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Help with my computer, please!


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Char Aznable
Title: Char Classic™
Joined: Jul 24 2006
Location: Robot Boombox HQ
PostPosted: Sep 15 2008 08:55 pm Reply with quote Back to top

My desktop comp has been trying to turn itself on and failing, not booting properly when I try to turn it on, and overall acting a bit fucked up. When I open the case, no matter what the state the computer is in, there's a light on the motherboard that's always on. I've already tried clearing the CMOS, and that got it to boot normally, but it turned itself on overnight. I entered my password, got into windows, and then it brought up the shutdown box and turned itself off. Either my computer is possessed, or the motherboard or power supply is going. What do you guys think?


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Ross Rifle
Title: Rock N Roll God
Joined: Oct 29 2006
Location: Chilliwack, BC
PostPosted: Sep 15 2008 08:59 pm Reply with quote Back to top

Stop being gay.

In all seriousness though, I hate you. You're stupid, kinda weird looking and not funny.


No I'm kidding, but I actually don't know what's wrong with your computer.


Does anybody here have a Ross Rifle?
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Ba'al
Title: Zerg Zergling
Joined: Mar 02 2008
Location: Uranus
PostPosted: Sep 15 2008 09:00 pm Reply with quote Back to top

Possibly got hacked, but I can't say for sure...


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Char Aznable
Title: Char Classic™
Joined: Jul 24 2006
Location: Robot Boombox HQ
PostPosted: Sep 15 2008 09:06 pm Reply with quote Back to top

Nah, I doubt that. This definitely seems like a mechanical problem. I've even tried booting with no drives connected, still nothing.


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Dr. Jeebus
Moderator
Title: SLF Harbinger of Death
Joined: Sep 03 2005
Location: Wakefield, MA
PostPosted: Sep 15 2008 09:09 pm Reply with quote Back to top

I don't think it's the motherboard or the power supply. If the motherboard was broken it wouldn't boot at all, and if it was the power supply it wouldn't turn on at all. The fact that it turned itself on is what's really confusing me, because otherwise I'd say either you have like the old Melissa virus and are in dire need of 7 year old critical windows updates, or your computer is overheating and is powering itself down as a result (happened to a friend of mine when he was overclocking his processor). There's always the unlikely chance it's two seperate problems, 1 for the shutting down and another for the turning on, but I have no idea what makes computers turn themselves on.

And no, ghosts is not an answer, because ghosts can turn computers on, but ghosts can't make computers turn themselves on. That'd just be weird.


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GPFontaine
Joined: Dec 06 2007
Location: Connecticut
PostPosted: Sep 15 2008 09:27 pm Reply with quote Back to top

Here is what I think. You had a power surge and your computer's bios was set to reboot after a crash. The computer interpreted the surge as a crash even though it had been off and turned on. This happens ALL the time to people. Still, here are some things to consider and test (they don't take long).


1) Unplug the power for 10 minutes, also unplug the ethernet cable
2) Look over the motherboard for capacitors that may be bad (they look like mini cylinders) if they are bad they will have gunk leaking out of the top. If you see any, that is your problem. If not, continue.
3) Clean the case out with canned air.
4) Replace your surge suppressor.
5) Plug the computer back in and boot it up.
6) Open a command prompt and run the following command

chkdsk c: /r

Type yes to any questions that it posts back to you.

7) When the computer reboots and finishes, defragment the hard drive.
8 ) Plug in the ethernet cable and run all Windows Updates.
9) Report back.




What does this mean?
"I entered my password, got into windows, and then it brought up the shutdown box and turned itself off."



 
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Dr. Jeebus
Moderator
Title: SLF Harbinger of Death
Joined: Sep 03 2005
Location: Wakefield, MA
PostPosted: Sep 15 2008 09:30 pm Reply with quote Back to top

He probably means he logged into his computer and got a dialogue saying basically "you have 30 seconds to close all your applications, cause I'm shutting down whether you want me to or not"


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UsaSatsui wrote:
The three greatest heels in history...Andy Kaufman, Triple H, and Dr. Jeebus

 
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GPFontaine
Joined: Dec 06 2007
Location: Connecticut
PostPosted: Sep 15 2008 09:32 pm Reply with quote Back to top

He could mean that it logged in and then logged out. A corrupt profile could do that. While a RPC DCOM issue could do what you are talking about.



 
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Char Aznable
Title: Char Classic™
Joined: Jul 24 2006
Location: Robot Boombox HQ
PostPosted: Sep 15 2008 10:08 pm Reply with quote Back to top

My PC had all of its updates. We have been having a shitload of storms. I looked for bad capacitors, removed my GPU and tried booting, nothing. It uses a wireless card and has been unplugged for over a night, and as for the chkdsk, I can't even get into Windows let alone see my mobo's boot screen. It just won't turn on.

