Serious PC problems

Chuffy

I did a ghost image of a clean install, then did all the windows updates etc. It lasted a couple of days then seemed to go sh!tshaped after that.

SilverScooby

My 2 PCs did this and cause was faulty capacitors on the motherboard - see https://www.badcaps.net for more info.
The faulty capacitors are easy to spot - they bulge at the top!

ormus

did you format first?

Little_John

So you have formated and reinstalled windows?

All new drivers after or did you use the cds supplied with the hardware?

If you used the cds then your have a hardware problem, if not and you used new drivers it is more likley to be a driver problem. Im still going with graphics card myself. change the card and see if the problem goes away.

ormus

download a copy of knoppix live cd (linux).
remover your hdd and boot from the knoppix cd.
if it fires up then its a not a HW issue.

in my experience, SW is the most likely suspect by far.

HW has caused less than 10% of any problems ive met. and ive installed/repaired hundreds of em. more than i can count.
HW failure is very rare.

bluep

Ormus, I've had similar failure to boot and random crashing from an overheating CPU (thermal paste and fan needed replacing), similar again from a stick of RAM that went belly up and a mobo that stopped working one day for no reason!! Guess I'm just pretty unlucky...(or lucky in that I could have had 10x as many problems with SW and haven't look on the bright side and all that!)

I would do as someone else suggested, slowly take your system down to the bare minimum - onboard graphics, one HD, one stick of RAM and work up from there once you have the minimum working...

ormus

well thats very unlucky.
and yes ive seen the same HW faults. but very rarely. ie last 12 months, 2 mobos duff. but god knows how many reinstalls of the OS.

when you ask around the service engineer bods, they will tell you the same story. 90% and more, of probs, are SW related.
but as with all percentages/averages, some peeps will get it all at one end!