Help with this computer issue?

Loghawk555 · October 25, 2016

Alright so, I got a computer from a friend. I cleaned off the hard drives and pretty much reset the computer. It had an old GPU in it when my friend owned it but he took it out a few years back for another build. the issue I'm having is it will work for a few hours pretty solid, then just lock up. I won't be able to move the mouse access the start button, the monitor just freezes as if it has been given a picture. So I do generally what most people do, I restart windows. Now I can't even get a post screen. the computer stays on the fans spin up I get indicator lights, but nothing in the way of a video signal. I reached out to my friend and he said it maybe trying to send a signal to what it thinks is the GPU and to reset the CMOS then it would work. That seems to be a temporary fix as it will then output to the monitor but it comes back after a few hours of working with the machine. I've tried reinstalling windows, I tried different RAM, I tried a GPU that I had in another computer although I wasn't too confident in the GPU it failed as well. I'm out of ideas as to what maybe the issue.

Thanks

xephoneration · October 25, 2016

I had something similar like this happen to me. though it was my liquid cooler's pump that died and my cpu ended up over heating. may sound silly enough but is the cpu heat sink fan spinning? if so I mean than I am out of ideas.

Kiol · October 25, 2016

It could be the storage drive. Try reinstalling windows using another storage drive you have lying around and make sure you only have one storage drive connected while testing it. Before doing so, you might want to try opening up the command prompt as administrator and enter "sfc /scannow" without quotations. This probably isn't the case, but also make sure all the cables are connected properly and no cables are loose.

smokefest · October 25, 2016

Seems like more than 1 issues with your pc... The freezing often is due to HDD.

HAving no POST at boot is not related to HDD , even without a HDD it will still post... This looks like Defective RAM.

Could be soo many more options tho.. kinda hard to troubleshoot without seein , tryin it..

Try another HDD, try with 1 stick of ram at a time if you have no post or another kit of ram, also should take off cpu, wash the dry thermal paste with alcool, then reapply new thermal paste, verify that fans are spinning, take off any PCI card like wi fi cards or sound cards, after that, if it still dosnt post... I would verify the power supply with a power supply tester, and finally if still no post with the on board vga connector or another gpu, then probably means motherboard dead.

My 2 cents