i'm leaning towards motherboard as the most likely and PSU and 2nd option. I'll be intrigued to know what it is once you've had someone look at it locally.

TehSilencer

Ok, I will edit this post as soon as soon as someone takes a look at it.