My computer, oh my lovely gaming machine, has failed! It won't work at all - All help appreciated

[SnipErlite]

Picture the scene: I turn on my computer today hoping for another good evening of gaming, and around a minute after I do so, just as I'm logging on, it just shuts off randomly. Check the power light and it's flashing amber, instead of a nice solid green. Uh oh.

This happens every time I switch it on (along with a message saying files on my C: drive have to be checked, checking right now blah blah blah....this happens now and then and ordinarily it checks all the files and we go on as normal so I'm not worried about that).

Have a quick google and various answers pop up. Also the Dell website (it's a Dell Dimension 8400) suggests having a look at the diagnostic lights on the back. These 4 lights apparently can help you work out what the fault is depending on what combination of green and yellow they display. However while booting up they flicker between green and yellow really fast. Then decide on steady green on all 4 (which indicates there's no fault) about 20 seconds before the whole thing fails.

Now my main question is, does anyone have any idea what's wrong with my beloved PC? Has anyone else had this problem and found a fix?

Has..........has my favorite gaming system finally broken?

=(

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

It could be worse...your PC could get the RROD. Actually, a PC breaking is worse, isn't it?

I hope it's okay!

 

[JEBWrench]

You running Vista? Because there's a glitch when upgrading to SP1 that can cause the machine to restart repeatedly.

Alternatively, have you cleaned it out? You may be experiencing overheating, which will cause random shutdowns.

 

[Vampire cat]

Sometimes when the power supply isn't powerful enough to the internal parts it will do that. Whats what happened to a friend of mine anyway.

 

[SnipErlite]

I hope it's okay!

I.....I hope so too =(

You running Vista? Because there's a glitch when upgrading to SP1 that can cause the machine to restart repeatedly.

Alternatively, have you cleaned it out? You may be experiencing overheating, which will cause random shutdowns.

Nope, XP - And it's all reasonably cool round the back.

Sometimes when the power supply isn't powerful enough to the internal parts it will do that. Whats what happened to a friend of mine anyway.

Perhaps, although it's run fine with all the current components for the last few months

 

[JEBWrench]

Crack open the case, and investigate for dust invasion. See if the fans turn freely. If not, get yourself a can of girlfriend in a can compressed air and blow all of it out.

 

[SnipErlite]

Crack open the case, and investigate for dust invasion. See if the fans turn freely. If not, get yourself a can of girlfriend in a can compressed air and blow all of it out.

The last few times I've opened it up (I installed some new RAM a few months back) it was reasonably dusty but not ridiculously so.

But I'll have a look inside a bit later, thanks.

 

[JEBWrench]

The last few times I've opened it up (I installed some new RAM a few months back) it was reasonably dusty but not ridiculously so.

But I'll have a look inside a bit later, thanks.

Hey, give it a go, I know it's saved more than a few of my rigs throughout history. And it usually went just about like that - working great, didn't seem very dirty, then BAM. Dustbunnies breeding in the cooling system.

 

[Croaker42]

Its dead...... scrap it for parts and rebuild.
Sound like its working any harder trying to boot up than it used to?
That issue could be a number of different things. Power supply is going out. MoBo is taking a crap.
If you have any extra compatable components sitting around you could always trouble shoot by changing out a few things.

 

[SnipErlite]

The last few times I've opened it up (I installed some new RAM a few months back) it was reasonably dusty but not ridiculously so.

But I'll have a look inside a bit later, thanks.

Hey, give it a go, I know it's saved more than a few of my rigs throughout history. And it usually went just about like that - working great, didn't seem very dirty, then BAM. Dustbunnies breeding in the cooling system.

I hope it's something as simple as that, thank you =]

Well I wouldn't mind a new computer, but I do have a soft spot for my good old 8400. I've had it what? 4 years or so? And it can run any new game (admittedly on the lowest settings).

 

[SnipErlite]

Its dead...... scrap it for parts and rebuild.
Sound like its working any harder trying to boot up than it used to?
That issue could be a number of different things. Power supply is going out. MoBo is taking a crap.
If you have any extra compatable components sitting around you could always trouble shoot by changing out a few things.

Hopefully I won't have to salvage what I can, and no it's booting just as normal (aside from the whole failing part). I'll probably pick up a cheap MoBo and stuff to change out, yeah. Thanks.

 

[shotgunbob]

If it says to check the drive you may need a new Hard Drive,

Im not an expert but thats what it might be if it checks your C drive

 

[SnipErlite]

If it says to check the drive you may need a new Hard Drive,

Im not an expert but thats what it might be if it checks your C drive

Nahh I doubt it, that message and subsequent scan appears about twice a year. It takes about a minute to scan and then we go on out merry way without any problems. In fact I don't even know what it scans for.

 

[Cornish]

Try cleaning out the dust, see or that changes anything.

Try unplugging the floppy and disc drive, potentially take out a PCI, PCIe or AGP card to save power; this way you can check or it's your power supply. As the default power supplies aren't of great quality.

Also un-plug and re-plug everything; doubt it'll help, but it's wise to do regardless.

If it isn't the above you can try changing the hard-drive; if that isn't it then it's most likely that it's your mother-board, the processor or in the rare case the power-supply.

 

[SnipErlite]

Try cleaning out the dust, see or that changes anything.

Try unplugging the floppy and disc drive, potentially take out a PCI, PCIe or AGP card to save power; this way you can check or it's your power supply. As the default power supplies aren't of great quality.

