Motherboard problems?

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  • esuhl
    esuhl Posts: 9,409 Forumite
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    MissMoneypenny wrote: »
    I built it in 2009. The PSU came with the case. Cooler Master Elite 333 w/460 PSU for £60. The PC is used every day, for hours and hours.


    Hmmm... £60 is very cheap for a case and PSU. Given how much you use it, it's possible that the PSU has given up.


    As you just have one stick of RAM, it could be that too. As well as trying to re-seat it, maybe try it in a different slot.


    Or maybe take out the RAM, try to boot the PC and compare what happens to what happens when the PC fails to boot with the RAM in. Identical behaviour might mean that the RAM isn't being detected (or is faulty). Different behaviour you haven't seen before suggests that it's something other than the RAM at fault.


    MissMoneypenny wrote: »
    Just the one beep, as it usually does when it boots up. It then flashed "no imput signal" and beeped once again, like it was trying to boot up again. Then put "no imput signal" again and just the one beep as if it is trying to boot up again. It kept trying until I stopped it. That only started today.

    1 short: System boots successfully


    Are you sure it's not:
    Continuous short beeps: Power error

    MissMoneypenny wrote: »
    Is it time for me to buy that 4GB of RAM?:o And it's not the motherboard or PSU?


    1GB RAM is the absolute bare minimum that Windows 7 requires to run... and even then it'll only run the 32-bit version.


    If you're not intending to upgrade the PC soon (and can get it working!) I'd definitely get 4GB RAM.
  • MissMoneypenny
    MissMoneypenny Posts: 5,324 Forumite
    edited 11 July 2018 at 3:48PM
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    esuhl wrote: »
    Hmmm... £60 is very cheap for a case and PSU. Given how much you use it, it's possible that the PSU has given up.

    It could be the PSU starting to give up.

    I just went in to my ebuyer account and they still had the 2009 order-

    CoolerMaster Elite 333 Black Case With CM eXtreme Power 460W PSU *SPECIAL OFFER*

    Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L iG31 Socket 775 onboard VGA 7.1 channel audio mATX Motherboard

    Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200 2.5GHz Socket 775 800FSB 2MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor

    esuhl wrote: »
    As you just have one stick of RAM, it could be that too. As well as trying to re-seat it, maybe try it in a different slot.

    Or maybe take out the RAM, try to boot the PC and compare what happens to what happens when the PC fails to boot with the RAM in. Identical behaviour might mean that the RAM isn't being detected (or is faulty). Different behaviour you haven't seen before suggests that it's something other than the RAM at fault.

    Will do.
    esuhl wrote: »
    Are you sure it's not:
    Continuous short beeps: Power error


    Now that you mention it, it could have been the lots of short beeps.:o It's only done that a couple of times. If it doesn't start, it has been stopping at 2 in the opening post - but... As said, once it went to that same place (2) when I opened a lot of tabs and it was a struggle to load them all.

    No problem starting at all today.
    esuhl wrote: »
    1GB RAM is the absolute bare minimum that Windows 7 requires to run... and even then it'll only run the 32-bit version.

    If you're not intending to upgrade the PC soon (and can get it working!) I'd definitely get 4GB RAM.

    That's the problem, the whole thing is old and well used. If I thought this was just the RAM, then I would get 4GB. If it's the PSU then I might need to think about a new mobo too? Rip the guts out of the case and rebuild?
    RENTING? Have you checked to see that your landlord has permission from their mortgage lender to rent the property? If not, you could be thrown out with very little notice.
    Read the sticky on the House Buying, Renting & Selling board.


  • grumpycrab
    grumpycrab Posts: 4,989 Forumite
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    Hard disk OK? HD Sentinel (or chkdsk) will check status (and I'm sure you'll have any important data already backed up :-)
    If you put your general location in your Profile, somebody here may be able to come and help you.
  • captainhaddock
    captainhaddock Posts: 60 Forumite
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    Sounds like your bios battery is low and is not retaining the bios settings - if it's the original battery it may be worth trying for the sake of a pound or two :)
  • esuhl
    esuhl Posts: 9,409 Forumite
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    MissMoneypenny wrote: »
    That's the problem, the whole thing is old and well used. If I thought this was just the RAM, then I would get 4GB.


