Solved a fault on my pc

[Old timer]

Of late I`ve noticed a couple of times that my internet pc has closed down all on it`s own. Thinking it might have been when MS downloaded an update and it didn`t boot properly. Then two days ago it closed down while I was using it on the net, I rebooted and after 2 mins it closed down and so it went on. I had fitted a new power supply two months ago so thought that it might be faulty so I stuck a spare in and still the same. Anyway, after speaking to a good friend (Mr PC I call him) he told me to check to see if the cpu heat sink was firmly in place. Sure enough, one of the fixing lugs on the MB bracket had snapped and there was movement where the heat sink wasn`t in proper contact with the cpu and it was shutting down as it over heated. I fixed the broken bracket by using a small cable tie to hold that corner down till I sourced a new mount and it is fine now.

Just thought I`d share as I`m told by my friend that it is a lot more common than you would think and many people trash the pc for a new one thinking it`s the motherboard and not economical to replace.

Dave

 

[Fab Foodie]

Recently had similar (I had a thread about it). In my case the heat sinks were clogged with dust. Quick brush and gentle hoover it's been right as rain.

 

[rh100]

Good one Old Timer


Also worth bearing in mind is that there is a layer of thermal paste between the cpu and heatsink, sometimes it's worth checking and replacing if necessary.

 

[Old timer]

Good one Old Timer


Also worth bearing in mind is that there is a layer of thermal paste between the cpu and heatsink, sometimes it's worth checking and replacing if necessary.

Yeh, I buy a tube when I build a new pc and can never find it a couple of years down the line

 

[ASC1951]

when I build a new pc

You build your own? Chapeau!

 

[rh100]

Yeh, I buy a tube when I build a new pc and can never find it a couple of years down the line

lol, I bought a massive tube of it once, used it once and next time I came to use it, it had gone solid I buy when I need it now

 

[nigelb]

Better to get a tiny tube of the latest technology in heatsink compound, along with cpu and heatsink, when you need it.

I always used to assemble my own pc's (done over a dozen for work too), but nowadays it costs much more to do so, and generally an off the shelf barebones system is more than powerful enough for what I need (linux and Windows 2000). Sometimes need to get a decent graphics card (spent almost as much on that as the rest of the pc!), but with the price of 22" flat screens now, a cracking syytem doesn't need a specialist to design it.

Nige

 

[rh100]

I always used to assemble my own pc's (done over a dozen for work too), but nowadays it costs much more to do so, and generally an off the shelf barebones system is more than powerful enough for what I need (linux and Windows 2000). Sometimes need to get a decent graphics card (spent almost as much on that as the rest of the pc!), but with the price of 22" flat screens now, a cracking syytem doesn't need a specialist to design it.

Nige

Yeah, I've built my own pc's since about '94. It was worth doing then and old habits die hard. I like to know what is going into the machine, and have never bought a PC off the shelf except for laptops. But with laptops dropping in price it's hardly worth building a new pc outright.

Mine have just been continually upgraded bit by bit, with the castoffs morphing into yet another PC I always think of my PC as been the same one I first built, just everything upgraded several times (A bit like triggers broom - he had the same one for years, it just had 4 new heads and 7 new handles)

 

[Old timer]

The last one I built ( for Adobe Photoshop work) was a quad core with 8 Gb of ram and she can handle just about anything I throw at her. The files from a 21million pixel camera when converted and with a few layers added for good measure are quite big.
I use two monitors to give me more room when working on images. My internet pc is connected to the smaller monitor so I can switch around when need be. The reason I use two pc`s is to keep my images away from virus attack. It`s funny really, one of my images are so much bigger than the hard that I first started out with when windows came out.

I`m quite lucky( as I said earlier) a good friend is on the end of a phone line so anything I can`t sort out myself he talks me through.

 

[Miquel In De Rain]

I fixed my PC it kept turning off so I hot wired the power button.

 

[fossyant]

Watch those fans too.....I've got about 7 fans in my system, the 'big extractor' packed in...I wondered why there was a stack of heat coming from the back of the monitor area......and the graphics card's fan kept kicking in.... then realised the front case was hot...... stripped.... loads of fluff and the big fan had stopped.... Finish Line Ceramic had that sorted in a jiffy....