PC trouble - Windows XP - Fujitsu Siemens - do I need a new PC?

joeyjimbles

Hi all
I hope someone can give me some advice as I'm really at the end of my tether, as well as my limited technical ability.

I have a Fujitsu Siemens PC that's about 5 years old. Its played up over the years but I've always had Tech Guys back-up cover and have got stuff sorted either on the phone and with the occasional visit. That ran out in November and stupidly I didn't renew.

So now I have a problem. The pc will start up and I get to the Windows Screen. Then sometimes:
- it goes blank and says 'no signal'
- I get to the user screens choice and then it switches off
- I get into my desktop and can manage between 1 minute and 30 minutes of activity before it either freezes and/or goes black

I have tried system restore, CCleaner, defragmenting, and finally completely deleting and reinstalling the OS from the discs. And still the same.....short of giving the pc flying lessons, can anyone suggest what to do before I buy a new one or is that the only answer.

I would be grateful for any input - preferably in non-techy language as I'm not a techy.

Many thanks in advance.

enigma52

have you moved the pc recently? check that the monitor connection to the pc is nice and secure, can you try monitor on another pc? Do you have a graphics card or is it onboard graphics.

joeyjimbles

Thanks for taking the time to reply to me - much appreciated.

No, I haven't moved the monitor - it's as secure as ever and I did check it when the issues began. I wondered if I'd maybe knocked it when cleaning - if that was what you were getting at?

I have a graphics card, replaced 12 months ago, NeVidia GeForce 512 I think ....does that sound right?

joeyjimbles

Sorry, didn't answer one of you questions - unfortunately I don't have another pc to connect it to. Would it make a difference given that I can see the Windows screen, and sometimes more than that, and there is nothing funny going on ie. all the colours are normal and not pixelated (sp?) as when the graphics card needed to be changed?

Thanks for your interest - I have spend days on deleting and reinstalling software and upgrades - and some educated help is such a boon.

zaralondon

I had this - I am not very tech minded HOWEVER it sounds like your CMOS battery may be gone. The battery costs about 2quid (cheap generic one from the far east). Just open up PC and you will see it there, pop it out and stick the new one in, if it doesnt work stuff like the time/date may need resetting, but you can easily deal with that if that does happen.

Give it a try - worked for me (until something else went wrong )

aliEnRIK

joeyjimbles wrote: »

I have a graphics card, replaced 12 months ago, NeVidia GeForce 512 I think ....does that sound right?

Have you got the correct driver for the graphics card

When you say 'off' do you mean no power? ~ if so it sounds like a PSU fault, probably come on by overloading it with your graphics card

joeyjimbles

Hi AlienRik
Thanks for taking the time - and everyone else.
By 'off' I mean sometimes switches off and sometimes just freezes on a black screen and I have to switch it off and back on again.
I will see if I can get in to upgrade graphics drivers - but can you tell me where I would do this...and wouldn't the Tech Guy have done that 12 months ago when he installed it?

Zara - this CMOS battery - what does it do? Please.

Thanks for the help everyone.

closed

Try it in safe mode by holding F8 at startup to eliminate software issues, and double check the monitor cable at both ends.

cmos battery is a £2 watch battery that holds the time, and some other settings. While it's likely after 5 years, it's nearing the end of it's life, the symptoms you are getting don't really relate to a battery problem.

Why was the graphics card replaced before?

joeyjimbles

Hi
The graphics card was replaced because I had problems getting the pc to work - mostly not loading properly, with pixelated screens and colours showing incorrectly.

i'll try the battery thing - can't hurt for that price.

And thanks for the safe mode suggestion but I've done that ad nauseum and now taken everything off and reloaded it all so can't see how it could be software - though I'm happy to be pointed to anything that I may have overlooked.

aliEnRIK

joeyjimbles wrote: »

Hi
The graphics card was replaced because I had problems getting the pc to work - mostly not loading properly, with pixelated screens and colours showing incorrectly.

Sounds to me like the motherboard might be slowly frying the graphics cards

joeyjimbles

So Mr Alien - would the battery change or installing new drivers stop the frying of the graphics card ?

or do I need a new something or other?

or much more technical knowledge?

As ever, thanks for the support and info, and sorry to keep asking such 'Janet and John' questions.