Also un-plug and re-plug everything; doubt it'll help, but it's wise to do regardless.

If it isn't the above you can try changing the hard-drive; if that isn't it then it's most likely that it's your mother-board, the processor or in the rare case the power-supply.

Just had a quick look inside and it's pretty clean, I remember now doing a reasonable dust-purge a few months ago.

I'm thinking it's probably the processor or motherboard. Although why it seems to fail at about 65 seconds in is anyone's guess.

Perhaps the PSU, I have updated my hardware twice without a thought to the power supply. Although again it's been working fine these last few months.

I'll explore what I can this weekend. Thank you.

 

[Cornish]

Try cleaning out the dust, see or that changes anything.

Try unplugging the floppy and disc drive, potentially take out a PCI, PCIe or AGP card to save power; this way you can check or it's your power supply. As the default power supplies aren't of great quality.

Also un-plug and re-plug everything; doubt it'll help, but it's wise to do regardless.

If it isn't the above you can try changing the hard-drive; if that isn't it then it's most likely that it's your mother-board, the processor or in the rare case the power-supply.

Just had a quick look inside and it's pretty clean, I remember now doing a reasonable dust-purge a few months ago.

I'm thinking it's probably the processor or motherboard. Although why it seems to fail at about 65 seconds in is anyone's guess.

Perhaps the PSU, I have updated my hardware twice without a thought to the power supply. Although again it's been working fine these last few months.

I'll explore what I can this weekend. Thank you.

Well if your CPU is over-heating it will shut of a small bit after you start the computer. So your cooling might lack for your CPU. Though it could still be a shortage of power. Good luck!

 

[Sebenko]

tried the heatsink? if that gets loose and the PC overheats, it'll restart to avoid damage.

 

[SnipErlite]

Try cleaning out the dust, see or that changes anything.

Try unplugging the floppy and disc drive, potentially take out a PCI, PCIe or AGP card to save power; this way you can check or it's your power supply. As the default power supplies aren't of great quality.

Also un-plug and re-plug everything; doubt it'll help, but it's wise to do regardless.

If it isn't the above you can try changing the hard-drive; if that isn't it then it's most likely that it's your mother-board, the processor or in the rare case the power-supply.

Just had a quick look inside and it's pretty clean, I remember now doing a reasonable dust-purge a few months ago.

I'm thinking it's probably the processor or motherboard. Although why it seems to fail at about 65 seconds in is anyone's guess.

Perhaps the PSU, I have updated my hardware twice without a thought to the power supply. Although again it's been working fine these last few months.

I'll explore what I can this weekend. Thank you.

Well if your CPU is over-heating it will shut of a small bit after you start the computer. So your cooling might lack for your CPU. Though it could still be a shortage of power. Good luck!

All I know about overheating is the entire PC is a reasonable temperature. Whether some small, vital component inside is getting too hot I don't know. Thanks. Hopefully I can get this sorted n the next few days

 

[LazerFX]

Don't forget that as capacitors age, they are capable of handling less power. From the quote at The PSU Engine [http://www.extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine#footnote5] (Footnote 5), the general estimation seems to be something like "When used heavily or over an extended period of time (1+ years) a power supply will slowly lose some of its initial wattage capacity. We recommend you add 10-20% if you plan to keep your PSU for more than 1 year, or 20-30% for 24/7 usage and 1+ years."

So, a 500W PSU that's been used a lot for 2 years, may now be down to just 400W, and if you've upgraded the system you'll generally have higher-load components that originally were installed. Plus, Dells are notorious for having marginal capacity power supplies that are cheaply built - if you feel the weight of them, they're like cardboard. A good power supply will be built like a brick - and weigh like one too.

I'd recommend firing up SpeedFan [http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php], and looking at what the +12V and (If shown) +5V rails are showing. If they're showing major deviations (+/- .5V or more) from the stated voltage, it's likely your PSU is under/over regulating.

This comes from experience with two power-supplies going pop on me in the past - I've now decided that I'll always buy solid power-supplies, even if they do cost over £100.

 

[SnipErlite]

Don't forget that as capacitors age, they are capable of handling less power. From the quote at The PSU Engine [http://www.extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine#footnote5] (Footnote 5), the general estimation seems to be something like "When used heavily or over an extended period of time (1+ years) a power supply will slowly lose some of its initial wattage capacity. We recommend you add 10-20% if you plan to keep your PSU for more than 1 year, or 20-30% for 24/7 usage and 1+ years."

So, a 500W PSU that's been used a lot for 2 years, may now be down to just 400W, and if you've upgraded the system you'll generally have higher-load components that originally were installed. Plus, Dells are notorious for having marginal capacity power supplies that are cheaply built - if you feel the weight of them, they're like cardboard. A good power supply will be built like a brick - and weigh like one too.

I'd recommend firing up SpeedFan [http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php], and looking at what the +12V and (If shown) +5V rails are showing. If they're showing major deviations (+/- .5V or more) from the stated voltage, it's likely your PSU is under/over regulating.

This comes from experience with two power-supplies going pop on me in the past - I've now decided that I'll always buy solid power-supplies, even if they do cost over £100.

Ahh that's great thank you, I wouldn't be surprised if that's the problem considering I've had this PC for about 4 years now. Plus I know the PSU was a bit crap to begin with.

Pity Speedfan fails on my computer anyway.....not that I can even log on to run it.