Daughter's computer has died - help needed to diagnose please if possible

Terminel

Terminel

Terminel

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Linked to this thread https://www.overclockers.co.uk/foru...-my-daughter-her-own-computer.18897641/page-2

Good evening all, oh actually its the morning :(

I built a computer for my daughter last year for her birthday and has thrown a wobbly. I'm really hoping with your advice I'll be able to get it back on its feet - I've been trying all night.

Rewind to last night. Daughter is playing Minecraft with no issues as she has done since I built it. Came down for her tea and when she returned it was in the blue W10 repair screen. None of the repairs work and it just seems to be in a perpetual reboot loop never getting fully past the spinning dots. So far I have tried:
  • The inbuilt repairs none of which work. Strangely, it asks for my daughters password which it no longer recognised so many of the repairs were not initially possible.
  • Created a W10 repair USB and tried the same, no change.
  • Reinstalled W10 and nearly finished the install when it cut out back to initial boot up and am exactly back to where we was before.
  • Re-seated the RAM, nothing else so far.
Things I have noticed:
  • All fans spin as normal apart from the graphics card which power down once we get past the BIOS boot. I've read that this could be a feature of the card potentially.
  • My daughter said it had been making a 'pop' noise when turning off for some time. I've read that sometimes this can be the PSU but have never experienced it myself - wish I had now :(
  • None of the temps are too high in the bios, appx 35 degrees.
  • No burning smells.
I'm now in the nightmare position where further fault finding starts involving swapping out parts so I'm hoping that someone can suggest a potential fix.

Many thanks in advance
 
I was leaning towards the PSU as well but yer your right, I was wondering if it was the speakers - my amp in the living room does much the same thing.

I'll try those USB tools to see if I can narrow it down having reset the bios which is pretty much at stock anyway.

Thank you for the advice, VMA.
 
Good morning, thanks for the help - no luck in solving the issue so far unfortunately.

So as an update:
  • I think the pop was coming from the speakers as I recreated it yesterday. My daughter wears hearing aids so has the volume up quite loud so emphasising the 'pop'.
  • I got some of the tools running on the UBCD - there are a lot on there. Memory test passed with one run and the CPU test ran for a while without issue as well although I should perhaps run it for longer.
  • I need to reset the bios but its pretty much at stock anyway but I will do it.
  • Swapped out the SSD with a spare I have. Got as far as the 'enter a new pin' screen when it cut out and returned to initial bios boot up and back into the 'repairing your computer' routine.
We have borrowed my son's computer which she can use for Minecraft and college for now so the pressure is off a little. Next step will be to reset the bios and see what happens. After that, I'll go for the PSU and swap it with mine - I think they will be compatible.

Thanks again but any further assistance would be greatly appreciated.
 
Have just reset the bios - no change, half way through the new W10 install and screen goes off, briefly flicks back on then resets. At no point have is it got back to the desktop. I'll have a look to see what the latest bios version and flash it if needed.

Memory is running at 2400 but did not take a note of the voltage - will do next time. I have re-seated memory but nothing else - I'll do that next.
 
Have just switched out the graphics card (550xt) for a 570 and it booted straight into Windows. Doing a fresh install again to prove stability. So to me it's most likely the graphics card or the psu falls over supply extra power to the card if it needs more that the replacement.

Windows installed perfectly. Tried the card in the other computer and caused similar problems.
 
Last edited:
mickyflinn said:
Glad you sorted it hope you can get a replacement with current stock issuies.
Click to expand...

I'm on the right track hopefully. Just tried the suspect card again in the spare computer so a little dumb founded yet again as it booted into windows no problem. I'll repeat properly later. Its an intermittent fault on either the card or PSU???
 
adrichardson81 said:
Just going back to the pop - can your daughter remember if there was a smell like burning hair?

I'm leaning towards the psu as its unlikely a bad gpu would cause that level of instability during recovery/installation.
Click to expand...

I would normally ask her but one of the other challenges she has is that she has no sense of smell. However, the 'pop' had been on numerous occasions I believe but will check.
 
I'm tied up with work at the moment but will have another go at the weekend. I'm desperate to get it solved for her plus the RMA clock is ticking which is less urgent as I should have at least a years warranty.
 
adrichardson81 said:
It's also risky doing too much testing on a potentially failing PSU.
Click to expand...

That's a good point.

I'm going to take the PSU from my son's computer this weekend and fit it to my daughters. Slot the potentially suspect graphics card back in and see how we get on. My sons computer is only about a year old but I'll check the wattage on his PSU to make sure its not under powered for hers.
 
Good morning all,

Let me firstly say thanks for the advice so far.

So I've been doing some further diagnosis this morning and can report the following:
  • Swapped out the PSU for a known good one and the fault remained.
  • Put the good graphics card in without removing the known good PSU and the fault disappeared and completed a full install of W10 with no issues.
  • Put the old graphics card back in and the fault immediately returns.
  • Good card back in and W10 loads fine - actually typing this from her computer.
Its got to be the graphics card right?

Many thanks.
 
Looks like that has solved it. She's been playing Minecraft on and off since yesterday with no issues.

RMA raised with Overclockers for a replacement.

Thank you all for your help, I really appreciate it.
 
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