Enforced Absence

arctoa

arctoa

Seasoned
Location
Northumbria, UK
Hallo folks. My computer decided to become a large black box that makes white noise today, so I'm not sure when I'm next going to be logging in to the server. I need to work out what is wrong with my machine, although I don't know where to start! If it's going to be a costly fix it will have to wait because my car - also broken - takes priority.

Happy days.
 
Sure. Last night my computer made a low-ish buzz note through the speakers for a second or two, then I lost signal to the monitors. The computer still appeared to be running - or, at least, the fans were spinning. If anything they spooled up a little. Anyway, the machine was completely non-responsive and I had to turn it off via the plug - pressing or holding the power or reset buttons didn't do anything.

I turned it on this morning and it booted fine, and I was using it as normal thinking it must've just been a one-off issue, but it did the same thing again after maybe an hour or two of use - the beep through the audio, the loss of signal, and then the machine being turned on, but unresponsive.

It now doesn't boot at all. I press the power button to turn the machine on and it comes to life, but there is no signal to the monitors and it's immediately unresponsive: I had to turn it off via the plug again. I haven't tried again since because I assume that cycling power like that isn't going to be doing the rest of the hardware any good.

I'm going to haul it out from under the desk later this evening or tomorrow morning to check that everything inside the case is securely connected but beyond that I don't really know what to do next - I can just-about put a machine together but troubleshooting is beyond me.

Any help would be appreciated.
 
Yes haul it out and open it up. It may be something as simple as overheating, perhaps it's full of dust & fluff or a faulty or badly seated card.

If it's not obvious the best technique is to disconnect everything not vital, ie 1 x monitor, KB & mouse then test
 
It sounds A LOT like overheating or a loose connection to your GPU. Open it up, clean it out, make sure your fans aren't full of dust, and make sure all your parts are connected correctly.
 
also check that your Fans are still moving when the pc is on. (if it comes back to life) we recently cleaned out our main pc and mine and my front fan that brings in cold air was dead..... and the extractor fan of main pc needed a funeral.
 
Whenever my computer starts acting strange I give it a thorough clean too. I take it outside, turn the compressor on, and blow huge cloud of dust out of it. It usueally helps.
 
Sorry to hear that arctoa! Fingers crossed it’s something simple and you’re back up soon. I wonder if any tech savvy Hangouters live local to you and will work for beer. :)
 
Mine recently did almost the same thing, luckily i just needed a new monitor. If your unit is hdmi capable, try hooking it in to the tv to see if you have signal.
 
I have a three-monitor setup so I don't think it's that - also the fact that the computer refuses to even turn itself off when it happens suggests that it's not just the monitors. I can check, though: I've got another old one kicking around somewhere.

As it is I've come down with a chest infection - timing! - so progress on the PC is super-slow. I'll report back in once I've gone through all the troubleshooting that has been mentioned so far.
 
Hallo folks; it's been a while, so I thought I'd check in.

There's still no progress on fixing my computer, annoyingly - my car's ABS pump broke a couple of weeks ago and I'm having to get that fixed first - a minimum of £900! - so it might be a while before I'm back. At this rate we'll be on to a new season by the time I am!
 
Sounds like His CPU might need a clean. Or its the hard drive making the noise. if you have cleaned it like the others have said, and you still hear the sound, try listing to the fans, depending on your system spec you should have about 3 fans, 1 for the power 1 for the CPU and one for your GPU check each one, if it is a fan it is easy to replace then and not that much to get a good one for a good price.
 
arctoa said:
Sure. Last night my computer made a low-ish buzz note through the speakers for a second or two, then I lost signal to the monitors. The computer still appeared to be running - or, at least, the fans were spinning. If anything they spooled up a little. Anyway, the machine was completely non-responsive and I had to turn it off via the plug - pressing or holding the power or reset buttons didn't do anything.

I turned it on this morning and it booted fine, and I was using it as normal thinking it must've just been a one-off issue, but it did the same thing again after maybe an hour or two of use - the beep through the audio, the loss of signal, and then the machine being turned on, but unresponsive.

It now doesn't boot at all. I press the power button to turn the machine on and it comes to life, but there is no signal to the monitors and it's immediately unresponsive: I had to turn it off via the plug again. I haven't tried again since because I assume that cycling power like that isn't going to be doing the rest of the hardware any good.

I'm going to haul it out from under the desk later this evening or tomorrow morning to check that everything inside the case is securely connected but beyond that I don't really know what to do next - I can just-about put a machine together but troubleshooting is beyond me.

Any help would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
From the description i would of said over heating to but it could be a dying power supply also. Especaily if you are just pressing power and only the fans or power led showing on the case (to show a sign of life but no signal on the monitor its possible ,its no longer supplying enough power to the cpu itself. Could also just need the cmos clearing and it may well come back to life but my advice is start with the power supply to try and diagnose the issue.
 
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