Computer keeps crashing!! - Please help.
Computer keeps crashing!! - Please help.
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Discussion

willdew

Original Poster:

2,138 posts

295 months

Thursday 20th March 2003
quotequote all
Sorry to post this, but our helpdesk seem completely incompetent.

My PC keeps crashing. From working fine, the screen goes blank for 1/2 a second then is filled with vertical red, green and blue vertical lines. It seems to do it every 30 minutes or so and I have to turn it off and re-boot.

So far I've had a new graphics card and new systems board, but IT now have no more ideas. I tried changing the power cable and socket it was plugged into, but to no avail.

Do any of you have any suggestions? Please??

pdv6

16,442 posts

292 months

Thursday 20th March 2003
quotequote all
Dodgy:

. Memory?
. Monitor?
. Cables?
...

mrsd

1,502 posts

284 months

Thursday 20th March 2003
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Where's you mobile, relative to the monitor cables ?

scruffy

3,757 posts

292 months

Thursday 20th March 2003
quotequote all


Do any of you have any suggestions? Please??



Yup, get a new one. There's plenty about...

davidd

6,718 posts

315 months

Thursday 20th March 2003
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Check your processor fan is working properly, could be overheating.

D.

agent006

12,058 posts

295 months

Thursday 20th March 2003
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davidd said: Check your processor fan is working properly, could be overheating.

D.


Seconded, sounds about right.

Also, an email to the head of IT, copied to your department manager should get you a new PC fairly sharpish.

atg

23,844 posts

303 months

Thursday 20th March 2003
quotequote all
if you've got a new systems board, then you've pretty much got a new PC unless they moved lots of components across from one board to the other.

Dodgy RAM perhaps?

At this stage of the game they need to give you a new PC so you can get on with some work, and they can go play with your old one and try to revive it to save some money. If they can't provide you with a working machine within a few hours, I'd suggest something is pretty seriously wrong with their planning/priorities.

p.s. overheating CPU is certainly a good candidate, but would expect PC to run OK for longer when started from stone cold, and then to keep crashing almost immediately it is rebooted as CPU won't have had long to cool down during the reboot.

>> Edited by atg on Thursday 20th March 11:25

alan_driver

1,281 posts

288 months

Thursday 20th March 2003
quotequote all

davidd said: Check your processor fan is working properly, could be overheating.

D.

Also your PSU fan, caused my comp to over heat and crash.

Mrsd, what does the mobile near the monitor cables do?
My mouse cursor moves on its own sometimes when my phone sends a signal, but the mouse did cost £1.50

willdew

Original Poster:

2,138 posts

295 months

Thursday 20th March 2003
quotequote all
Sorry, I should have said - it's also had a new fan fitted and changed the cables, monitor and power adapter, all to no avail.

IT tell me they are looking into the possibility of it being affected by location within the office and if it might be caused by static(?!). Does this sound likely/possible?

alunr

1,676 posts

295 months

Thursday 20th March 2003
quotequote all
The only common component seems to be the hard disk or the cd-rom + any cards they may have moved across (network card?)

Other possibility is a virus?

mrsd

1,502 posts

284 months

Thursday 20th March 2003
quotequote all
Had a monitor with a slightly dodgy cable. Putting the mobile next to the monitor caused it to switch itself off and come back on with very strange colours. The computer would then quite often crash. Resolved by replacing the monitor cable. Don't know why this was, presumably the handshake signal from the phone was interfering with the video signal ?

Beano500

20,854 posts

306 months

Thursday 20th March 2003
quotequote all

willdew said:
IT tell me they are looking into the possibility of it being affected by location within the office and if it might be caused by static(?!). Does this sound likely/possible?


They part time Feng Shui experts, too?

If it was static, it would just go methinks!

dave_s13

14,031 posts

300 months

Thursday 20th March 2003
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willdew said: Sorry, I should have said - it's also had a new fan fitted and changed the cables, monitor and power adapter, all to no avail.

IT tell me they are looking into the possibility of it being affected by location within the office and if it might be caused by static(?!). Does this sound likely/possible?


