Freeze ups->White Screen after post->Monitor going on and off

[Snee]

:blink:

My kid brother's computer has been acting up for a few days, with some crashing and freezeups.

However, today it got worse, with freezeups, and even the odd white screen after posting/while booting up, tho' it mostly got all the way into windows.

So we figured it was either windows gone weird or the graphics card (<- fairly new and thus a likely culprit).


First we tried reinstalling windows, and, as far as we could tell everything frooze up during formatting (it might have been working in the background, but the leds gave us no indication).

After that we tried swapping graphics cards, and it got really weird.

First, for some odd reason, we didn't get the option of starting from the windows disc, instead it went in hyperspeed, like, into booting up the (half formatted) windows install, while the monitor was going on and off every other second.


After shutting down (not very surprisingly, windows didn't work too well, and the monitor kept going on and off) we did manage to get into the installer and proceeded to format.

But all along the monitor kept going on and off. We can format, and install, but the monitor just keeps going on and off, on and off.




It has subsided some now in that it doesn't do it quite as frequently, but it's still acting a bit weird.

Do you think it's the monitor (could it make the other graphics card freeze up?), the monitor and the graphics card or maybe the PSU (it's a not yet six months old fortron, ffs)? Or do you have another idea about what it can be?

The windows installer is doing fine, so I don't think it's the mobo/ram/hds.

[Snee]

Ah, as it was trying to boot, I got "irql not less or equal".

Could it still be the monitor?

[Snee]

Meh, it was the monitor, lugged my own monitor over and tried it on his computer, and it worked.

Guess I should have figured the moment I saw his monitor was made by "KFC" :blink:


Sorry 'bout posting this thread.

[Snee]

Got another white screen with the new monitor (after reinstalling windows and setting everything up again without a hitch), but this time it didn't lock up windows :blink:, he could still reboot (bit tricky when he couldn't see a thing, though).

He'd just installed qt alternative and had started playing a movie (he installed it on his computer [the day before] yesterday too, and the white screen problems started this morning [the morning after]), so we got rid of that.

Will see if that is the end of it. I have a hard time seeing how it could be that though, as he even got the white screens before he had booted up windows (I know we tried reinstalling it, but I hadn't really heard the whole story when I suggested that to him, and he was doing it anyway) and the freezeups before that (could be a heat thing, tho').



If nothing else happens, we'll try the old monitor again in a couple of days (dug through storage to find him a spare one from my dad's computer and that's what he's got now).
We do have the new gfx card installed, but his computer did the blinky thing with the other card, so I doubt it's down to the gfx card.


If it persists then maybe it might be mobo-related :unsure:

Feel free to post any theories you might have about this, if you have any :ermm:

[Snee]

The bugs of mystery have continued.

As it got gradually worse, we narrowed it down to one of three: CPU, MOBO or Ram (the PSU is almost new, and the voltages are stable).


Currently it sometimes doesn't even get past POSTing, and it can't really handle windows for extended periods any more.

Before that it worked for a long time after we'd reset bios to optimized defaults, but repeating that again hasn't helped.

Tried taking out one stick of ram at a time, but got nothing conclusive from that.
Took out both hds, no difference.


Knoppix says it's an APIC cpu error something, which can be indicative of a bad mobo.
Going to try some other stuff tomorrow, another processor for one thing, but my guess at this point is that it's the mobo. Which is very very odd as it did all kinds of odd, graphics-related things before which I could have sworn was indicative of a bad graphics card and/or monitor.

I've never seen a processor die before (ok, maybe once, but that was from overclocking, which is muy different), but I can't imagine they do it this slowly.

And it's been working sporadically, when we actually were trying to get an error it took ages. Including when I tried prime 95 (it never crashed from doing that).




What can be learned from this is that some errors can be lots of fun.

Oh and that you can get indications of what component is buggered just by trying to boot up knoppix.


Kept posting here 'cos I thought it might be of help for others. This is prolly too unusual to bother about describing further, tho'.

[DanB]

:unsure: good luck

[lynx]

If it is slowly getting worse, and you are absolutely certain that the PSU is ok, I suspect that some part of the voltage regulation is failing on the mobo, probably one or more of the large caps, they are about the only thing that can fail slowly. Check them carefully, and look for any signs of bulging.