    Assuming you have four RAM slots, you could buy another 1GB stick just to see if it fixes the problem. It should be pretty cheap, just make sure you know exactly what type of RAM you need.



    If it works, buy another two 1GB sticks.


    MissMoneypenny wrote: »
    If it's the PSU then I might need to think about a new mobo too? Rip the guts out of the case and rebuild?


    Hopefully not. Cheap PSUs can damage other components (which is why it's worth getting a quality one), but hopefully that hasn't happened.


    captainhaddock wrote: »
    Sounds like your bios battery is low and is not retaining the bios settings - if it's the original battery it may be worth trying for the sake of a pound or two :)


    Of course! I was going to say that and completely forgot! :o


    One thing you can try is leaving the PC off overnight, then booting up, going into the BIOS settings, and checking the time is correct. If not, you'll need to replace the CR2032 battery, and your BIOS settings may have been corrupted.


    If you can't replace the battery immediately, you could try re-saving the existing BIOS settings and rebooting. Or reset the settings to factory defaults, save and reboot.
  • MissMoneypenny
    MissMoneypenny Posts: 5,324 Forumite
    edited 11 July 2018 at 7:12PM
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    captainhaddock wrote: »
    Sounds like your bios battery is low and is not retaining the bios settings - if it's the original battery it may be worth trying for the sake of a pound or two :)


    It is the original battery. I have just bought some CR2032 batteries as my kitchen scale uses those. I'll replace that tonight, thanks.
    RENTING? Have you checked to see that your landlord has permission from their mortgage lender to rent the property? If not, you could be thrown out with very little notice.
    Read the sticky on the House Buying, Renting & Selling board.


  • MissMoneypenny
    MissMoneypenny Posts: 5,324 Forumite
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    esuhl wrote: »
    Assuming you have four RAM slots, you could buy another 1GB stick just to see if it fixes the problem. It should be pretty cheap, just make sure you know exactly what type of RAM you need.


    From what I recall, it is two slots. I have just been looking at the price of of a 2GB and it's not that bad a price. I'll order one and see if it is that.


    esuhl wrote: »
    Hopefully not. Cheap PSUs can damage other components (which is why it's worth getting a quality one), but hopefully that hasn't happened.

    It was the people on the now closed, buildyourown,org.uk who told me what to buy. I spoke about getting more RAM years ago on there and Valis told me to get 2GB x 2 DDR2. I just never got around to ordering them, even though the PC had slowed when I moved to 7.

    esuhl wrote: »
    One thing you can try is leaving the PC off overnight, then booting up, going into the BIOS settings, and checking the time is correct. If not, you'll need to replace the CR2032 battery, and your BIOS settings may have been corrupted.


    If you can't replace the battery immediately, you could try re-saving the existing BIOS settings and rebooting. Or reset the settings to factory defaults, save and reboot.


    I have that battery. Can I just put a new battery in? Without checking all that?
    RENTING? Have you checked to see that your landlord has permission from their mortgage lender to rent the property? If not, you could be thrown out with very little notice.
    Read the sticky on the House Buying, Renting & Selling board.


  • MissMoneypenny
    MissMoneypenny Posts: 5,324 Forumite
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    grumpycrab wrote: »
    Hard disk OK? HD Sentinel (or chkdsk) will check status (and I'm sure you'll have any important data already backed up :-)


    I have:). I learnt that the hard way when the HD failed on my last PC.:mad:
    RENTING? Have you checked to see that your landlord has permission from their mortgage lender to rent the property? If not, you could be thrown out with very little notice.
    Read the sticky on the House Buying, Renting & Selling board.


  • that
    that Posts: 1,532 Forumite
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    Not sure if your PC can boot of usb, but you could burn this below to cd and run through the tests of memory, cpu, motherboard and HDD - try all the tests :). It may fail on some test though which could be normal, just take note of the failures

    http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/
  • that
    that Posts: 1,532 Forumite
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    If your PC is faulty, before you buy any parts please remember you can on ebay get an old Dell 7010 which probably will have 4gb memory and 50% more cpu speed for less than £100

    http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Pentium-E5200-vs-Intel-Core-i3-3240/m1599vsm2133
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