Not unless your office is in the local leccy board sub-station

willdew

Original Poster:

2,138 posts

295 months

Thursday 20th March 2003
quotequote all
I agree really, but since I was told it might be a possibility it does seem to crash when I move away from it, then go back towards it!!? I can't find any other factor.

Please belive me, I'm not some hippy doesn't know what he's doing technophobic idiot. I'm not kicking a cable, it's not my phone I don't have psychic abilities...

TJMurphy

239 posts

294 months

Thursday 20th March 2003
quotequote all
I had this on a PC after upgrading the video card.
New video card was described as an AGPx2 or AGPx1 version but motherboard was AGPx1. Card was supposed to be compatible but never worked right. Could get it to work (partly) by knocking the resolution and colour depth down.
If you computer is old then possibly worth checking the new graphics card isn't incompatible. Or was the new card just put in to try and fix the problem - in which case beats me!
Does the computer run OK in "safe mode" - in which case it's probably the drivers? Always worth double / triple checking the card is stuck in the slot properly too.

Boosted LS1

21,200 posts

291 months

Thursday 20th March 2003
quotequote all
This pc used to crash and switch off at random. I traced it down to a faulty fuse holder in the plug. A new plug fixed it.

With your pc I would be tempted to plug in another monitor in case that's at fault. That would be simple enough to try

P*Ting

5,618 posts

289 months

Thursday 20th March 2003
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I had this exact problem with a P166 we used to have as a family machine!

It always ran fine until one of my mates turned up. Strangest thing ever but you could guarantee it! It just wouldn't run if he was within three feet of it. I'm afraid we never found out what caused it.

The machine is still with us now and working fine, my sister took it off to uni where my mate couldn't get at it!

scruffy

3,757 posts

292 months

Saturday 22nd March 2003
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dave_s13 said:

Not unless your office is in the local leccy board sub-station




I'm not actually being funny now, but one of the studios I was looking after a few years ago used to complain that the desk crashed every wednesday at night and also occasionally on a saturday or sunday night

Cut a long story short, it coinsided with the floodlighs being turned on at the local football ground...

Jesus, the stories I have of incompetance at various places - still keeps me in a job...

chris watton

22,547 posts

291 months

Saturday 22nd March 2003
quotequote all
I too have had a 'few' probs with my PC after spending nearly £100 upgrading.
The first problems were faulty memory sticks, which Ebuyer tested and agreed were faulty, so I bought the memory from crucial instead.
All worked fine until it kept overheating, (CPU), This time it was my fault, I had put on the CPU heatsink and fan the wrong way round!! That cured the crashing.
Next, I bought an 80 GB Maxtor plus 9 hard drive, again from Ebuyer, just for extra storage. I thought it would be a good idea to transfer all files from my older 60GB maxtor drive to the new one, and make the older one the slave.
That went ok, until I had randon re-boots and some programmes not starting due to missing DLL files. OK I thought, I'll re-format and have a clean install. Again the same happened. I decided to change back to my older hard drive again, and all's fine!!! so 2 faulty parts from Ebuyer thus far!
As I changed the case to accomodate the extra parts, I thought I would have the new IDE leads, which help airflow in the PC. I bought these from Ebuyer, and guess what,, they were faulty!!! I have had to use my original ones, plus my original hard drive.
Quite understandabily, I have had quite enough of PCs and parts I spend a lot of money on to 'improve' my productivity and performance, only to discover the new parts are sub-standard. I thought it was me doing something wrong, and have now lost 2 weeks of work, through no real fault of my own!!!
One last thing, XP, or the ASUS motherboard doesn't like the new ATI Catalyst 3.2 driver suite too much, have had to reinstall the original software that came with the 9700 pro card!
Apart from that, all is fine now, I need to go and take more valium now, so my heart doesnt stop everytime I boot up now!!! lol

Chris

chris watton

22,547 posts

291 months

Saturday 22nd March 2003
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Oh yes, forgot to mention the power supply unit I bought from PC world, that blew up!!!!! also faulty!!!

Chris