My pc is very sick if not dead. While trying to set up a home network my main pc went haywire. First the display on my monitor went crazy then the pc froze . Now it wont boot up , anyone any idea or do i just bin it ? Please help.
Could you tell us exactly what you were doing when the PC first started having these problems? Also, exactly what happens when you try and boot the PC? Please include as much detail as possible about the situation, your course of action, and the hardware in question. That'll help us to troubleshoot and hopefully give you the help you desire. All the best, -AT
Hi Thanks for the interest. When my problems started i was setting up a home network using an ethernet crossed cable, both pc's were working ok and was running the network wizard on xp professional , which i had done a couple of times as i am not very computer literate and was not getting very far although both pc's showed that they were connected. Then when going to my main pc, can't remember what i was doing, although nothing out of the ordinary, the display on my monitor seemed to go haywire ( all jumbled up and the definition went) and the the pc seemed freeze. At that point i had to pull the plug. Now when i try to boot up very little happens, green light inside ok, maybe a fan but none of the usual sounds, nothing on monitor etc. My system info as far as i can remember is : pentium4 1.8 gig , 256memory ,30 gig hard drive, running xp pro. Hope this helps. If you want to chat i can supply msn addy. Thanks
Very little to go on here, unfortunately. My first guess would be to check the monitor itself, maybe there is a loose/broken connection/cable on it. Try putting another monitor onto the same computer and see if you have any luck there. If not carefully observe what your computer does when it tries to boot, what do you hear, what do you see. For example, do you hear any noises from the hard-drive, does the light on the network card come on (assuming it has one). Another thing you can try, if you know how of course, is to turn the machine on, attach the network cables and then, from the good machine, "ping" the broken one. This would mean going to the command line and typing "ping 192.168.0.1" or "ping server" where "server" is the name of the broken machine. If it works it means your computer is generally fine, you just have a problem with the monitor/graphics card. If not, don't worry, it may just mean that your network is improperly configured. Other than that I can only rely on your observations to point you in the right direction! If it were my machine I would dismantle it completely and test each part separately until I had nailed down the errant part but if you are not very familiar with the insides of your machine then this is not advised right now (unless your only other option is to bin it which my religion considers to be one of the highest crimes there is ).
So you're saying that the computer won't even POST (in other words, it doesn't even display the BIOS message)? It sounds like it's possible that there was an electrical short involving the crossover cable. Did the cable suffer any sharp bends, crimps, or other trauma? Also, was it made by a qualified technician? Some voltage does travel over a network cable, so if that voltage was inadvertantly sent along the wrong conductors, it could cause serious damage. Does the PC in question have an embedded network card, ot a PCI one? If it's PCI, try removing it and seeing if it'll boot after that. If that doesn't work, try resetting the CMOS and let us know how that goes... -AT
Hi again AT Have removed the network card, no difference. All i have is a fan working and two green led lights. You could be right about the cable was'nt very good on one end. Sounds like the bin for this one eh ? John rid
Not so fast! I admit that things do sound rather bleak but don't give up just yet. For starters, I don't think you've nailed down exactly which part is dead. An absolute bare-minimum system would consist of a motherboard, CPU, CPU fan, RAM, PSU, graphics card, monitor, two power cables and monitor cable and if any one of these was giving trouble then your computer would not start up. Your first step is to remove everything that is not in the above list (unless I've overlooked something which I don't think I did). That includes mouse and keyboard as well as a PCI or AGP graphics card if you have an on-board card. Then do the following physical inspection (with the computer turned off and unplugged obviously): Locate the CMOS battery, it'll probably be a small, round lithium battery that can be easily unhooked from the motherboard. Take it out and leave it out for a few minutes to reset the CMOS. Take out the CPU and inspect it closely. Sometimes if a CPU gets fried it will have a slightly dark-brown patch and smell slightly burnt. Look at it and sniff it to see if you get any clues here. Visually check over the motherboard for anything that looks odd. This can be things like foriegn objects, large pieces of dust/fluff shorting it, parts that are physically damaged, etc. I had one motherboard once that also seemed completely dead until, looking over it carefully, I discovered that one of the pins from one of the on-board chips had been bent and was touching the one next to it resulting in a short. I bent that pin back into place with a screwdriver and put it back together. The result? That was about five years ago and I'm still using the same computer today, most people would have trashed it then. Take out and re-seat the RAM. Make sure it is pushed in fully and is making good contact with the socket. Make sure that there is no dust or fluff anywhere inside the groove. Check the CPU fan, does it turn freely, is it full of dust, is it clogged at all? Give it a good cleaning by removing/blowing out any dust inside it. Check also if there is an excess of heat-transfer compound on the base. This compound is electrically conductive and if applied liberally can be responsible for a short circuit (seen it happen!). Unless you're sure that the monitor works (which is easily checked by plugging it into another computer) then turn up all of the brightness/contrast/etc. settings and run your fingers along the data cable checking for any suspicious bumps, ridges, sharp edges, etc. If there is any physical damage to the cable itself it's often possible to tell by looking at or feeling along the cable itself. If that does not turn up anything obvious then put it back together and turn everything on again. Sometimes (quite often, in fact) I've taken apart a dead PC, inspected it closely for errors, found nothing wrong, and then put it all back together again only to find that it now miraculously works. There are several theories for this phemomenon but my favourite is that computers do some strange things sometimes, that works for me. Most likely, however, you will find no change will still have a dead machine. However all it not lost yet. Remember, you still haven't identified which part is at fault so you still need to work that out which is more difficult, takes more time and depends on whether or not you have a simillarly-specced PC that you are willing to take apart so I won't get into that just yet. Just do the above and let me know how it goes and we'll take it from that point. Good luck.
OVERDUE UPDATE: Shortly after the previous post was made, the originator of the thread, johnrid, sent me a private e-mail saying he had nailed the problem down to a bust graphics card after following my advice, thus saving him the expense of a new motherboard and sparing the life of the motherboard itself
