My PC is sick...

Bf109

I wonder if anyone can advise...

I have real trouble getting my PC to boot. If I do a hot restart ie. restart from the start button, everything is fine.

If I turn the thing off though, it takes me hours and hours, literally sometimes up to three hours, to get a full POST and boot up.

Most of the time when I turn it on, the DVD/CD drive just whirrs away impotently.

I have realised that I need to press and hold the re-start button for a while and then after a few dozen attempts and much hair-pulling and MSE-withdrawal, it eventually takes. I know when it has taken because the useless DVD/CD whirring is interrupted by the indescribably sweet sound of the hard drive clicking in.

I'm terrified of losing my hard-drive so try not to ever turn the thing off, which of course plays havoc with my electricity bills. :mad:

The CD/DVD drive is now almost non-functional (it wont open without a lot of coaxing) and I was wondering if the problems with no POST could be caused by a faulty CD/DVD drive?

Any idea?

Bf109

loaner wrote: »

check the drives are plugged in firmly, if they are, unplug the cd drive, then backup to flash/external drive.

if it resolves the problem, buy a new writer, and backup to DVD

Thanks. I just have no faith in my ability to tinker with a PC and not ruin it.

Is it as simple as that? Just yank the plugs?

aliEnRIK

Theres a fair chance the power supply is on its way out. Theyre fairly cheap (15 quid or so), and dead easy to fit.

Bf109

aliEnRIK wrote: »

Theres a fair chance the power supply is on its way out. Theyre fairly cheap (15 quid or so), and dead easy to fit.

Thanks.

But why would a power supply cause such trouble?

edit - the cd drive is plugged in proper

aliEnRIK

Bf109 wrote: »

Thanks.

But why would a power supply cause such trouble?

edit - the cd drive is plugged in proper

Dodgy power supplies tend to run great when theyre at 'running temperature'
Absolutely terrible from cold

gjchester

Bf109 wrote: »

Thanks.

But why would a power supply cause such trouble?

edit - the cd drive is plugged in proper

Pull the power cable from the CDrom, and try booting it. It's not unknown for it to be reporting itself as functioning then reset before it's finished and the BIOS may be waiting on it.

Worst case is no change, Best case is it boots up fast and just the CD drive letter is missing, and the drive needs replacing, probably a £20 DVDRW unit unit from PCworld will do, all you need to do is work out if it's PATA or SATA, Pata are long 2inch or so data connectors, SATA are small 1/2 inch data connectors that go to the motherboard, NOT the power supply.

Power supplies tend to be fine till they give up, they usually fail on the 5V rail which is what the drive may be using.

It may help sayihng what make and model the PC is (or the motherboard if it's a home built one)

patman99

How old is the PC?, also, how long is it usually on for ?.

When you opened-up the PC was it full of dust ?. If so, unplug it, and, using both a hoover & can of compressed air, see if you can blow/suck the dust from out of the power supply, BUT DO NOT OPEN THE POWER SUPPLY UP!!, even when off, you can still get a hell of a belt if you touch a capacitor by accident.
If this doesn't cure your problem then buy and fit a new PSU (Power Supply Unit).

As a buying guide, don't touch any of the cheap PSUs (or any made by Q-Tec). When buying, pick the PSU up and feel the weight, the cheap & useless ones tend to weigh very little in comparrisson to the better-built & more expensive ones.

basmic

Sounds like a PSU (power suply unit) issue to me, too. Out of interest, does the PC have a tendancy to crash or even restart of it's own accord, particulary when doing something intensive - ie: encoding a movie, or something that uses a lot of CPU power and memory?

There is a way to see if it's the PSU. Basically, you can download SpeedFan (link) which will tell you the temperature, voltages, and fan speeds in your computer.

You have three main voltage rails in the PSU - 12v, 5v, and 3.3v. Ignore the -12v, -5v and -3.3v ones. In an ideal situation, these should not be more than 5% out - 10% or more out, and you know something is wrong.

-10% -5% Voltage 5% 10%
10.91v 11.43v 12v 12.6v 13.2v
4.55v 4.76v 5v 5.25v 5.5v
3.0v 3.14v 3.3v 3.47v 3.63v

One way to temporarily remedy your problem, is by unplugging the power to the drives you least need - ie: CD/DVD drives, floppy drive, secondary HD (unless it's for your backup). Also, unplug any unnecessary USB devices - these can sap quite a bit of power from you PC.

In the meantime, I'd recommend looking at another PSU and finding a good quality one as cheap as possible. I personally use Enermax PSUs in my machines, but these cost about £50 each.

Bf109

Thanks Basmic.

My ratings are

3.17
5 and
11.9

Everything seems fine according to speedfan except the GPU temp which is at 53degrees.

basmic

Bf109 wrote: »

Thanks Basmic.

My ratings are

3.17
5 and
11.9

Everything seems fine according to speedfan except the GPU temp which is at 53degrees.

If you can spot your graphic card, and feel confident in removing it, then do so and use a can of air to blow the dust off the fan - but hold the fan still while you do this, as spinning the fan too fast can damage it. :eek:

If you don't know what's what, take a photo of the innards of your PC, and I'll see if I can help you.

Bf109

basmic wrote: »

If you can spot your graphic card, and feel confident in removing it, then do so and use a can of air to blow the dust off the fan - but hold the fan still while you do this, as spinning the fan too fast can damage it. :eek:

If you don't know what's what, take a photo of the innards of your PC, and I'll see if I can help you.

I had a look see and cleaned the dust out a while back - I dont remember the GPU fan being too encrusted with filth. Actually the whole thing was suprisingly clean. I thought it would be solid muck.

Seems to be holding steady now at 54-55 degrees. Is this really bad and worth worrying over, or just a tad warm?

I'm very reluctant to remove the card because I have a knack of destroying whatever I tinker with - I tinkered load with my last-last PC and basically ruined the sound, ruined a new graphics card and the RAM. Hamfisted clutz that I am.

Thanks for the advice. By the way, which is the power cable for the cd-drive, the fat one or the thin one?

edit: advise-> advice