Computer Help

[Carrie56]

Was not really sure where to put this and if anyone has experienced anything like this with their computers. Maybe someone has ideas or has resolved an issue like this by replacing the power supply.

I have been experiencing this problem with my computer where it just shuts everything down. ie drives, fans, peripherals but the power light stays on. The only way I can get out of this is if I manually reboot by holding the power button in. This usually happens when I am idle like hibernate but I have my settings to never hibernate currently. Once in awhile it has happened when I am in the middle of something! That usually occurs in the first hour or two after turning it on.

I have recently made some changes to hardware (memory configuration) and I loaded new OS Win7. It's and older comp a Compaq Presario with pentium 4 processor. I like my old dog and its moving really fast and its clean now but still with this one same issue. I hate to replace the power supply and find out that didn't change anything. I don't want to invest in this PC unless I know its working properly.

[Hoogle]

4 things usually do this will start with the easiest
1) reset bios
2) 2 parts to this 1 use a jumper pin to reset motherboard if you dont have that just short it out with a scredriver where mainboard reset is should have 3 pins touch 2 with something metal (not magnetic) replace mainboard battery
3) power supply being overpowered or burning out (probably most likely)
4) when if you have removed mainboard have you put it back properly sometimes mainboards need jumper screws that raise it away from metal bracket or metal is contacting part of the circuit that it shouldnt be.

rarer things cpu is over heating do you have right fan or is an not working properly.
thermal paste is it adequate or to much it may have slightly leaked onc cpu chip
adequate cooling system
corrupted main hard drive
all pci card extensions ie graphics cards sound cards etc are all connected properly
power supply mainboard connection plugged in fully
cpu fan plugged into main board
have you got at least 2 gig of ram
is your power switch faulty or not connected right
that should be enough to get you started

[Carrie56]

lol well the bios has been checked and rechecked (I just loaded a brand new OS onto the comp) It was running fine for years but the problem started before I loaded the new OS. I dont think there is an issue with the hard drive though its a bit hot I want to move it from the bottom slot to another that is more open however it has been in that slot for years with out a problem. It runs a little hot but not excessively I am running a performance monitor to watch the temps. It usually does not happen when the comp has a lot of things going ie: media player (music), facebook games, browser games, flash chat box, various forums lots of tabbed windows sometimes more then one browser though ff is my favorite. It happens with the comp is idle most often if it happens at all. It can go for days with out an even then have 3-4 a day. I did reconfigure the RAM some of it was bad and slowing me down and I now have exactly 2gb of ram but its much much faster then it was running 2.5 gb of ram and XP I had other problems there. Windows explorer was corrupt and kept freezing up. The fans seem to be working properly, I added a graphic card over a year ago that was overclocked but currently its not now since reload.

As far as the other things I'm really not a genius when it comes to fixing the damn thing. I am almost wondering if its worth investing. I think I may try a power supply though if it doesn't work then I might send it down the river.

[Hoogle]

personally if your only running a pentium 4 by the time you replace power supply etc for $250 you could be running a dual core system or an amd quad core just look for online shops that sell barebone bundles motherboard ram and cpu then slot that all in your tower if you do have faulty ram though and that is confirmed it is down hill from there a few bad secters quickly turn into fully none functional

[Carrie56]

I'm really not up to rebuilding from scratch here. Just not that smart. I can replace a few parts here and there but I only paid 250 for it um maybe 7 years ago?

[Carrie56]

Just an update on this topic. I upgraded everything on my comp including the OS and it didn't seem to have a problem it took a couple weeks but I finally got the last piece loaded. I was so happy for about two minutes procrastinating on the purchase of the power supply because my old dog was running like a champ! Then suddenly poof I guess the power supply is out so now I am actually waiting for the part. Hope I will be able to replace it and everything will work ok if not I have electronic garbage in my office.

[Carrie56]

ok one final update for all to know. After I replaced the power supply everything is working too perfection. Finally!!! Yay!