PC random Crash

blundaruss

blundaruss

blundaruss

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8 Mar 2015
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188
Hey all!

Im hoping someone can point me in the right direction to further troubleshoot my issue because Im at a bit of a loss!

I have an old pc which I am trying to get up and running specs below:

Athlon II X2 240 2.8GHz
MSI 60GM-E51 Mainboard
Kingston 2Gb DIMM DDR3-1066

I have wiped the hard drive and installed a fresh copy of windows but whilst installing updates the computer freezes for a minute or so then restarts. Looking at the event viewer nothing shows up other than Critical Event ID 41 "The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly."

I have run countless tests on the hard drive and memory and both appear to be healthy. I have removed all hardware which it can run without so at the moment its just running with the PSU, memory, onboard graphics, hard drive and DVD drive. The pc is still crashing so the fault must be with one of these, but without any hardware to swap-out its difficult for me to pinpoint where the fault lies.

Just wondering if anyone can suggest any other ways I can pinpoint the cause of the crashing? I have ran HWMonitor to check temps etc. but I have no idea how accurate this is or whether they are within accepted limits? I have attached a screenshot



Any assistance would be most appreciated
 
Strange. I Swapped out the PSU and ran a stress test with prime98 and it worked fine. I then put the old PSU back in and its still working fine, even with the same stress test.

Very strange. I guess I will leave as is and keep an eye on it
 
i would change the psu.

ive had decent budget ones that didnt work properly, but then did work properly after taking it out and swapping it with another unit then swapping it back..

did this about 3 or 4 times before i binned the unit in exchange for another(not the test one as i needed micro atx psu), so just to be on the safe side get a new psu.

also keep eye on hdd as ive had mix on that too, fine then not fine, its like having a rollercoster in your bedroom, but in a confined space lol
 
Right, its just happend again with the old PSU. Interestingly enough after rebooting the BIOS was not displaying the main hard drive yet it was displaying the secondary hard drive and DVD drive.

So that would suggest the PSU was not providing power to the drive or the drive itself is faulty. Which would be more likely?
 
hdd is either faulty or your motherboard is, as a builder of computers ive had these problems often and replacing the key components i overcome it..

try all sata ports/ide ports.
 
TWiNKLeT0Es - What should the readings be? I don't really know what to expect.

FixupSellon - Yup, Its either PSU, HDD or MOBO. Trying to determine which one as I don't want to replace them all. Plus the MOBO is pretty old so don't think I will be able to find a replacement anyway.
 
im guessing the OS is on the HDD that is hinting at a problem? try putting the OS on the other HDD. you could try the other PSU again but leave it on for a while until it crashes or a good few hours atleast. it could still be the PSU.
 
The 12V and 5V should be +/- 5% so for the 12V, that would be 0.6V. The 12V should therefore range between 11.4/12.6V.

I know HW monitor can be hit and miss, but the 12V is way, way off. What is it reporting in the BIOS? If the voltages are way off in the BIOS, it's probably either a PSU issue of a mobo voltage regulator problem.

It could be a HDD issue, but my money's on the PSU/mobo, most likely PSU.
 
Gotcha. Looking at the BIOS it looks like both 5V and 12V values are well within +/- 5%

Thinking about it I do recall replacing the PSU not long ago but I cant for the life of me remember why, the pc hasn't been used in over a year so I don't think its been used that much since the PSU was replaced. I don't think it was a serious problem but I guess it could have caused issues with the motherboard maybe?

Problem is, if it is a motherboard issue its unlikely I will be able to get a replacement.
 
I suppose you can run with a spare PSU for longer and see if it is still crashing.

It could also be a HDD starting to die or a mobo problem.

For a replacement motherboard, you're probably going to have to be looking at auction sites, although some places may still have some old boards left.
 
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Hmm, just loaded up the pc and it got stuck on the black windows screen. No activity at all. then all of a sudden everything fired up and it loaded fine. Its certainly either the motherboard or psu but still doesn't confirm which one, I guess it could even be a combination of both.

Borealis - I think running with the other PSU for a while is my only option.

Id like to thank you all for the help, you have all been most helpful. I was expecting someone to say just upgrade it all because that would make the most sense as its an old PC, but no one has, and I really appreciate that! :)
 
You can get cheap mobo combos 2nd had for under £20, I had a socket 754 i brought few months ago and I paid £11 which came with cpu/cooler, ram, back plate, I brought it for making a cheap build that I recently sold, anyways I had no problems with it and it was an asus that was overclockable and came with Sata ports..

So my advise would be look at something like that and hook the psu/hdd to it and go from there before shelling out on new replacement bits.
 
AND WE HAVE A WINNER!!!! :)

I was installing CrystalDiskInfo as suggested by hp7909 and it crashed again. Restarted the machine and entered BIOS. This time it was unable to detect one of the HDD and the DVD drive (both SATA) I hard rebooted it and its now fine.

Think its safe to say its an issue with SATA on the mobo. Now the question is do I replace the mobo like for like or find a cheap bundle as suggested by FixupSellon? Decisions Decisions! :)

Thanks again for all your help and support guys! :D
 
Personally I would use this opportunity to get a little upgrade in and buy a cheap bundle. Any like for like will be old and no tellings what other problems may arise later down the line.
 
The cheap option I suggested was to test components, while I buy them, they just for budget builds or for movie watching amongst overclocked tests and general fun, but if you want a long term thing and more recent then get a 1150/FX bundle or whatever, much better spending of money.
 
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