This has to be the worst case scenario.

mks2005 · 24 Dec 2007 at 23:43

I decided to sell my old system to a friend, at a heavily discounted price.

After much semi-joking around about me selling them a duff system, and me convincing them it's fine, guess what happenes...

It's now failing to boot.

I can't believe it! :mad:

The system was working fine before I gave it to them. It was working fine when they first connected things up and got things going.

However, the first sign of a problem was a random crash. Complete freeze, sound stops, image remains on screen. A few others continued to Occur during random moments, whilst doing stuff in Windows, and also during games. Seemingly nothing correlating the crashes.

I figured it might be an issue with the mouse and keyboard of my friend, since it was the only difference to the set up since I'd tested it. I got him to install some correct drivers etc. He'd been fiddling around uninstalling and auto-reinstalling the mouse via windows. Now, this time, after installing some drivers, he goes to shut the PC down, and it powered off abruptly.

Now, it wont boot.

CPU fan starts, northbridge fan goes, GPU fan goes, mobo starts, no image on screen, no beeps.

I've tried to help them as much as I can over the phone, getting them to reset CMOS jumper, hold powerswitch in, removing RAM sticks etc. Checking connections. Nothing has worked.

So what could be this? My thoughts are with the PSU, it almost sounds like it's started to cop out (cause crashes) and now it's finally died, or something. But the thought that I'd managed to hand it over just at the time of it dying seems too unlucky to believe, almost.

I'm trying to think what else they can try (they don't have anything else to test with). What could be causing this?

I feel really guilty (on Xmas bloody eve as well).

Thoughts? :/

(Spec is Foxconn NF4SK8AA Skt 939, A64 3000+, AC Freezer, Akasa 400W PSU, Powercolour X800, 1.5Gb GeiL Ram)

mrk · 25 Dec 2007 at 00:13

no image on screen could indicate a GPU failure - the mobo would not really beep here either since the GFX card activates before POST.

winstainforth · 25 Dec 2007 at 00:16

Have you tried system restore? Saved me when I downloaded some bad drivers.

DIABLO · 25 Dec 2007 at 00:24

system restore won't really help if the system won't boot.

Skeeter · 25 Dec 2007 at 00:28

I had almost the exact same happen to me!

Sold my old machine in fully working order to a housemate, then as soon as she used it, it died! The only difference was that she was using a cheap wireless usb keyboard/mouse combo. that was the only difference. it kept shutting down, restarting, booting with no image, etc. Eventually gave her back the money and took it back, reformatted it with my wired kb and mouse, and its been fine since.

reformat with what you know previously worked, that mite help eliminate things.

mks2005 · 25 Dec 2007 at 00:50

Skeeter said:
I had almost the exact same happen to me!

Sold my old machine in fully working order to a housemate, then as soon as she used it, it died! The only difference was that she was using a cheap wireless usb keyboard/mouse combo. that was the only difference. it kept shutting down, restarting, booting with no image, etc. Eventually gave her back the money and took it back, reformatted it with my wired kb and mouse, and its been fine since.

reformat with what you know previously worked, that mite help eliminate things.

Interesting, how did you reformat if it wasn't putting out any screen image? :confused:

This wont boot at all no matter how many times we try.

I was thinking it may be GPU as well. But I wouldn't really have expected several random crashes leading up to this, especially since they did not occur when the GPU was under stress.

Schnippzle · 25 Dec 2007 at 16:15

No receipt, no warranty. No warranty, no tech support. As long as you demo'd the machine to them its all good because then they acknowledged that it was a working machine when they got it.

mks2005 · 25 Dec 2007 at 17:55

Schnippzle said:
No receipt, no warranty. No warranty, no tech support. As long as you demo'd the machine to them its all good because then they acknowledged that it was a working machine when they got it.

Haha well considering it's my best mate's brother I'm probably not going to be quite so blunt...

pany · 25 Dec 2007 at 17:57

Schnippzle said:
No receipt, no warranty. No warranty, no tech support. As long as you demo'd the machine to them its all good because then they acknowledged that it was a working machine when they got it.

OP says sold to a friend. This might be the letter of the law, but hardly a great way to keep friends.

Schnippzle · 25 Dec 2007 at 19:09

I agree to a point. But still, if it was working when they got it off you then something must have gone wrong when they took it off your hands. Id offer to help them but I certainly wouldnt offer them any sort of replacement or money back.

mks2005 · 26 Dec 2007 at 22:26

Schnippzle said:
I agree to a point. But still, if it was working when they got it off you then something must have gone wrong when they took it off your hands. Id offer to help them but I certainly wouldnt offer them any sort of replacement or money back.

Erm, yeah. Thanks for the advice but I would never treat my friend like that. :confused:

PJHUK · 27 Dec 2007 at 08:26

I had a similar problem a little while back. PC would turn on, fans would all power on but could'nt get any image on the screen and and no warning beeps either. I was convinced it was gfx card, so I RMA'd it (was only 1 week or so old as well) and it came back tested as fine. Finally, swapped out my ram for a old spare dimm I had knocking around and the PC sprang into life.

If you have any spare ram, I would definately check this out (would explain the random crashes also).

Hope you manage to resolve this without to much of a headache!

J.D · 27 Dec 2007 at 11:43

Schnippzle said:
I agree to a point. But still, if it was working when they got it off you then something must have gone wrong when they took it off your hands. Id offer to help them but I certainly wouldnt offer them any sort of replacement or money back.

Damn!!!!

. Where did you make all your friends?. The bay of E?. :confused:

.

Seriously though. Please leave the penny pinching rip off tactics to yourself as I don't think most of us would rip an honest member of the public off never mind a good friends family member :rolleyes:

.

I certainly won't be buying anything off you in the MM

.