pc keeps crashing, what to do

[hmmmnz]

hey guys my win 7 pc keeps crashing, no blue screen of death,
it just dies then starts back up again,
how do i find out whats wrong??

its an older hp7100 P4 2.8Ghz 4 gig of ram
____________________
the humans are dead
I kick arse for the lord
Wiring Diagrams BIDNIP it bitches

[Pete.]

Overheating can cause this. Open it up and check the fans are all turning. Clean out any dust & fluff by brushing with a clean paintbrush, DON'T use a hoover on the boards.

If it's clean and the fans are turning remove all but one of the memory modules. If it still does it swap that module. If it still does it re-fit the memory coz it's not that.
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a.k.a 'Geri'

132.9mph off and walked away. Gear is good, gear is good, gear is very very good

[Hetzer]

Could be the PSU crapping out.
____________________
"There's the horizon! Ride hard, ride fast and cut down all who stand in your way!"

[Syris D Indomitable]

Yeah as mentioned above blow all the dust out, plus any BIOS beeps will give us a clue.
3 beeps is normally the RAM.
Any page files??
Any BIOS peeps?

[chris-red]

I agree with Hetz and Pete.

If it is overheating usually it will be easy to notice, it will crap out at about roughly the same time from cold and if you restart it after the crash it will crash again quickly. You could also some utilities such as www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/ to keep an eye on the CPU temp but it could be the graphics over heating which this will not monitor.

If it is a PSU it will be harder to diagnose best bet is to find another one and test that.

RAM is less likely but the easiest way to test that is to only use one a stick at a time if you find any bad sticks.
____________________
Well, you know what they say. If you want to save the world, you have to push a few old ladies down the stairs.
Skudd:- Perhaps she just thinks you are a window licker and is being nice just in case she becomes another Jill Dando.
WANTED:- Fujinon (Fuji) M42 (Screw on) lenses, let me know if you have anything.

[hmmmnz]

hey guys cheers for the help,
i had suspected it was overheating as well, so had speedfan installed and was watching it, it would sit under 40'C and would max at about 45'C so probably not the issue,

i have done windows memory test on it and dropped it down to 1 gig of ram (4x1g sticks)

there is no beeps from the bios, i just dies,

its getting to the point now where its luck of the draw if it even gets to stage of running windows,
some times it'll get there and run for a few days then die,
alot of the time it'll just die as it trys to start windows,

psu= power supply i gather, i guess it could be that, what voltages should it be running??

i suppose i should start looking for a new pc, this one has done me 10 years


____________________
the humans are dead
I kick arse for the lord
Wiring Diagrams BIDNIP it bitches

[Syris D Indomitable]

[Scotsman37]

Possibly a poorly seated graphics card or it's fan (if it has one) is possibly clogged with dust. So, if it can't keep cool then it will definitely cause the computer to shutdown.

Either way your computer is now getting a bit long in the tooth for running Windows 7, and remember you've had ten years use out of it! So, it's time to retire it and get possibly i3/i5/i7 laptop/desktop system that can handle all the current games out there!!!

[Frost]

Try running it with just the one stick of ram, try swapping that for another stick and see if it still does it. My money is on the power supply however. I've had more power supplies fail than any other part.

[Jenks]

as a simple rule out - your not running Evaluation Windows 7 are you? Because this will do what you describe...

Also.. Go to Control panel > System > Advanced > Startup and recovery > Untick Automatically restart... that way youll be able to see the BSOD if it does kick one up.
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[hmmmnz]

ok this is the state of it,


i have tryed running on 1 stick of ram, then when it crashed tryed a different stick, then tryed different ram slots,
still kept crashing,

i removed my graphics card and just used the onboard card, still kept crashing,

disconnected the dvd drive and 2nd 2tb hard drive,
still crashing,

installed ubuntu to see if it was the os,
guess what? still crashed,
my win 7 is ultimate 32bit edition

its running at between 30-40'C (86-104'f) all cooling fins clear, all fans running sweet,

no blue screen of death


i know its 10years old but its a p4 3.2Ghz with 4 gig of ram and it used to run sweet as with everything i do,
i don't play games, all i do is watch movies and tv and draw wiring diagrams, its been running win 7 now for over a year

i have bought a new slimline computer which will be delivered in the next day or 2.. but i didnt read the specs properly....
it has no spare sata slots, and only 1x 2.5" solid state drive
so if i can i'd like to keep this one running as my server for my data


i guess the only thing left to try is the power unit
____________________
the humans are dead
I kick arse for the lord
Wiring Diagrams BIDNIP it bitches

[chris-red]

If it isn't the PSU it will be something really horrible that I very much doubt you could diagnose. Might as well try a bios update, find out what motherboard it is and update the bios. It has fixed a few strange issues for me before. Don't hold your breath though.
____________________
Well, you know what they say. If you want to save the world, you have to push a few old ladies down the stairs.
Skudd:- Perhaps she just thinks you are a window licker and is being nice just in case she becomes another Jill Dando.
WANTED:- Fujinon (Fuji) M42 (Screw on) lenses, let me know if you have anything.

[hmmmnz]

i did think of doing a bios upgrade, but the program wanted me to save the file to a floppy, who the fuck has a floppy disc these days??

i'll see if i can find a power supply for the dam thing and i'll see if i can buy a floppy some where,
do shops still even sell floppys?? 1.4meg hehe
i havn't used one since windows 3.11,


edit: whats the story of your avatar? its kind of disturbing
____________________
the humans are dead
I kick arse for the lord
Wiring Diagrams BIDNIP it bitches

[sickpup]

As it still hapens when run as a bare bones system I would do a visual check on the capacitors on the motherboard as they may need replacing.

[Scotsman37]

The other possibility is that both of your memory dimms could be damaged, PSU is beginning to fail or something seriously had gone wrong with the motherboard or processor itself.

Option see if someone you know allows you use of their dimms and/or PSU to narrow down whats gone wrong with your system.

I believe that Poundland still sell floppy disks!

[chris-red]

[hmmmnz]

well something finally happened,
the computer wont turn on now and the error led flashes 4 times,
which indicates

[Hetzer]

Ha! "Get iiiin there!"
____________________
"There's the horizon! Ride hard, ride fast and cut down all who stand in your way!"

[hmmmnz]

a big thanks to all you guys, i really do appreciate it,
i'll keep ya posted with the results,

good old bcf helpin'me fix me puter
not quite as simple as a bike
____________________
the humans are dead
I kick arse for the lord
Wiring Diagrams BIDNIP it bitches

[hmmmnz]

well she's alive again,
resigned now to be my server,
but alive again thanks to a new power supply.. and you guys
hopefully she'll live another 10 years,
pretty monumental if she does, pretty impressive that its made it this long to be fair

thanks again bcf'rs
____________________
the humans are dead
I kick arse for the lord
Wiring Diagrams BIDNIP it bitches