PC problem!!

[Xomul]

Hi all.

 

I've recently upgraded my PC, and it worked fine for about 1 week. then a strange thing happened...from then on, whenever i press the 'On' button, the PC whirs for about 2 second, then completely shutsdown for about 10 seconds, and the start back up again. It loads to a certain screen(before entering Windows) and says something like this

 

"Defaults loaded, press F1 to continue, F10 to enter setup" Normally i press F1.

 

Everything loads up fine, sometimes the sound is missing(the PC refuses to acknowledge the prescence of my soundcard even when i was playing a game just 2 hrs ago), but everytime the clock is set on Jan 1 2006 0:00:00

 

Please tell me whats the problem...i've done System check, virus check, reconnecting the power cable, switching the voltage box on/off, and this pc is only 1 month old!!

[Kernel]

Sounds to me like the power supply unit is either faulty, or it's not supplying enough watts to power everything up.

What's your PC specs and what wattage is your power supply?

[uriaheep]

That's what it sounds like to me - if you have upgraded Motherboard and processor but not power supply you could be getting this.

 

Then again I have seen a similar reaction to a cracked motherboard.

[Crazy Gringo]

Well it would help if we had a lowdown on what hardware there is in that new beast of yours...

Like

PC case/size and number of fans

Size of Power supply and brand

CPU name/type/speed

CPU Cooler

Motherboard

Graphics card(s)/ GPU cooler

Sound card

Harddrives

Floppy drive if any

CD/DVD-drive

[Xomul]

Ok here goes

 

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6300

Motherboard: Foxconn 965+ICH8

Ram: Kingston DDR2 1GB (x2)

Graphics Card: Geforce 7600GT

Grapics Card Cooler: Zalman VF900

Powersupply: Seventeam 420W

Harddrive: Hitachi 160GB

 

yeah, just then the PC started fine...the thing is, the 'refuse to turn on' syndrome started only about two weeks ago...before its fine

[Kret]

Well, I have to agree with the others that this is either an issue with the power supply unit or the motherboard itself. Under these situations the only option is the trial and error testing, replacing one by one the components that might be malfunctioning.

[uriaheep]

I think that 420 watt may be on the ragged edge with that set up - it should run it but if it's not working as well as it ought............

[Slaughter]

You have a faulty CMOS battery most likely. Defaults loaded means it loaded the factory's default setup for your system, and the fact that the clock is set to default supports this.

 

Oh, and in case you wonder what that means, here's the basics. BIOS uses a memory type that can remember the setting even when there is no power in the system. CMOS remembers the changes you make (or the system makes automatically) to BIOS (like your type of HD, DVD and so on), and it needs constant power to remember it's settings. That's where the CMOS battery comes in, and if it stops working properly, you will get that message every time you start (because there was no power through the battery to remember your settings when the system was shut down). This can be causes by either a faulty battery (looks like a large clock battery seated in the motherboard, easy to replace) or a faulty motherboard.

 

I'll not guarantee that what the others say isn't correct, as you might have too little power in your system, but I can guarantee you that as long as the CMOS battery works correctly you shouldn't loose your BIOS settings regardless of the size of the power supply.

[Matri]

I agree with Slaughter, you have a faulty CMOS battery. However, that does not explain the soundcard, nor should it power down on its own.

 

If you bought this system whole, I'd strongly recommend you take it back and demand a thorough diagnostic of the motherboard, power supply and main processor. Something is seriously out of whack here.

 

If you assembled it yourself, then you're out of luck. Logic dictates that if you rollback the changes you made, everything should function as normal again. Experience with computers has demonstrated that these logical machines just LOVE to defy logic.

[Kernel]

Not necessarily a dead CMOS battery.

A bad PSU with a noisy power rail is quite capable of clearing the CMOS settings. All it needs is a small power spike on one of the 3.3 volt lines and the CMOS settings are lost. We've had that several times before on PCs at work. Replacing the power supply on those PCs fixed the problem.

[Slaughter]

Yeah, guess that's quite possible too. Now well, you have some possibilities to pick from there then Xomul. Both the CMOS battery and the power supply are fairly cheap components, so if it's one of those you'll get away without your wallet taking too bad of a hit.

 

@Kernel: Good to know! Hadn't really thought of that.

[Bomb Bloke]

My PC would lose it's CMOS settings nearly every time we had bad weather. Eventually, by the time my computer had started to power down whenever put under any stress heavier then loading Windows, I discovered that the connection between the PSU and the motherboard was literally blackened.

 

Cleaning it out with a knife, I got the system to work with something resembling stability with the help of a UPS. But the smell of burning plastic steadily worsened, as did the crashes, and eventually I had to swap out the motherboard and PSU altogether.

 

Wretched thing still crashes when put under stress... I'm currently suspecting I need more thermal paste between my CPU and heatsink...

 

Anyway! That aside, an ATX PSU (the standard, these days) powers the motherboard at all times. Hence a battery should really only be required as a backup for when all power is lost.

[Xomul]

hmm i'll get my friend to do a checkup for me...gahhh i hate it when i have to fork out more money just to get my rig working and doing its job