I broke a PC :/

Dolby

Dolby

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I physically took my girlfriends PC that was working perfectly, moved it downstairs, opened the case, installed a wireless card, booted to see if it worked, shut down, removed card and took it upstairs again ....

Now the issue is it freezes - always. It seems at random points between 10 seconds - 20 minutes. I can boot up, walk away (without touching a thing), return and it's frozen. Obviously I've done something - but all I did was above.

What could it be? Possibly hardware?
 
dislogged a fan maybe?

check the temp settings sounds like its gettin a bit warm

guess you not gettin laid anytime soon eh
 
Try removing wireless card drivers and/or software if you can boot into safe mode. Does it at least work in safe mode?

EDIT: ^^thats if it's not a dislodged fan...could be..n1 killa :)
 
Check to make sure all the fans are still spinning. If you've accidentally pulled one of the fan cables out it could be going into thermal shutdown. Also try re-seat the RAM.
 
Dolby said:
I physically took my girlfriends PC that was working perfectly, moved it downstairs, opened the case, installed a wireless card, booted to see if it worked, shut down, removed card and took it upstairs again ....

Now the issue is it freezes - always. It seems at random points between 10 seconds - 20 minutes. I can boot up, walk away (without touching a thing), return and it's frozen. Obviously I've done something - but all I did was above.

What could it be? Possibly hardware?
Click to expand...

it is a bit late now, but wouldnt it have been easier to take the wireless card to the pc, instead of taking the pc to the wireless card, especially considering you have an upstairs and a downstairs to contend with
 
Renamed20070410 said:
it is a bit late now, but wouldnt it have been easier to take the wireless card to the pc, instead of taking the pc to the wireless card, especially considering you have an upstairs and a downstairs to contend with
Click to expand...

Yeah, big help you are! :p
 
Renamed20070410 said:
it is a bit late now, but wouldnt it have been easier to take the wireless card to the pc, instead of taking the pc to the wireless card, especially considering you have an upstairs and a downstairs to contend with
Click to expand...


LOL
 
Wow - check the replies. Let me answer one by one ...

killadoob ... I'm still getting laid ;)

Most others ... can't be heat as sometime it does it a minute after boot up? Surely not enough time for heat build up? Wireless card/software/drivers all off the PC ... and it did freeze in safe too.

Renamed ... I needed the wireless downstairs specifically :/
 
Then reseat the RAM ... that seems to be the most common problem for these kinds of situations
 
actually heat builds up big time while loading

i would check if i was you, click del at start up and check system temp or cpu temp etc

starting up puts quite a heavy load on your pc
 
1. Re-seat all cards and memory.
2. Check to see if heatsink shifted during move.
3. Check all cables for proper connection.
4. Light a candle and say a prayer to the gods.
5. Go for a walk.
6. Drink a beer.
7. Fiddle some more.
8. If nothing helped yet, disassemble entirely and reassemble.
 
teraside said:
It's the PSU, take my word for it ;)
Click to expand...

Ok ... why do you say that?

Reason I asked is that was what I thought too. I kinda had a hint as it feels really lose compared to my PCs and it needed to plug in, er, deeper ;)
 
I fixed a friends pc recently which had a similar problem, after I swapped the PSU it went away, but unfortunately permanent damage was done to the mobo, specifically the Cmos area of the board, no matter how many new Cmos batteries I tried, it still didn't save BIOS settings or keep the time etc.

Jumpers were fine, double checked them.

Get a friends PSU, or buy a spare, you never know when you might need it, swap it and check if it works ;)
 
Dolby said:
Most others ... can't be heat as sometime it does it a minute after boot up? Surely not enough time for heat build up? Wireless card/software/drivers all off the PC ... and it did freeze in safe too.
Click to expand...

It can be heat. If your CPU's fan is not running, it can overheat within a minute from starting and freeze the PC.

It can be dislodged RAM, but this is dubitable. It could be the PSU, which could mean replacing it. Lastly, if the mobo was hurt during the installation, then you're in hot water.

I would first open the box and re-seat the cards and the RAM. Then start up and check all the fans. If they're fine, then it could be that the CPU's heatsink was dislodged slightly during transit, although that's a remote possibility.

If you aren't comfortable with installing CPU's (including cleaning the heatsink and applying thermal paste), then get a professional to do that for you. Whilst you may not need to go through the cleaning/paste routine, it's a useful thing to do once-a-year
 
Out of interest - how much is a PSU? :/
 
That depends on the requirements. For a standard desktop/office-use PC, you can get a 350W cheapie for R300-R500. For a gaming PC with new performance components, you'd need something like a decent 500W (and higher) unit, costing R700 - R1000.
 
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