Author Topic: crazyest PC prob ever (Read 659 times)

boxboy28 · « **on:** September 06, 2004, 01:30:19 PM »

My friend asked my too look at his PC (3-4 yr old GATEWAY) .....I know its a dang gateway but i did. He was having ramdom lock ups , reboots , and then when poweringit up after having been turned of for the night he would have to keep trying like 8 time just to get it to boot all the way into windows.((WIN - ME-millenium))

Ok so ive built a few PCs and have a little knowledge on whats going on.

1st thing is check the power supply ( i had a spare 350 W thats good) to swap and see if it changed anything --- nothing

2nd . check ram see whats going on, he has 3 sticks
1 256 all PC133
2 128's

pull all but one try to boot - nothing , swap it was the other 2 and same thing

put them into 2nd RAM slot and it beeots but Win ME still fubared.

try the dam GATEWAY restortion software nothing

at this point i totally delete all file on the disk run scan disk and reformat.

Try freash install it will go through the whole process up till where its checking the components and BOOM reboot (every time ( (still swappuing out ram the see if thats the case))

at this point i say F- WIN ME and ill load XP pro should be easy right?

Nope same thing goes into the set up boom reboot.

now all this tile i have every thing out of the PC but 1 stick of RAM a CD rom drive , A HD , Floppy and video card

there is no bios update for it so thats not an option.

im at a loss can anyone esle think what i havent tried?

Roscoroo · « **Reply #1 on:** September 06, 2004, 01:40:32 PM »

could be bad ram .. or a hard drive failing and not getting written to correctly . Ive seen bolth cases of that . or the cpu over heating as you try to make it work harder .

it could also have a damaged mainboard (lighning stuck or something like that)

Reschke · « **Reply #2 on:** September 06, 2004, 03:04:52 PM »

Its most likely a dying hard drive. The ones that I have come across from Gateway with this problem were all hard drive related. I also had this same problem on two Compaq system we have at work.

zmeg · « **Reply #3 on:** September 06, 2004, 06:08:17 PM »

If it passed a full scandisk it's prolly not the hardrive, all those symptons are classic mobo failure.

boxboy28 · « **Reply #4 on:** September 07, 2004, 09:52:12 AM »

well since he has 3 different sticks of ram and i tryed all 3 separately im ruling the ram out

To me its got to be the HD or the MOBO
it could be the mobo as he was using a dial service with a Modem and i have seen phone line get hit by lighting the surge goes into the PC and frys the board (usually the modem too) but he could get online when it did boot all the way but the PC would usually lock up!

just becasue scan disk runs a clear pass doesnt mean theres not something wrong with the HD!!!!

flakbait · « **Reply #5 on:** September 08, 2004, 08:52:41 AM »

It's the HDD. I had a 4gig drive that started to crap out on me after eight years of service. It just wouldn't go. When it hung up, the whole system locked up. Sometimes even a cold boot wouldn't fix it; you'd have to wait a while before it'd fire again. So it got replaced with an 80gig by WD which runs just fine. Haven't had a lock-up since that was hardware related. And yes, even though that ancient drive was hanging and locking every other second, it would pass a scandisk with flying colors. Running defrag would make it choke and require a hot-boot to get it back. At its worst, I could use the system for about ten minutes before the thing would start stuttering on me.

-----------------------
Flakbait [Delta6]

boxboy28 · « **Reply #6 on:** September 08, 2004, 08:58:40 AM »

LOL well i didnt post last night but its not the HD ---- i went and bought one to test it out! ----- same stuff ....its got to be the mobo! TY guys for all your help@!

Roscoroo · « **Reply #7 on:** September 08, 2004, 11:12:00 AM »

try holding the delete key down during start up and enter the bios screen .

if it goes there , check all the parameters/settings .

JB73 · « **Reply #8 on:** September 08, 2004, 12:07:13 PM »

MB problem guarentee..

quite possibly the battery is dying (though a bit premature)

the battery that keeps the BIOS ROM powered, and some other functions to the MB.

i've seen exactly that before from a battery

does the clock keep correct time in the BIOS / WIN?

if not that is the biggest clue battery dead

Flyboy · « **Reply #9 on:** September 08, 2004, 03:37:15 PM »

i had the same wierd lockup problem... ended up to be bad stting of the ram in the BIOS. switched it to auto detect and it solved the problem.

eagl · « **Reply #10 on:** September 08, 2004, 10:02:22 PM »

It could be the drive cables as well. I tracked a similiar problem down years ago to a bad cable.

You might also try removing the cpu and reseating it, and reapplying the heatsink with a fresh coat of thermal grease.

JB66 · « **Reply #11 on:** September 09, 2004, 08:58:30 AM »

I've seen where a cpu wasen't getting enough voltage, and cause write errors to the hard drive corupting the data.
Just a thought.

boxboy28 · « **Reply #12 on:** September 09, 2004, 12:08:05 PM »

Yep i been inthe bios its keeps time and settings ..... one of the first things i checked (for this piece of watermelon if not Delete its F1)

i been thru every thing else its got to be the mobo !!!!!!

Like i said guys Thanks for all your help!

Roscoroo · « **Reply #13 on:** September 09, 2004, 12:28:16 PM »

throw a start up floppy in it and try starting it with cdrom support and the old hd on a different cable .

most main boards quit booting when they go bad

boxboy28 · « **Reply #14 on:** September 09, 2004, 03:38:32 PM »

Roscoo ihave tryed it even in DOS as soon as it loaded the SEAGATE diagnostic prog it restared!
i even make a WIN ME boot disk but that wouldnt do any thing more for me then what else has happend. (FDISK, SCAN DISK, delete all info repartitioned) same chit!