Rioja

Hi all,

I have a home built PC that is a few years old now, I only use it for office applications and the internet; so it's not hi-spec; AMD 1700+ processor on a VIA motherboard, 512RAM, 2x HDD, CDRW, DVDROM, GForce4 graphics card(?), OS Windows XP pro. But since I moved house has failed on a regular basis.

The symptoms are either the whole lot freezes, or; more recently, the screen will go blank (No Signal) but the machine will stay on. I've left it for 20min or so to see if it (the screen) comes back on, but no joy. I then have to switch off or reset, each has much the same effect, and I end up with the machine not booting and coming up with a corrupt file message in the windows/system/system32 folder. I've tried repair console, without any luck, and end up reinstalling the operating system.

I thought it might be the HDD, so I've changed that. I'm now thinking it might be the PSU or Motherboard? any ideas on which I should try first?

ru'

Have you tried removing and re-seating the RAM and graphics card etc.? Maybe unplugging and re-plugging the drives too?

Something may have become a bit loose during the move...

jpor

iTrader: (1)

Have you checked for failing fans? I.e the one on the Graphics card or CPU heatsink.

swaussie

The symptoms sound similar to a power supply failing. Download a program called speedfan and see if you have voltage problems (drooping could indicate a dying PSU) or fluctuations (supply from wall socket is dirty or PSU problems). If the case is fluctuations you might be able to get an uninteruptible power supply or something to clean up the power that comes from the wall socket to the PSU (computer).

It could also be that the power in your new house is not "clean" causing these probs (The only way to test that would be with a multimeter I guess??).

Rioja

Thanks all, I've removed and replaced various bits and pieces, and the problem persists; I think the next move will be to test the PSU. Thanks for the application reference.

Kev.