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Help required! PC keeps crashing and starting!

Andre64
Go to solution Solved by Dutch_Master,

What is damaged on the 'new' used PC? You may be able to turn both broken machines into a reliably functioning PC. Also, consider reaching out to a local charity to get help fixing it if you're unable to do so on your own, either b/c of your disability or financial constraints. And it might be handy for others willing to help you out if they know where about you live. Town and/or State/Province (if you're Canadian 馃槈 ) suffices, IMO.

Hello LTT Comunity,

My wife's computer has been acting crazy for several months. It all started when we had a power surge and blew the fuses. Since then, my wife's computer would start crashing and sometimes restart. She would be able to use the computer fo10 to 12 hours and then crash. Then there are times when she be on the computer for an hour or so. I did some checking and found out the fan at the back of the pc case was burnt out. I replaced the fan and cleaned out the dust that built up over the years. The computer is very old. 8 or 9 years old.I just can't figure it out.聽

My wife says that she has a soft crash, where everything stops an short black lines show up on the screan. Then she has to manually restart the computer. Then there's the hard crash were the computer shuts down completely and then restarts. Sometimes it doesn't restart.聽

I'm on a disability so I can't afford a new or new used computer. I've been tinkering around with computers for years, replacing memory and drives, occasional dead fan. LOL聽 We did get lucky with A friend of my wife in the states. She sent a used computer from her late husband. Unfortunately,聽 the comped was damaged during shipping. That's FedX for ya! LOL聽

I Hope someone could point us in the right direction.聽There are so many things we need to do. Coping window 10 to our new used computer. It has no OR. Trying to figure if the computer will work or boot up. There are so many wires. I start getting panic attacks. Specs can be provided if needed for our old computer and our new used computer. I need to get things settled for my wife and son before my time is up. Thanks for any help you can give.

I need to make my wife happy. Happy wife happy life! LOL聽

Regards,

Andre.

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What is damaged on the 'new' used PC? You may be able to turn both broken machines into a reliably functioning PC. Also, consider reaching out to a local charity to get help fixing it if you're unable to do so on your own, either b/c of your disability or financial constraints. And it might be handy for others willing to help you out if they know where about you live. Town and/or State/Province (if you're Canadian 馃槈 ) suffices, IMO.

"You don't need eyes to see, you need vision"

(Faithless, 'Reverence' from the 1996 Reverence album)

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2 hours ago, Andre64 said:

The computer is very old. 8 or 9 years old.I just can't figure it out.聽

I've been tinkering around with computers for years, replacing memory and drives, occasional dead fan.

When you had the computer apart to replace a fan, did you check the PSU? With the covers off the PSU, check for any capacitors with bulged tops. Check there isn't a capacitor hiding under a few wires as there was in my supply a year ago. It was getting random drop-outs which sound very similar to your problem.

The fault could also be a capacitor on the motherboard so check those too.

If you spot one, you will need to replace it or find another PSU. It is usually very easy to solder in a replacement, provided you know how to use a soldering iron and have an electronics parts supplier handy.

I could send you a link showing exactly what I'm talking about but the Moderators don't like it for some odd reason. The site sells nothing and simply has information about how to fix and make things. No other discussion forums object.

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If you have a spare power supply, replace your PC's installed power supply. There is a big chance that your power supply is already defective.

In the sticker/print on the power supply. There is a Watts value there. You can safely replace your power supply with any available spare with equal Wattage or higher.聽

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Hello everyone,聽

I've tackled my wife's computer new still have the same problem. I replaced the power supply, 莽hanged the graphics card, and changed the fan. I tried to upgrade the memory to 16Gb DDR3 but it wouldn't start up. It would beep, then cycle through and reboot. I think it was stuck in a loop. So I put the old聽 6 Gb ddr2 and finally got it to boot. This computer is very, very, very slow. Did I mention the computer was slow! LOL聽

I'm extremely fatigued both mentally and聽 physically.聽 I'm not a well man. You might say my time on this earth is short. (I'm dying) I was given 10 years. That was almost 3 years ago. Anyways enough about me.

I just want to make my wife happy and make sure she has a working computer so she can keep in contact with mother and sister in New Zealand. I Managed to use the DDR 3 memory to upgrade my son's computer. I was even able to add SDD drives (240GBx2). I've included a screan shot of the specs for my wife computer.聽

This is what the new used computer specs.

Intel Core i5-3570k processor
ASRock Z77 Pro4-M motherboard
Asus GTX 750 Ti video card (in wife's computer)聽
32 GB (8x4 gb) of DDR3 1600 RAM (in son's computer)聽

I've used the DDR3 32 GB for my son's computer as mention before.聽The mother board, from the new used computer,聽 seems to be ok. The damage was to the case. I guess I'll have to use this mother board to replace the older mother board. Then I would need to find some more used DDR3 memory to use in my wife's computer. This is causing me to have a meltdown just thinking about replacing the motherboard.聽

I should mention that I'm located in Toronto, Ontario Canada. If anyone could offer any assistance to my problems it would be gratefully appreciated. I wish I could have one of those famous LTT computer makeovers. I Love watching those episodes.聽

If anyone has any spare memory there not using DDR3, along with any help you can offer me, I certainly can used all the help.聽

Thanks for any help or suggestions you can give me.

Regards

Andre

MY_PC_Specs.jpg

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That computer i5-650 is reasonable. What is it actually used for? Emails, web browsing and what else?


There is plenty of memory, 6GB, so everything points to the Windows system which is why you are having problems. We never use Windows and never have a problem even on slower machines

Toronto, sorry a bit far away to physically fix it, we had a couple of nights there about 5 years ago before heading back to New Zealand.

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