[Snee]

Thanks lynx, I thought it might be something like that, I've seen the caps go twice, on his old mobo and my old one.

I've decided that we are going to try another PSU tomorrow, just in case, tho'.

Can I be sure it isn't the CPU then?
'cos I was going to try another, but if you, like me can't see how that could go down as slowly as it does, I'll skip that part.

[SaYiaN]

I had a similar problem on my Sony Vaio... After i had upgraded the vid card & some other parts.. I forgot to fully "Secure" all my psu cable to there corresponding parts and i got locksup left and right & some other unwanted errors. After i went and redid all my wiring, everything was like new

[Skiz]

With all the problems listed in your original post, it seems that the monitor is the last of your worries. :unsure:

[Snee]

@SaYian: Can't be that, 'cos all the wiring's been the same since we installed the g-card for him, and that was a couple of months ago.

Thanks for the input, though.



I know Skizo, I reckon it might well work, but it's pretty weird the way it behaved.

I've tried two other monitors and they didn't do they same.

[Snee]

Thanks lynx, I thought it might be something like that, I've seen the caps go twice, on his old mobo and my old one.

^I meant this, not that I'd seen them go twice on his current mobo :pinch:

[lynx]

Can I be sure it isn't the CPU then?
I've never seen a partially failed CPU. I suppose it is theoretically possible, but I doubt you would be getting the symptoms you describe.

[Snee]

Ah, thank you.

Going straight for a new mbobo then.


Once we've tested that other PSU, anyway.


Today it isn't even posting, btw.

[Snee]

Ok, found that the psu to mobo connector had burns on three pins.

The question is, does this have to do with the psu or the mobo?




Even more annoying is that it currently works with either psu.

[Snee]

Anyone have a good, safe and easy way to quickly check if the psu is all right?

It appears stable as anything if voltages in BIOS and usdm are to be believed (as long as the board posts, anyway) and it's not exactly old, and it's been working brilliantly for months, but there's that small matter of the three burnt pins on the atx connector and the no-posts.

Shouldn't something be fluxing if it was buggered?

I was going to try a voltmeter, but then I realised I don't have one (slight oversight there, plan-wise) and I've never had to use one on a psu before, either.



The thing is, that testing the other psu told us nothing. It didn't post right before we swapped, but when my brother swapped back, just to make sure, everything worked just dandy.

He had it running for quite a bit, without any issues at all.

This is just like the other "fixes" we've found. They work for a while, just enough for us to start to think "hey, that was it!", and then it breaks down again.

I was looking for similar issues and found people saying that epox boards have notoriously dodgy connectors, could it be something silly like the connector having come loose a little, and that when we swapped psu we pushed it in firmly again?

'cos that would be annoying as flukk :pinch:

[lynx]

I assume that as far as you know the burn marks were not there originally. If they were, that could be the complete source of your problem and cleaning them up should solve it.

As long as they have not been caused by dodgy crimping of the connectors onto the wire, there is no way that the PSU could cause the burn marks you describe. They can only be caused by arcing or by excessive current at the site of the burn. Since the wires would melt before excessive current could burn the connectors they can only have been caused by poor contact betwen the motherboard and the PSU cable.

I'll take your word for it that epox boards have a reputation for dodgy connectors, I haven't heard that, but it makes sense that removing and replacing the connector would cause rubbing between the metal surfaces and could clean them up enough to make a "good" contact.

That sounds like the case here, but personally I would do as much as possible to thoroughly clean up all the pins and sockets, not just those showing burn marks.

Of course it is possible that there is still some other underlying problem, but since you have no way of tracing it there's really no point in worrying about it atm.

[Snee]

Thanks a lot, lynx. That was very helpful.

I know, without a doubt that there were no burns on the PSU when I recieved it (I was the one who ordered it for him), and I'm also fairly certain that there were no burns on the mobo when we put it in.

We'll clean the pins for now, but he's probably going to buy another mobo, just in case there's more to it. He does quite a lot of his homework (programming and such) with that computer, so I suppose he figures he'd rather do these things now, so he's sure he has something that works for next term.