Another day, Another problem

[Peerzy]

Apparently im free computer tech now

Anyways here's the story just want your views on it.

Sister was playing her Sims 2 games on her computer that i built about a year ago, has had no history of problems and been smooth sailing till now.

Then all of a sudden it restarts, goes to POST and won't read her HDD. Turning it off and leaving it for a bit seems to fix it. I also checked the IDE cables and everything inside the machine and it was all good. So i went into Windows and changed the settings so it will show teh blue death messages when it goes to restart and told my sister to write them down if she see's them again.

So off i go home, then the next day she calls and says the same has happened. She didn't write the messages down cause "There was far too many and the long words scared her" ( ) so i go over again to do a bit more digging. So far it's only happened while playing her Sims 2 game.

First thing that i though is to check the temps, the pc is by no means well ventalated and is stuffed in a corner right next to the moniter.

Both Speedfan and Everest show the same results. They say the CPU is in the 90 degree's ( ) and the Mobo stays around the mid 50's. HDD is about 60. So i though, fooken'hell these seem high.

So i wacked on F@H and under full load the temps don't change by more than 2 degree's either direction.

Thing is the parts don't feel that hot, and i would have thought if it's idling at 95 degree's and on max load on 95 degree's and it's not melting the CPU maybe it's reading the temps wrong.

BIOS displays the say temps as SF & Everest. I've told her to leave it off for now. Im thinking maybe it needs some more Artic Silver or something, maybe i'll add fan or two.

AOpen MK77M-8XN
2500XP Barton (Stock speed)
512mb PC2700 Ram
20Gb Hard Drive


Just wondering what you guys think on this?

[Spider_dude]

my mate has the same problem but its champ man thats causing the problem, his pc crashes goes black screen the monitor says its not picking up a signal and then the pc restarts, i told him i'd get him some antivirus shiz which i will and we will probably format and reinstall using football manager this time. have you tried flashing your mobo and all else fails using a thermometer to check the temp?

[Virtualbody1234]

Those temps... Are they F or C?

[Spider_dude]

i'm guessing F, cos 90C would be melting

[Snee]

If it is celcius, it's very worrying. Most hds don't like much more than 45 too well. Most'll work but there may be trouble if it keeps up.

Might need a new BIOS, like spd says.



How clean was it inside btw? And did you make sure that the cpu heatsink/fan was clean.
If it was very dusty you should be able to lose a few degrees by cleaning it out.

New fans, AS5 and round cables could help too, I suppose



Also, it isn't standing in direct sunlight or something, is it?

[Peerzy]

Yup, all temps are Celcius, casing feels hawt but not on fire.

Not in any direct sunlight no, and not near anything like a radioator.

Pretty clean, i gave the CPU fan a quick brush up, it currently doesn't have any other fans inside it.

Something that did worry me was that there was traces of spider webs going from the case side to a modem and then onto the top of the graphics card. Just small little lines of webbing, i removed them.

For now i've taken off the side panel and told her not to use it unless it's 100% needed. Rest asure she's on Sims 2 right now

Reason this is wierd is with this temps i would have though it would be on fire as well but it only has issues after a few long hours of Sims 2/game action. Just leaving it on for a few days is fine.

[Snee]

Does she have a table fan or something?

As an emergency measure, you could put one of those beside her computer, blowing in, since you have the side off.


She really needs a couple of case fans though, I'd say.

[Peerzy]

No table fan, i think im gonna have to take the PC home to do some serious work on it. Last time i checked a fan won't make 50 degree's difference.

[Snee]

I agree on that, but whatever else is the matter, she should have a bit of airflow in the case.

[malyo]

See what happens when you play illegal copies

Now something serious. I thing it might be a HD problem. A defectuos hard drive or something. Why dont you just try another hard drive in the same conditions.