fraghandle
Newbie
Posts: 12
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« on: July 21, 2011, 09:30:48 AM » |
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OS: Windows 7
CPU: Intel Core 2 duo
RAM: 2GB DDR3
GPU: Nvidia GTX 260
Hello,
My computer recently turned off by itself. I noticed that there was a slight burning smell. I turned the computer back on, and everything seemed to run fine. Then I started having problems with my wireless internet network connector. I tried installing a usb internet connector and noticed that the installation process was extremely slow. I haven't tried any other applications on the computer, but I have a slight suspicion that there may be some kind of hardware failure. I've physically checked the hardware and everything seems to look ok, but the computer is seriously starting to act up quite slowly.
Could someone recommend software that will allow me to check for hardware failure or other tips on things to look for to check for hardware failure?
- Thank you!
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tmy
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« Reply #1 on: July 21, 2011, 10:46:58 AM » |
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 fraghandle, welcome to the forum, your first thing to do is grab yourself some compressed air from the local PC store and gently clean out your PC the heatsink fan which is on top of the processor always gets full of dust etc. Make sure you discharge yourself of any static electricity by touching the bare metal case of your computer wear anti static wrist band. Check the capacitors on the motherboard, they might be leaking or swollen. Overheating is a major problem and can cause lots of problems and shutting down is one of them. It is very difficult to trust any software to give you a definite report of hardware failure. Check your system by visual inspection and clean out the case for a start. Check the fans on the rear of the case are working and clean build up of dust can cause the system to slow down and work harder. The power supply will be under a lot of stress as well. Hope this gets you on your way to sorting out your problems good luck and take care.  tmy 
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« Last Edit: July 21, 2011, 10:57:30 AM by tmy »
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fraghandle
Newbie
Posts: 12
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« Reply #2 on: July 21, 2011, 05:31:31 PM » |
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Thanks for the warm welcome  . This is actually just another account I made as I have lost the login credentials into my original account haha. Always glad to feel welcomed though! Anyways, thanks for the advice. I recently just cleaned out the dust from the computer, but I suspect that airflow inside the case is not that good and my use of stock fans on my cpu. I just hope I don't have to buy new hardware... |
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tmy
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« Reply #3 on: July 21, 2011, 06:27:45 PM » |
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fraghandle, glad you feel the warmth, yes the dreaded airflow, well there is no doubt it causes a deterioration on performance. I know you can fit after market fans to your PC on the processor and it depends on what your doing with the PC, but I tend to have my computer off the ground and my side off not the best look but helps. good luck fraghandle post back how you get on. Take care tmy
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fraghandle
Newbie
Posts: 12
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« Reply #4 on: August 14, 2011, 09:47:21 AM » |
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So everything looks okay after a physical examination. I'm not so sure what I was looking for but everything seemed alright to me. But now for some reason one of my two hdd is not being detected. I moved it over to another computer and it works perfectly fine.
I'm not sure how to fix this problem. Could anyone help me with this issue? Thanks!
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tmy
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« Reply #5 on: August 14, 2011, 09:50:45 AM » |
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fraghandle, change your leads and try again ( sata) or IDE good luck tmy
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fraghandle
Newbie
Posts: 12
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« Reply #6 on: August 15, 2011, 09:21:22 AM » |
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Did what you suggested and used a different sata cable and I still can't get anything to show up. The drive doesn't show up in neither My Computer nor the Device Manager. I've even gone into Bios under the boot device priority and I can't locate the drive. I know the drive works, it just doesn't want to work.  Another thing that doesn't work after the computer shut down by itself and had a burnt smell, is my linksys wireless network adapter on one of my pci slots. The driver doesn't want to work all of a sudden and windows can't repair or install the driver. Other than these two issues, the computer seems to work rather fine. The boot up time is a bit on the slower side but nothing intolerable (just not sure whether or not it's something to be worried about) |
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tmy
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« Reply #7 on: August 15, 2011, 09:30:15 AM » |
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fraghandle, to be honest it is looking like a new MB would be the way lots of things could have been damaged, it is not good that the drive can not be located in BIOS.can the drive be seen and access files when used in another PC. ? Not sure what else to suggest but try what I mentioned here good luck  tmy
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fraghandle
Newbie
Posts: 12
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« Reply #8 on: August 15, 2011, 09:40:15 AM » |
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Oh yes the drive can be seen and accessed when I placed it into my other pc. In fact, I ran a disk check and all just to see if there was anything wrong with the drive. Turns out it works perfectly fine. I hope that doesn't mean the mobo is done for. But I was afraid you might say the mobo was damaged. Oh well... Now I'm pretty sure my core 2 duo cpu still works but if I am to get a new mobo I should probably upgrade to a new quad core cpu. Are you sure you don't have any other suggestions before I take the plunge and get a new mobo?  |
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tmy
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« Reply #9 on: August 15, 2011, 09:51:51 AM » |
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fraghandle, well the reason behind my diagnosis is the fact that the drive is working fine in another machine, this and the other odd behaviour tends to suggest a MB fault. Very difficult to be sure but just from the things you explain. I hope someone else has other ideas. Good luck changing MB's can be a pain as well and yet can work out fine depends on how close to the original MB you can match. I have had good success with a repair install after swapping MB's but then again you might just be unlucky and find yourself stuck in a loop. Take care speak soon tmy
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tmy
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« Reply #11 on: August 20, 2011, 08:26:13 PM » |
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fraghandle, others might disagree but I have changed motherboards on many PC's and done a repair install everything is sweet. It can go wrong but to be honest it's rare. Good luck however make sure you have backed up everything and be prepared for a problem. tmy
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fraghandle
Newbie
Posts: 12
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« Reply #12 on: September 16, 2011, 08:14:51 PM » |
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Hi I just want to follow up with my current situation.
The situation right now is this:
I have two computers. One burnt out and started acting up. The burnt up one, which I'll refer to as computer A, has two hard drives: a 120gb where windows is installed on and a 500gb which is where I keep all my files and applications on. The 500gb HDD wasn't being detected at all. So I moved it over to another working computer, which I'll refer to as computer B.
Once in computer B the 500gb HDD was detected and worked fine. So what I did next was took the parts from computer and gave it to computer A. Those parts being a motherboard, CPU, and additional RAM. I did the repair install on the 120gb without putting back in the 500gb. The repair installation worked fine but when I put back the 500gb it wasn't detected! This really boggles my mind since these were the same exact parts I used to test the hard drive in the first place!
I'm actually kinda scared that the motherboard which I thought was broken might not have been broken in the first place! So the next thing I did was just reformatted everything - both hard drives included. It didn't work and still wasn't detecting the 500gb. After that I tried doing a clean installation of windows 7 onto the 500gb and using the 120gb as my storage drive. When I did this, it worked perfectly fine! Windows would boot up on the 500gb and the 120gb was detected and worked perfectly.
Thinking I had solved the problem I wiped the drives clean again and reinstalled Windows back onto the 120gb and hoping to use my 500gb as my storage drive. I was hoping this would work, but it didn't. It just gave me the same thing. Windows would boot up without a problem but the 500gb would not be detected at all.
My goal is to get the computer working using these new parts from computer B and have Windows installed on the 120gb while I use the 500gb as my storage drive.
If anyone can has any ideas on what to do I would greatly appreciate it!
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