Dad computer - gone a bit weird!

robjf · 2 Apr 2007 at 16:15

Hi there, im praying you lot can shed some light on this little predicament.

Basically my dads computer has been running fine for a fair while then all of a sudden it wont boot. The internals have not been touched whatsoever.

On boot up (when it finally boots up!) sometimes it says that the spu is unworkable and when you go into the bios, random characters start appearing on the screen and blocks of different colours, then it turns itself off.

I have no idea whats going on and as i dont have another computer with similar components to hand, cant check everything.

Thanks again.

Rob

PS. Its a P4 3.2 Northy with Abit IC7-G max motherboard. Ive tried reseting the CMOS.

Zefan · 2 Apr 2007 at 16:17

Sounds like what happens when RAM is unstable. Download memtest and boot it from a floppy.

robjf · 2 Apr 2007 at 16:28

Ive tried it with different memory and all the same things are happening. I just went to have another look and now it turns on for about a quarter of a second then turns itself off.

:S

Zefan · 2 Apr 2007 at 16:31

:\ something major is definitely up. All I can say is try a quick rebuild?

robjf · 2 Apr 2007 at 16:34

Yeh thats what ive been thinking however i dont have any thermal paste at home, all my comp stuff is up in derby where i go to uni.

Zefan · 2 Apr 2007 at 16:36

Well just do everything else, it could be as simple as something shorting out.

Could also be your PSU giving very bad power.

robjf · 2 Apr 2007 at 16:38

Ok i shall give it a go. Thankyou for the advice!

If anyone else has any ideas id be very appreciative of any more ideas

Rob

robjf · 2 Apr 2007 at 17:16

Right ive tried rebuilding it outside of the case. When i trip the 2 pins to turn it on, it boots up, sits at the boot screen complaining about the CMOS being reset to defaults (which i had done). I left it there for a few seconds and the screen starts to show loads of artefacts, lines of random colours then eventually turns off.

This is odd! Any ideas?

Rob

Zefan · 2 Apr 2007 at 17:19

What PSU is it?

robjf · 2 Apr 2007 at 17:26

Hiper something or other. IIRC it was fairly expensive when he got it last year.

Zefan · 2 Apr 2007 at 17:29

robjf said:
Hiper something or other. IIRC it was fairly expensive when he got it last year.

You'll get a lot of people telling you they go pop, although mine hasn't.

I'm out of idea's I'm afraid

robjf · 2 Apr 2007 at 17:31

Is there anyway to test the power supply itself? Rather than having it plugged into the motherboard etc.

Zefan · 2 Apr 2007 at 17:34

Yeah you can short out two connections, not sure which ones they are though as I did it aaages ago. Do a quick google for it though and it should come up.

That's just to get it to power on without being in the mobo though, not sure how you'd go about testing it without a voltometer.

robjf · 2 Apr 2007 at 17:40

My dads got every piece of electrical testing equipment under the sun, im sure he can sort it with regards to the voltages.

Rob