Diagnosing a client's PC...

Topic: Diagnosing a client's PC... (Read 4183 times) previous topic - next topic

Diagnosing a client's PC...

February 06, 2006, 11:20:39 PM

A lady called me last week out of the blue, she said she'd gotten my name from a previous client for whom I'd repaired a PC.

So I get it home and start playing with it today. Supposedly she suspects a bad Mobo or HDD (what the Circuit City jerks told her.) The Computer is an AMD Duron 700 MHz, 20 gig quantum fireball hdd, etc. Anyway, I plug it in and it fires up just fine. To sort of test the HDD, I decide to do a trial install of Office, goes on fine, everything works. Citing that the program loads rather slowly, I threw in a couple extra used 128 sticks I had, ram is upgraded from 64 to 320. Starts even faster, multitasks well, etc. So, figuring that maybe the recent install of windows ME was corrupt (it's a junk OS anyway) I start a clean install of Win2k.

For some reason or another, the Compaq restore CD the lady had used partitions the HDD into two separate drives. No biggie, I delete the partitions and start it formatting the whole drive in NTFS. After about 10 minutes it gets only to 2% and stops. I restarted it... got the Compaq splash screen and that's it. And the next ten restarts yield nothing at all. Just the drives spinning up, no beep codes, nothing.

As of right now I'm torn between whether it's the Mobo or the Hard Drive. A couple times, attempting to get it to boot, a clank from the arm/actuator can be heard, as if the hard drive was sort of giving up. However, booting it with no drives connected at all, I still didn't even get a POST, or any video output, no CMOS screen, nothing.

Anyone have any ideas? I have an extra hard drive sitting around I can test in it, but I hope the mobo won't cause it to do the clanking thing as I sort of need this spare drive.

So, where do I start? No POST, no beeps, nothing. It's almost as if it stops working once it heats up. The CPU stays cool and the fan works.

Diagnosing a client's PC...

Reply #1 – February 07, 2006, 12:29:45 AM

I would say since you don't even see any BIOS stuff that it is most likely not the HD but the mobo. Even if the HD is shot you should be able to get into the BIOS. You should be able to use a boot disk as well if the HD is shot. Another possibility is the CPU. They can do strange things when they fail. It almost seems like that could be what it is since you were running windows, albeit slowy, before the boot problems.

Diagnosing a client's PC...

Reply #2 – February 07, 2006, 12:56:30 AM

Brian your mobo is not likely at fault either. Sounds like a heat issue to me. Is the CPU heatsink loaded up with dust? Also, unplug the memory you installed, all the ide cables then power it back up. Works? F10 to go into the bios on cumpaqers. Set the boot order.

But to me it sounds like a heat issue.

Diagnosing a client's PC...

Reply #3 – February 07, 2006, 12:58:32 AM

Oh and the restore cd does that because it loads up the windows cab files and there proprietary restore tools on that partition. Ever notice that a compaq (or dell, gateway for that matter) never asks for the windows disk?

Diagnosing a client's PC...

Reply #4 – February 07, 2006, 08:26:18 AM

I'd try another power supply first, if not for any other reason than the last several PC's I've looked at that didn't POST did so because of bad power supplies. If you've got an extra one kicking around it's an easy thing to try and doesn't cost anything

Diagnosing a client's PC...

Reply #5 – February 07, 2006, 08:51:15 AM

I think Claude makes a great point with the heat issue, it could easily cause they problems, and it is relatively easy to diagnose.

Diagnosing a client's PC...

Reply #6 – February 07, 2006, 10:44:31 AM

I don't know how many times I've heard "it works for like 15 minutes then it stops, after an hour or so it works again"

And brian saying he did have it up and running once.

Diagnosing a client's PC...

