Hello everyone. First time visitor and poster to these forums. I have a problem that has developed and I'm not sure what direction to go and since I know the least about power thought I'd start here.

About a month we had a heat spell and the computer sits in a room that's a little warm (above garage). Computer started randomly shutting down and upon reboot i noticed it said the CPU was at 107 degrees. I left it alone until after dark when the room cooled down. It started fine and has ran fine since. However, I have heard random high pitched noise (not a hard drive failing noise, I've heard that before, more like a fan maybe).

Two nights ago it just shut down again for no reason. I tried to reboot and it sounded like it rebooted fine but the monitor never came back on. The little signal light on the monitor is just flashing. I tried swapping in an old video card I had nothing, same thing, computer sounds like it's running, all fans are running but nothing on the monitor, little light just blinking. Then, powerstrip went out. Dead. No power even to my lamp. I then plugged the computer and the monitor directly to the wall, same thing as before, computer and fans running and monitor light just flashing.

So...is it a power thing? A heat thing? Have I now ruined the motherboard, just the vid card port, the monitor itself? Pretty lost.

I plan on taking it to a friends house to use his monitor to try and rule out the monitor. But, if it's not the monitor then not sure where to go.

I have a 200watt power supply (I know this is low from what I've read today)
1.1 ghz Athlon
1gb PC133 RAM
GeForce 2 Vid card
Not sure of motherboard type, Soyo i think.
Rewriteable cd drive
DVD drive
Not sure on sound card
Cable internet card

Thanks for your time and any suggestions.

Welcome to http://www.pcguide.com/ubb/pcgubb.gif

When you say the temp got up to 107, did you mean Centigrade or Fahrenheit? If it was 107C, that is really hot and you probably do have some major damage. If it was 107F, it is not a problem and the situation is probably less dire...

The power strip dying on you suggests that you have an erratic power source. You probably need to pick up a Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) and use it. A 200watt power supply is pretty limited and it is quite possible that it has failed partially. Does it have a fan in it and does that fan seem to be running?

Your next move probably needs to be a barebones boot. Disconnect all drives and try to boot with just one stick RAM, keyboard, video, motherboard/CPU, power, case speaker and power switch. If you don't get a POST beep, it is likely to be the video, power, motherboard and/or the CPU. If you get POST, you may have insufficient power or one of the drives may be causing the problem. Also, the RAM could still be the issue. Post back with what you find out so that we can suggest next steps.

I had a similar situation when my CPU fan was getting old and started to make squeaking/squawking noises.
I suspect it was shorting the PSU and causing an intermittent failure to successfully complete the POST [success is indicated by a single beep].
The problem disappeared when I replaced the old with a new fan.

You could use a copy of my diagnostic charts.
Download them from here
www.erniek.eclipse.co.uk/downloads/sylvanderdiags.zip
or send me a personal message requesting them [zipped or not] and giving an e-mail address to send them to.
My copies are the first to be updated/amended and I send updates to those who get them by e-mail.

I couldn't say for sure on the 107 degrees, it passed by so quickly I never payed attention although that is a great point.

I will try the bare bones boot tonight. I know for sure I am not getting that initial beep I believe you are talking about.

On a side note, I had been thinking about a new case anyway so I'll probably go ahead and order one with a larger power supply and new fan just to be safe there.

I also had been putting off the surge protector so will look into the UPS unit you mentioned, Budfred.

I had just added a 512mb RAM stick shortly before the intial heating problems a couple month's ago but just assumed it was the temperature of the room at the time.

I took a quick look at your chart there, Sylvander. Quick question, one of your questions asked Is your Internal Speaker working? Dumb question, but how do I know? I know I'm not getting the POST beep.

Thanks again and I'll post back tomorrow with what I find tonight.

Keep in mind that many of the power supplies that come with cases are very low quality. I had one the worked a grand total of about 15 minutes before it died. Make sure you check out the power supply if get it included in the case. Antec and Enermax are 2 of the better brands.

If your case speaker was working befor the problem started, it is probably still working. You would know it was working if you were normally gettting that little POST beep at startup before this problem began...

If you are in the USA, I think OfficeMax has a nice UPS for $40 after rebates this week. You can find them cheaper sometimes, but I wouldn't put it off for long...

The STARTUP Diagnostic Flowchart = DF1 has:

1. Is the internal speaker working?
2. If the answer is "Don't know", then:
3. "Startup with no RAM to check for beeps".

If you remove the RAM and run STARTUP, the BIOS will give an error beep code.
If you hear no error beep code, then [almost certainly] the speaker is not working.

Except that if you are not getting a POST beep at all, you will quite possibly not get a RAM error beep either which means you may incorrectly conclude that the speaker is not working.... If the motherboard is toast, the BIOS is shot or the CPU is dead, I'm pretty sure the machine ain't going to beep no matter how hardy the speaker is...