And I mean I got to my desktop normally, but then the good old shutdown dialog came up:

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and it shut down normally, without any of my input. I have no remote management at all enabled, and my power switch is set to "ask me what to do when pressed". I'm pretty sure that I didn't get a virus or anything, although you never know. I talked with a friend of mine, and he seemed to think that the proc was overheating. I pulled off the heatsink, and the thermal paste was basically burnt off. I'm going to get more tomorrow, put that on, reseat the heatsink, blow out the dust with canned air, perform a seance, and pray that the thing works.

EDIT: I'm pretty sure my antivirus would've caught anything, but that PC is usually used by my family and not me (other than video editing and games requiring hardware transformation and lighting, I'm on my laptop). I don't know what they could have gotten in their email. I hadn't used the thing in over a month, but got the itch to play Dawn of War again. Played a few rounds, turned it off, and then this shit started. Damn, this pisses me off! I'm not worthy! I'm not worthy!


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Probable Muppet
Joined: Aug 05 2008
Location: CA
PostPosted: Sep 16 2008 12:26 am Reply with quote Back to top

What kind of motherboard do you have? Or even what model of computer. This sounds like something that happens quite often at my work after electrical storms. We usually just RMA the motherboards to Dell. The powering on by itself thing sounds like BIOS. You can try to disable all the "wake on" options under power management. On one occasion software (Roller Coaster Tycoon Demo) actually caused an issue similar to what you are experiencing by renaming the default drive, which can be a pain in the ass to fix. Sounds to me like it's your Motherboard though.
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Dr. Jeebus
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Title: SLF Harbinger of Death
Joined: Sep 03 2005
Location: Wakefield, MA
PostPosted: Sep 16 2008 08:27 am Reply with quote Back to top

Your processor overheating sounded most reasonable to me except for the whole turning itself on thing.


dr.jeebus.sydlexia.com - Updated sometimes, but on hiatus!
UsaSatsui wrote:
The three greatest heels in history...Andy Kaufman, Triple H, and Dr. Jeebus

 
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Char Aznable
Title: Char Classic™
Joined: Jul 24 2006
Location: Robot Boombox HQ
PostPosted: Sep 16 2008 08:44 am Reply with quote Back to top

I think that the whole "turn itself on" thing is a BIOS setting. I may have forgotten to save and quit when I changed "wake after surge".

The computer has no "model", per se. It's a build machine in an old IBM case. The mobo is an Intel. I'll have to check the model number when I get home.

If the default drive is renamed, I can just use PartitionMagic to change it, no big deal.


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GPFontaine
Joined: Dec 06 2007
Location: Connecticut
PostPosted: Sep 16 2008 10:13 am Reply with quote Back to top

If you built a whitebox machine you really need to figure out what you put in it.

Does the motherboard have any temperature gauges in it that you can read through the bios?



 
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Char Aznable
Title: Char Classic™
Joined: Jul 24 2006
Location: Robot Boombox HQ
PostPosted: Sep 16 2008 06:32 pm Reply with quote Back to top

The problem was a faulty power switch on the case (groans and facepalms all around). It's fixed now, and boots faster since I also disabled my floppy (after fixing it, of course). Thanks for the attempted help, guys, but the real thanks goes to my friend Jacob. So, it's been re-thermal pasted and is awwright.


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GPFontaine
Joined: Dec 06 2007
Location: Connecticut
PostPosted: Sep 16 2008 09:53 pm Reply with quote Back to top

What kind of case?

You should buy the MaximumPC 2008 Dream Machine case. It was only $5,000 to have it nickle plated.



http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/the_dream_machine_revealedpart_three_three



 
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Char Aznable
Title: Char Classic™
Joined: Jul 24 2006
Location: Robot Boombox HQ
PostPosted: Sep 16 2008 11:17 pm Reply with quote Back to top

An old IBM case. The power switch has defects. It's a pretty common problem with the case.


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Char Aznable
Title: Char Classic™
Joined: Jul 24 2006
Location: Robot Boombox HQ
PostPosted: Sep 22 2008 05:44 pm Reply with quote Back to top

Damn thing stopped working again. I've tried a different mobo, a different GPU, and a different power supply (although the only other PSU I had with the correct connectors was missing the P11 connector, so that still may be the problem). The damn thing will run the fans and everything like normal, but won't put anything on the screen. I have no BIOS, no POST, nothing, even when I remove the RAM and run with no drives. This thing is pissing me off to no end.

The board is an Intel D850GB, by the way. And I think I have no POST because there's no beeper, as far as I can see.

EDIT: Found out that if I don't have the latest BIOS (which I reset on both boards), it might not recognize my processor. That's probably the problem.


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