Reply #7 – February 07, 2006, 10:59:37 AM

If you have another hard drive lying around i'd put it in in the meantime anyway. Those Quantum Fireball hard drives have a tendency to live up to their name. I can't recall how many i've replaced over the years working for the school district. I know i've replaced nearly every one that was installed in the first round of computers we purchased for when the new middle school was built. So start there and if that doesn't help things try digging up a bios update to flash over top of the old one. Heck even if it's the same bios version it wouldn't hurt to try it anyways as something may not have written right when the bios was first programmed.

Diagnosing a client's PC...

Reply #8 – February 07, 2006, 12:24:57 PM

Quote

I'd try another power supply first...

That was my first thought as well.

However, if you heard the hard drive make a "clunk" noise, that is usually a sign that it is getting ready to give up the ghost. Could be multiple issues instead of just one.

Diagnosing a client's PC...

Reply #9 – February 07, 2006, 02:59:42 PM

I suspected the RAM right away so I pulled it back out with no changes. I, too have lately been considering the power supply to be at fault. I have a working PS, HDD and Mobo that I can try in there. I cleaned most of the dust out of the heatsink, but I'm doubting that because it doesn't even get too warm. I'll play the switch-a-roo game later tonight and see what I come up with.

Diagnosing a client's PC...

Reply #10 – February 07, 2006, 05:48:36 PM

Older compaqs and gateways are notorius for heating issues, Sounds to me like a MOBO heating issue If your not even seeing bios its not the HDD, System will check Memory then Drives. If its not getting to the drives it is definately a MoBo isssue

Diagnosing a client's PC...

Reply #11 – February 07, 2006, 06:25:02 PM

I would think that if it were a heat issue the thing would at least POST, even if it only stayed on just long enough to do so. However, if the PS is failing the MoBo might not even come to life. I've actually got another computer to add to the bad PS list now - my brother's GF (the one that bought my old Dell laptop) gave me her AMD Duron 900 because it wouldn't start. The problem was intermittant at first but degraded to the point that the machine would not start at all. With the case side off I could see that when the power button is pressed the CPU and chipset fans would momentarily spin, then everything would go dead. I tried the PS out of an old AMD K63/450 I've got lying around and it started right up. It's got 256MB of RAM, a 20GB HDD, and a newer 52Xburner. It's also got a real, honest-to-goodness copy of Windows ME - the first I've ever had :D

Now if only I could think of something to do with it. I've already got the new Gateway and the Dell desktop, so a third computer isn't much good to me...

Diagnosing a client's PC...

Reply #12 – February 07, 2006, 11:31:18 PM

Well My second thought, knowing that it will still not post when the machine is cool....... Do swap the power supply, I've not experianced this problem as many times as thunder chicken but I never rule out anything.. Try this, as funny as it sounds. Pull the Cpu and Ram out and power it up. It should Give a fualt code of some sort. I can't recall what the Cpu Beep code is but the memory one is about 5 beeps in a row then silence.

Also if you can find a bios reset jumper, reset the bios. If you can't, unplug the computer, pull the battery and push and hold the power button for a couple of seconds. That will clear the bios.

Diagnosing a client's PC...

Reply #13 – February 08, 2006, 09:49:14 AM

I´m for the CMOS, too...

A method i use to diagnose bad hardware is unpluggin every device in the mobo, leaving the only the RAM, and give a try. I had troubles with the detection for the BIOS of modems and Video Cards...
Sounds stupid, but check the Floppy drive, if its correctly connected. My old acer hardly boots if a floppy drive is not connected. Check the IDE cables of all connected drives, maybe any of them are faulty....

Last, like Claude said, try the CPU removal , and if posible, the BIOS removal (physical removal). Yeah, the dust can get the computers crazy...

I was going to suggest the BIOS flash, but i remember you cant past the "Splash screen"...

Diagnosing a client's PC...

Reply #14 – February 09, 2006, 03:47:40 AM

thunder chicken,
you can give your extra comp to my mom hers is running hella slow and i cant figure out whats wrong with it besides its 10 years old and full of junk files and stuff