a complicated computer problem, need help!

dngsui

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Hi, my computer is not cooperating with me at all, and hasn't been doing so for quite some time. It's a rather long and complicated stoory - with a myriad of problems adn i'm not sure with which problem to begin with but i'll try.

it first started with what i believed to be a malfunctioning video card - when my computer was on, after a while, the monitor screen would corrupt itself (either by showing a ghost image, or suddenly for no reason displaying some weird color pattern on the screen, random lines showing up for no reason), and that would force the computer to freeze and start over. I had already had some difficulties with the card as of late - any application (game or otherwise) using openGL would freeze on you. But the screen corruption was new, and it got to the point where it would even do this as windows xp was loading. I had tried new drivers, rolling back to older ones, even the very first ones that the computer had come with, but no luck. After a while i concluded that the video card was prolly the culprit, and what i ended up doing was clearing off the hard drive (winxp and all) and putting in windows 2000, which seemed to work for a while, but then the same thing was happeninng again, so i disabled the card and everything seemed to work ok.

The computer after a while began to have this shutdown/reboot problem - sometimes it would randomly shutdown, maybe during Windows, maybe during rebooting, and sometimes it would reboot only to have it shutdown automatically again. And then sometimes it won't reboot at all - or it won't turn on -- the power light is on, as well as one of the CD-Rom lights, plus the motherboard light is on, but I don't hear the familiar whirring/clicking of the hard drive/CD ROM drives. The CPU fan and power supply fans are working though. And then sometimes when it does reboot i get the BSOD before going into the windows (0x0000007b INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE blablabla). I've tried reinstalling windows, but the problem has always resurfaced in a short while.

I've already replaced the video card (no such luck). I've tried a new power supply (didn't make a difference). I've tried reseating some stuff, changing the power cord, pluggin into a different outlet, even changing my peripherals (keyboard, mouse), but i cannot get the computer to boot up normally.

My specs:
Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor at 1.8GHz
400 MHz front side bus
256K processor cache
512MB DDR memory
Intel RAID-ready motherboard
60GB hard drive capacity
7200 RPM ATA/100 server grade hard drive
32 MB GeForce MX200 graphics card (this was the old one, i have a new one in place)

I need help or hints - if anyone has any suggestions i'd greatly appeciate it.
 
Well, the bad video issue seems like an overheating problem with your graphics card. As for the restarting, since the power supply is ruled out, it can only be either overheating or a hardware conflict - I'm guessing the latter since you're getting the BSOD and more erratic behavior than you would if it were just overheating.

Try different RAM and hard drive first. RAM is usually the culprit for a BSOD, but it could be other things, too. Check your system temps, too, just to be sure.
 
jac006 said:
Have you ever reformated and reinstalled windows?

Did you read his post at all? he stated multiple times he had tried to reinstall his OS.

Anyways I would have to agree with spank_fusion. I would try different RAM and check your system temps.
 
Well just to clarify - the video corruption issue is gone (i had just mentioned it because just incase it was related to my current problem)... i have been lucky enough to reinstall the OS a few times, but i still get this problem of it shutting down by itself and then rebooting, or not rebooting at all.

and i had used the Everest utility to check system temps - they are fine, within the normal range.
 
Dishdog said:
Did you read his post at all? he stated multiple times he had tried to reinstall his OS.

Anyways I would have to agree with spank_fusion. I would try different RAM and check your system temps.

Sorry... I am very bad. I had rushed. You are the best. I am sorry for creating such an anger within you. I am sorry. I am fallen. You have never made a mistake... lol... no, seriously, my bad... I was rushing (had to go to class) but yeah... ok then.
 
Though perhaps the biggest problem now is that it won't boot up (no POST, no nothing, just a power light and CDROM light going on)
 
Have you tried new memory. we get the no posts problem at school all the time when working with computers. we are using REALLY old RAM so sometimes it's crap. just switch out the memory and you should be ok.
 
definitely a video card problem, i had the same problem with my old 9700 pro, i overused it and it heated up WAYY too quickly, so i had to use some tweaking software to DECLOCK it.. rofl. by like 40 mhz core speed. Perhaps ur agp slot on mobo is screwed up too.. i'd get both the mobo + v-card checked out. good luck pal. hope things turn out well ;)
 
i had a very related problem, regarding the video corruption. Was it the new card you bought or the reformat that fixed this?
 
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