computer dies
arrgh omg help me quick
today, my computer crashed quite suddenly after loading up a binary of "google earth". generally I compile all my software but this I didn't since it's closed source.
So all of a sudden, the music stops, I wait for a while, notice the zseconds aren't ticking by on the clock anymore, and decide to cycle the power. Now the BIOS doesn't even get to the stage where it shows me the hard drives! What's going on! Doesn't boot, , doesn't beep, doesn't let me go into the BIOS setup, nothing.
Just a blank screen with a logo and the line "press 'del' to go into the setup" or something.
Is there a button to press? A component to replace?
today, my computer crashed quite suddenly after loading up a binary of "google earth". generally I compile all my software but this I didn't since it's closed source.
So all of a sudden, the music stops, I wait for a while, notice the zseconds aren't ticking by on the clock anymore, and decide to cycle the power. Now the BIOS doesn't even get to the stage where it shows me the hard drives! What's going on! Doesn't boot, , doesn't beep, doesn't let me go into the BIOS setup, nothing.
Just a blank screen with a logo and the line "press 'del' to go into the setup" or something.
Is there a button to press? A component to replace?
Post edited by wilsonsamm on
Comments
Had similar problems, but was not consistant, sometimes it would work sometimes it would not.
Changed the PSU and everything was fine.
Probably the crash wiped the CMOS batery backed memory of the BIOS. If you know what the BIOS settings are likely to be, press the delete key to get into it on power up.
If not then take it to a computer shop or knowlegable friend and they would be able to fix it for you.
It may be worth replacig the CMOS batery. I had to replace mine the other week as the settings were lost every time I powered it down. Most modern motherboards use a CR2030 battery cell available from Boots for a couple of quid.
1) The CPU. Occasionally motherboards will just do nothing while a dead or missing CPU is the cause. Newer ones may give beeps, which would then lead to...
2) dead motherboard/corrupted BIOS. if this is the case, you can pretty much kiss your mobo goodbye. If you're lucky and you have the ability, you could replace the BIOS chip. If the motherboard is itself fucked, then you hanve no option but to buy a new one.
Also try known working memory stick and a different known video card if possible.
Dont connect drives until last
If you have access to a manual for your motherboard look to see if there are jumper settings for a safe mode. This brings all the settings down to a speed where things should cross compatible, but a lower speed. Once you have done this you may then be able to access the BIOS properly.
My mobo does this when the BIOS gets wiped/corrupted (as it did when the battery died), because the default mobo settings are ill mached to my prossessor and memory all I get when the BIOS is out of wack is a power light, the hardrive light stays on.... but no beeps, on screen visuals, or even a bios boot screen just a hung PC.
Putting the mobo into safe mode lets me get into the BIOS to get the settings right and reboot it at its normal higher speed.
However, different mobo's act in differing ways, it may be worth looking for that safe mode.
I've done just as polomint says and removed everything and put it back bit by bit, to find the culprit. Turns out everything works now and that nothing was wrong. Well, if so, I will think about getting a brand new PSU since my computer has a fair bit of hardware inside it:
three hard drives and a dvd rom, three fans, an ancient graphics card, and I can't quite remember what wattage my old PSU has since it came with the chassis, but the chassis was cheap, and the PSU tiny small. And, the system had been running for just over a week without being turned off.
Oh, and if I eventually get 'round to upgrading to a dual-core CPU rather than the single-core one I have just now, in addition to getting a second graphics card and ethernet port, do these actually drain so much power that I need to consider this when getting a new PSU?
I see now AMD are doing tripple cores, that sounds like a good idea.
Glad to see you got it working. I've seen quite a lot of systems where the heat inside the case causes the connections on harddrives/dvdroms to just dislodge themselves slightly. Also seen it with memory/cpus and cards. Sometimes just reseating things tends to get things working again.
Last month I built my new gaming/video editing PC. The following specs are:
Intel Core 2 Duo 3Ghz
4Gb RAM
320Gb SATA Hard Drive
Geforce 9800GTX E-PCI
New motherboard
I had to get a 600W PSU simply because it was pretty much the minimum to power the graphics card as well as the rest reliably.
A big power supply allows you to push a machine without risking power drops and cut outs.
My new PC simply flies along, in both games and video encoding, and I just have a dual core (one of the new 45mn cores). Remember that most apps don't actually improve in speed with multiple cores, unless they've been written specifically for them - and most aren't.
True, however if the OS can place applications on different cores more the better.
For example burn a DVD on one core, edit a video on another, whilst surfing the web with no noticesble degredation in performance.
Until you get the old dreaded buffer under run as both tasks use the same data bus and spin the same drive.