Computer Care Tech Tips

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Tell Tale PC Symptoms
© designjetparts.com 07/11/2011

Here are some simple and almost always true rules about PC problems.

If your PC boots to the desktop but then restarts, and constantly restarts over and over.
Most often it is a bad or weak power supply. Sometimes it can also be a failed peripheral device such as a secondary hard drive, CD / DVD rom drive or another device that connects to the power supply with a 4 pin plug.

Follow up:

Shut down the computer.
Disconnect all peripheral devices, extra hard drives, CD and DVD Rom drives or floppy drive (you need only remove the power connectors), while the computer is shut off. Leave only your primary boot hard drive connected. Try and restart, if your computer restarts normally, shut down and add your devices back one by one until the offending device is found. If the computer still restarts over and over as before, you are likely to have a weak power supply.
You will need to replace the power supply.

A PC that runs for a period of time but then freezes.
Freezes as in the mouse is stuck on the screen and will not move, the pc is unresponsive to any keyboard sequences. If this behavior recurs almost if not every time you run the PC chances are the CPU (processor) is overheating. Check for obstructions or dirt preventing airflow through the cpu heat sink also check for non functional cpu fan. Proper airflow is very important to maintaining a proper temperature on today’s CPUs.
Clear any obstructions or anything preventing the CPU fan from turning, or replace the CPU fan as required.

Power lights come on but nothing happens.
Computer will not boot, it will not show the POST (power on self test) screen. If there are no beeping sounds coming from the motherboard speaker. Other than the power light the computer is unresponsive.
Bad power supplies that have not completly died yet will often times cause this. The easy way to check this is disconnect the power from the installed power supply. Disconnect the 20 or 24 pin power supply connector from the motherboard. Connect a new power supply 20 or 24 pin connector to the motherboard. Connect the AC power to the new power supply. Press the power switch on the computer.
IF the computer starts to POST then shut it down and finish swapping out the power supply.
IF nothing happens, more often than not it is a dead CPU, but sometimes it is a bad motherboard.

Computer boots and some times runs but strange and completely unrelated error messages pop up.
Some times the errors occur during boot up and some times after the computer is running. The error messages do not make sense and you can never pin them to any one program or process. Usually this is bad memory. Use another computer to download memtest to a CD Rom and boot the computer from the CD. Run the tests. If you have bad memory it should find it. This condition frequently displays itself when attempting to install or reinstall your operating system.

When all hope is lost, DiskCheck is your friend. You may need to eliminate the possibility of bad or corrupted blocks or sectors on the hard drive and disk check will do this for you.

When attempting to troubleshoot PC problems, especially boot problems, remember to disconnect unnecessary devices. Disconnect unneeded CD or DVD rom drives, extra hard drives, remove PCI or PCI Express sound, NIC, Video or other cards. Try to start the computer with just the minimum amount of hardware. Then add the devices back one at a time once you get the PC to boot.

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