My Computer Woes

[dusty]

My computer woes just keep "coming on".

I have this "gaming computer" that was given to me because "it didn't do everything the the PO wanted to do".

It has/had a Raid 5 hard drive setup, bunches of memory and two dual video cards.

I now have to parred down to a video card (dual monitors), a single 120gb hard drive, half as much memory (due to memory card failures) and a different (simple) sound card.

I can't say it has been working well but it has been my goto machine.

This morning it would not come up. It booted and then appeared to be loading Windows and then the screens went blank but the computer sounded as though it was working.

I ran the Windows Recovery Program which reported no errors found but again the screens went blank when it rebooted (after recovery).

I decided to put the old video card in (boots, loads Windows and goes dark). Well, here I am running the old goto machine with a dual video card that had previous been declared dead.

I am tempted to put the "failed video card" back in but am resisting that temptation.

I am actually beginning to understand a little bit about what makes this computer run (or not run as the case may be). It detracts from saw dust times but - well, this early in the morning I probably should not be making saw dust anyway.

If I should happen to go AWOL again - don't worry - it is just a computer crash. A glitch as the President would say.

[Ed in Tampa]

My computer woes just keep "coming on".

I have this "gaming computer" that was given to me because "it didn't do everything the the PO wanted to do".

It has/had a Raid 5 hard drive setup, bunches of memory and two dual video cards.

I now have to parred down to a video card (dual monitors), a single 120gb hard drive, half as much memory (due to memory card failures) and a different (simple) sound card.

I can't say it has been working well but it has been my goto machine.

This morning it would not come up. It booted and then appeared to be loading Windows and then the screens went blank but the computer sounded as though it was working.

I ran the Windows Recovery Program which reported no errors found but again the screens went blank when it rebooted (after recovery).

I decided to put the old video card in (boots, loads Windows and goes dark). Well, here I am running the old goto machine with a dual video card that had previous been declared dead.

I am tempted to put the "failed video card" back in but am resisting that temptation.

I am actually beginning to understand a little bit about what makes this computer run (or not run as the case may be). It detracts from saw dust times but - well, this early in the morning I probably should not be making saw dust anyway.

If I should happen to go AWOL again - don't worry - it is just a computer crash. A glitch as the President would say.

Dusty
Your problem is starting to sound like bad connections. Have you cleaned the connectors on the card and where they plug into the mother board?
To me this sounds like a connection is going bad thus making the card LOOK bad so the card is replaced and things work for awhile then that card looks to go bad, you swap it with the old card and suddenly the old card starts working.

Either that or a cold solder joint in and around the connector. It slowly opens and you start plugging and unplugging and it makes contact and starts working, then it slowly goes bad again until you plug and unplug and bring it back into contact again.

[dusty]

Dusty
Your problem is starting to sound like bad connections. Have you cleaned the connectors on the card and where they plug into the mother board?
To me this sounds like a connection is going bad thus making the card LOOK bad so the card is replaced and things work for awhile then that card looks to go bad, you swap it with the old card and suddenly the old card starts working.

Either that or a cold solder joint in and around the connector. It slowly opens and you start plugging and unplugging and it makes contact and starts working, then it slowly goes bad again until you plug and unplug and bring it back into contact again.

You may be correct. However, right now it is working and I try hard not to fix things that are working.

The problem, whatever it is, is now lurking just waiting for that critical moment to reappear.

The good thing is that I am not investing money to keep this beast operational. It is being repaired by using "discards" and retired computers..

[Underdog]

Dusty,
When I get those old hand-me-down computers that don't work, my first step is to remove all expansion cards save what is minimally needed (video card, if not on-board video). I then go into the BIOS and set it back to its default settings. Usually this gets me to a starting point.

If not, I'll start removing CD drives, floppy drives... everything except the bare minimum hardware needed to boot. I've found bad CD drives and things this way. I'll also swap in known good parts at times too.

From here I'll start tweaking the system, BIOS settings, more hardware, more memory, etc... Seems I end up "saving" more of these old things than I can possibly put to use...

[dusty]

Dusty,
When I get those old hand-me-down computers that don't work, my first step is to remove all expansion cards save what is minimally needed (video card, if not on-board video). I then go into the BIOS and set it back to its default settings. Usually this gets me to a starting point.

If not, I'll start removing CD drives, floppy drives... everything except the bare minimum hardware needed to boot. I've found bad CD drives and things this way. I'll also swap in known good parts at times too.

From here I'll start tweaking the system, BIOS settings, more hardware, more memory, etc... Seems I end up "saving" more of these old things than I can possibly put to use...

I am up and running right now and everything looks good except CPU cooling. I will get some thermal grease for that. The CPU is running 45°-49°C when it was typically in the low 40s.

The next time I have any other problem, I'll update the BIOS and start from scratch as you suggest.