Any ideas for an improvement?

Okay,
Took the monitor to a friends and it worked fine, so ruled that out.

Tried the bare bones boot and same thing, nothing, just the whirring of the fans, no beeps.

Tried the same thing with just the one stick of 512 ram, nodda.

Beginning to believe it's the motherboard that's gone bad and perhaps caused by the unstable power thing.

Sorry Sylvander, I should read more carefully. I did not try to boot with zero RAM sticks but I know the internal speaker was working right up until the final system shutdown two days ago. I will try the boot with no RAM tonight.

I'm about to the point where I'm thinking it's time to order a new motherboard and with it a new power supply. My wife really needs it working for school and I'm starting to get the withdrawal's, haha. I've found an Antec case with an Antec 300w or 350w supply I guess. I need to research the motherboards a little more as I think I might as well make the switch from pc133 ram to a newer type. I'll still be keeping my Athlon AMD processor. Also went to Officemax and found a UPS I'm gonna pick up.

Any other suggestions or things to try before I spend the cash on the new motherboard or are you leaning the same way I am?

Thanks again for all the help. I can trouble shoot many minor things but this one had confused.

Budfred's idea is interesting:

If you remove the RAM and still get no beep, then there is definitely something amiss.
If it is not with the speaker, then it would be with one of those things on the motherboard he mentioned.

Have you tried swapping out the video card?

Yeah, first thing I tried mjc. Wish it would have been that cause I would have loved the excuse to upgrade the vid card. ;)

The only drawback to getting a new motherboard is that the problem could be the CPU. The only way I know to confirm which is the problem is to swap them out with a known good compatible system. You can certainly buy the mobo and see if it works, then return it and buy another CPU if it doesn't, but your friendly neighborhood computer store might not appreciate that if it does turn out to be the CPU. Even worse, it could be both....:eek:

Howdy again,
Well I got the new motherboard in the mail last night, plugged it into the new case, hooked everything up and same thing. Sounds like it wants to startup but no POST beep at all and just sits there with fans running.

Does this pretty much guarantee that the CPU is bad? Either by itself or in combination with the motherboard.

I wanted to ask if it could be anything else before I send off the order for the new CPU. From the sounds of people I've spoken to both on and off the boards it sounds like the CPU is the next step though.

I would seriously look into a larger power supply at this time. If you haven't verified all voltage legs, I am suspecting it may be toast. 200 watts is quite a bit too small to be running 2 cd type devices, a gig of RAM, XP I assume which ties up lots of resources which in turn demands more from your CPU which causes it to use up more current, so on and so forth. A video card, sound card, LAN card, everything is using some power.

You've got way tooo many people in that Volkswagon Beetle my friend, there's arms, legs, pieces and parts sticking out all over the place!!! :eek:

Barebones boot may have been introduced after the damage was done. You know you need a new PSU, need I say more?

The fans run on 12 volts, is there any way for you to test the other power legs? Ahh, don't bother, for your next one don't go under 350 from a reliable manufacturer and you'll be golden unless you're going to need to make a server or similar.

Horsepower starts at the PSU, NOT the processor, RAM or OS. They just utilize it in varying ways. ;)

I've been updating my charts to try and take account of this kind of situation, especially where it may involve the PSU and/or motherboard.

How's this for a sequence?

STARTUP
1. Is PC dead? No.
2. Did POST appear to run? No.
3. Any beeps? No.
4. Is the internal speaker working? Don’t know.
5. Startup with no RAM; Are there any beeps? No.
6. Go to DF4 NO POST

NO POST
1. Are PSU voltages correct? If not got to DF10a ATX POWER SUPPLY.
If they are ok, then:
2. Disconnect all peripherals and system adaptor cards except keyboard & monitor/video card.
3. Does POST now run? No.
4. System board [or something on it] is faulty.

ATX POWER SUPPLY
In it’s present form this is only useful when the PC appears dead.
Does anyone have any idea how to check out an ATX Power Supply displaying other symptoms?
Like when the voltages are off?

Thanks again folks. I'll find out today when the new CPU shows up. Pretty much bought all new parts from the ground up. Crazy how things just keep adding up.

Bought Antec case and 350watt power supply, new battery backup, new motherboard with 1gb of DDR RAM, new CPU (not installed yet) and figured while I was at it, bought larger hard drive. Suddenly realizing this wasn't just a quick fix but a whole brand new upgraded computer if it works out. Sheesh!

Now I just gotta figure out how to hide all the charges on the credit card from Mrs. Mathue!! :)

You think she'll buy the explanation that it's an early anniversary gift??? :)

Maybe if you explain that it is an early anniversary gift for you and you are going to take the equivalent amount (plus a little extra guilt money) to buy her jewelry....:D :p