NEED HELP

[xxIENAxx]

Hi Guys,
i have a problem with my wife's pc.
The moment i plug the power into it, the fan goes on for sometime (fm 20 sec to 1 min), then it stops and the pc close down. After sometime it starts again, same as before, fan goes on then it stops and pc close down. And it goes on and on till i plug the pc off.
It worked till yesterday evening, she worked on it, closed it without any problems. This morning when we woke up, we found the problem.
It's an old pc, maybe 6 or 7 years old, she uses it only to surf on the net,write documents or working her pictures. One month ago she had a virus on it, got it repaired, added some RAM( fm 512 to 1 GB, after suggestion from the tecnician), the guy said the pc was good enough for what she uses it.I would like to save her pictures/documents if possible. We don't know much about pc so any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

xxIENAxx

[SlapShot]

Hi Guys,
i have a problem with my wife's pc.
The moment i plug the power into it, the fan goes on for sometime (fm 20 sec to 1 min), then it stops and the pc close down. After sometime it starts again, same as before, fan goes on then it stops and pc close down. And it goes on and on till i plug the pc off.
It worked till yesterday evening, she worked on it, closed it without any problems. This morning when we woke up, we found the problem.
It's an old pc, maybe 6 or 7 years old, she uses it only to surf on the net,write documents or working her pictures. One month ago she had a virus on it, got it repaired, added some RAM( fm 512 to 1 GB, after suggestion from the tecnician), the guy said the pc was good enough for what she uses it.I would like to save her pictures/documents if possible. We don't know much about pc so any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

xxIENAxx

It sounds like you have an overheating problem. I had a similar problem on my ThinkPad and what I ended up doing was taking the keyboard off to get access to the fan area and blow it out with canned air to get out all the dust that may have accumulated (in the last 7 years) in the heat sink and fan intake areas. After that, the computer has been running very cool and I have had no problems.

[trigger2]

Seems like a motherboard issue. If it's what I think it is, it's not a "cheap fix", but what you can do to save the pictures is this...:

1) Take out the harddrive which will look something like this:

2) Find out if it's IDE or SATA, here is a photo of the difference:

^^^^^IDE

^^^^ SATA
3) Find another computer, one with an option for a second harddrive, this is easier to do if it's a SATA harddrive, but I'm assuming that yours is going to be IDE.

4) When the power is OFF on the second computer, hook it up, should be fairly self-explanatory, but if you need help, lemme know.

5) Use it like a flashdrive, go to Computer, and under Hard Disk Drives, you'll see C:\ and maybe a Factory Image D:\, open up the one that isn't normally there. From here, you will be able to access all the files on the old computer, you'll be able to salvage pictures, documents, and if you want them, cookies. You will NOT, however, be able to run programs from it.

[xxIENAxx]

Thank you guys, i'll try all that. 



xxIENAxx

[xxIENAxx]

Seems like a motherboard issue. If it's what I think it is, it's not a "cheap fix", but what you can do to save the pictures is this...:

1) Take out the harddrive which will look something like this:
(Image removed from quote.)
2) Find out if it's IDE or SATA, here is a photo of the difference:
(Image removed from quote.)
^^^^^IDE
(Image removed from quote.)
^^^^ SATA
3) Find another computer, one with an option for a second harddrive, this is easier to do if it's a SATA harddrive, but I'm assuming that yours is going to be IDE.

4) When the power is OFF on the second computer, hook it up, should be fairly self-explanatory, but if you need help, lemme know.

5) Use it like a flashdrive, go to Computer, and under Hard Disk Drives, you'll see C:\ and maybe a Factory Image D:\, open up the one that isn't normally there. From here, you will be able to access all the files on the old computer, you'll be able to salvage pictures, documents, and if you want them, cookies. You will NOT, however, be able to run programs from it.

Thank you SlapShot and Trigger2.
Well i tried a lot of stuff, moved RAM, checked all the connections i could but nothing work.
Yes i have another pc, one my daughter doesn't use anymore. That pc has 2 hard disk, 1 marked as C where i saw Windows is installed, and then another marked as F. Do you think i can swap the hard disk F with that from my wife pc?

Thanks again


xxIENAxx

[gpwurzel]

Assuming the jumper cables are set for the drive from your wifes puter to be a slave, should be no problem at all fella

Wurzel

[trigger2]

Assuming the jumper cables are set for the drive from your wifes puter to be a slave, should be no problem at all fella

Wurzel

Yup. F:\ is probably your factory image, or an after-market put in for added memory.

[xxIENAxx]

Hi guys, first of all i want to thank all of you for the replys and suggestions.

I moved my wife's hard disk into my daughter's pc, (after i found out what MASTER/SLAVE ment and how to do it), and now she can see all her pictures/documents.So this problem is solved. Thank you again guys.


xxIENAxx

[trigger2]

No prob, sorry you had to go through all that trouble, had to do it a few times myself (that's what I get for using factory motherboards I guess. ). Anywho, if you need anything else, don't be afraid to PM.

[Stalwart]

Had a similar problem that turned out to be a faulty heat sink fan.