computer trashed UPDATE 2/06/2011

[fordman]

my main computer freaked out tonight. i was loading up a game and it shut itself off. so i turn it back on only after holding the button to make sure it shut off. well it was off or not i dont know. anyway i figured it fried the power supply. so i take the computer out and unhook it and put another junk machine in its place. windows 95 no way to hook up to the internet. so i say the heck with this. and put my computer back in. it starts up and gets on line and i can come to the site. but now i cant type. what the ? so i shut it down and now it wont come right back on. what is wrong here? i can still get online on my wifes computer but it very uncomfortable sitting on the edge of the bed to type. what is wrong so i can fix it?

[rjewkes]

i wonder if your heatsink/fan died on your processor? but why you' can't type i don't know.

[fordman]

could it be a memory problem getting ready to happen? becasue i am now typing on my computer again and not my wifes. i have no idea what the problem seems to be. amybe soemthing is gettign hot and shutting off. when i restarted this computer again i had to hold the button to a count of ten to make sure it was shut off. even thought the light was off. and then i pushed the button again and the computer started up and has worked so far. even the keyboard is working now.

[rjewkes]

could be i know the newer stuff since about 03 or 04 has been designed to shut off and refuse to power on if a fan on the heatsink dies or if it gets over 75* celsius so about 145*-160* F inside the case and particularly around the cpu would cuase shutdown to keep from cooking the system completely.

Could be the paste that goes between the heatsink and cpu is old enough to have quite working. how old is the system? have you ever opened it and gently sprayed the dust out with a can of compressed air?

do the fans work? one way to test ids to power it off and remove door/cover on it, should be two screws maybe three on the back, then set it back upright and turn it on and watch the fans particularly the cpu fan, you'll know it becuase it has fins of some sort under it, usauly aluminum but sometimes coated ceramic or copper.

don't touch anything while its on and open and you should be fine. once you have determined if all fans work or if any are dieing or dead power it down and either replace or have the fan in question replaced. if you can't do this for now, then just put thie cover back on and avoid running games as they will cuase it to heatup faster. if i was closer i'd come take A look fore you.

[Fo-Mo-Co]

Can I ask what type of computer it is? Also what game?

[71highboy]

sometimes these things just do strange stuff

[thorn1968]

Not being able to type sounds like a bad keyboard, bad usb or ps2 port, bad or loose cable, or a bad power supply. If it shuts off when warm, you could have a fan(s) that's drawing down the power supply too much. I've seen this if they're dirty. Try cleaning the fan(s). Is it a laptop or desktop? Power supplies can be had for around $30 from Newegg.com or tigerdirect.com, but you need to know the specs of your old power supply.

I have a couple of Dell GX270 desktops that need new capacitors on the mother board. This was supposed to be my winter project to replace these and get them on ebay! I just haven't had the time or to get the capacitors. I could get the best one of the bunch boxed up and send it to you as is for the cost of shipping. That might buy you some time to get yours repaired. Then you could send it back to me.

[fordman]

i shut it down over night. and turned it back on this morning. it seems to be working so far. i can type this mornign too. the fans shut off and the screen went blck as well as the power light went out last night. so i thought it had shut off. maybe it had overheated. it was very dusty when i pulled it out of the hole. i did blow out the back fan last night before i put it back in the hole to hook it up. the heat sink paste is pretty new. maybe a few years old. i had to replace the fan holder then. it was broken when i got it. its a premio computer 1.7g prosessor. win xp sp3. 512k memory stick. and its updated completely. the game is command and conquer. i am thinking i may have had too much memeory at that time. it wasnt a bad keyboard. i tried several others when that happened. and i am using the same keyboard now. i went in and cleared the recycle bin and i think the computer may have automatically cleared my cookies. because i was logged out last night when i finally go tback here to type out the second post. thats kind of why i thought it was a memory or low disk space. because i go ta low disk space warning the first time it came back on.

[rjewkes]

you realy want to have 10-15% free space on the drive so it can swap stuff around. and it sounds like the work of putting out C&C was too much for dust clogged fans to keep the system cool, get the whole thing blown clean and see what happens. as for the KB problem when you reconnected if the plug for the KB was loose it might do that, also if you have the mouse and kb swapped the mouse will still work sometimes but the kb won't.

[fordman]

i am no tsure of the problem with the keyboard. i did check to see that it was in the right hole. the mouse is usb. the keyboard is a ps2. i kind of wonder if the disk space thing may have had something to do with cutting of power to the keyboard terminal when i plugged it in while live the lights on the key board flashed like they do when it starts up. so it had to be no recognition of a keyboard from the port.

[rjewkes]

if it was allready powered up when you plugged the KB in thats why, the ps/2 port is not plug and play like the usb is.

[fordman]

it was plugged in the first time when i turned it on. and that is why i turned it off the second time to let it recognize the keyboard. and then it wouldnt come back on until later.

[rjewkes]

Well if it is working now, i'd say just get all the dust out and see how it gores from there. I had one once that for some reason i could have my video card work right, or my mouse work but not both.

[NM5K]

Sounds like it was overheating, if I had to guess. And yep, ps/2 is not plug and play,
and you should never connect those with the machine powered up. I once fried a P/S
doing that. I'd pull the cover off and blow everything out real good, and then power it
up with the cover off to make sure the CPU fan is running ok. Ditto for video fan if it
has one. Also heat sink paste dries up pretty fast if it's the white stuff and is less
efficient conducting heat when it gets dry. Disk space would have nothing to do with
what yours is doing. I'd be suspecting heat first thing. If that's not it, then would make
sure nothing is loose or making a bad connection, such as RAM in the sockets, etc..
Could be a P/S on it's last legs, but being as it's working now, I'd be more prone to
suspect heat. Usually P/S's go TU with no notice and stay that way. They usually
don't recover later on. But a hot CPU will recover and work fine once it cools off.
But if you don't correct the overheat problem "if that's it", it will do it again before too
long. Games usually load a CPU pretty heavy, and will run hot. I run the flight sim a lot,
and that is brutal on a CPU as far as load and will make it run hot, when a program like a
web browser might not amount to much.

[fordman]

so far so good. i havent played any games so far except solitare a few tiems. the dvd player has been going out on this thing and this tiem it wont even open since i took the cd out. so that could be part of the problem for all i know. making the machine work too hard. i will probably replace that in the next few days.