Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Swiss James]

I've had a few problems with a second hand PC I bought, it would shut itself down at random times, and then if I tried to turn it back on again, it would shut itself off even quicker.

I'm pretty sure it was getting too hot, probably because one of the fans in the case was at first not connected and then faulty.

It's reached the point now where when I turn the thing on all it does is emit one long beep, then three shorter beeps. That's it.
I'm thinking about cutting my losses and getting a nice new PC from Yongsan.

So my question is, what can I salvage from the old PC? There's an 80g HD that I'm definitely taking, some RAM that I assume will slot right into the new mother board, and the video card. All I think I need is a new chipset/motherboard and a case (this time with better fans).

Any thoughts? How much should I be looking to spend?

[Bulsajo]

The beeps are telling you of a specific hardware failure.

http://www.pchell.com/hardware/beepcodes.shtml


Standard Original IBM POST Error Codes:
1 long, 3 short beeps - Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA)

AMI BIOS Beep Codes:
1 Long, 3 Short Beeps - You've probably just added memory to the motherboard since this is a conventional or extended memory failure. Generally this is caused by a memory chip that is not seated properly. Reseat the memory chips.

[Giant]

Hi there,

Is that the system I sold you? If it is, it may be that the RAM is not inserted correctly. Have you tried unplugging the RAM and putting it back in?

Worse case senario is that there is a mainboard fault and you could get a new mainboard for about W100,000. You should be able to use all the other old parts, even the CPU.

Let me know, email me on [email protected].

Sorry for the hassles.

[cellphone]

i completely agree with the guy that said it's grafix card slot related, I had this on an older system about two years back exact same thing verbatim, everything you said. 1 long 3 short, mostly wouldn't turn on even though system fans and hd were spinning.

the quickest solution is to jiggle the graphics card with system off of course, then turn on -- the more aggressive way is to completely take card out and put back in perfectly (not too deep, not too loosly). Might take you a good 20 times before the system starts functioning normally again but of course the second you tap the grfx card again you start all over.

I would say 80% chance it's the motherboard VGA graphics card slot, try someone elses grfx card you might probably get the same thing. I would think the slot is just loose and weakened. Sounds like all other parts are fine. P.S. I don't know about that RAM error problem, never had that one.

[Swiss James]

Well now, the thing is that I'm heading back home for a while and had decided that my PC was knackered. So I took the graphics card, RAM, hard drives etc. etc. out of the thing, and was just going to trash the case and motherboard.

Then I posted on here and got a totally different response than the one I was expecting. So last night I reconnected the HD, graphics card and RAM, powered up and it worked no problem. Must have been either the RAM or the graphics working themselves loose I suppose.

It still shut itself down after about 30 minutes, as it was doing before I had the beeps. I had one side of the case off (I realise you're not supposed to do this) and the air con blasting so it seems strange it would heat up so quickly, but it does seem the logical explanation.
Won't have any chance to fix this before I head back but first stop is going to be (a) new fan(s) on the case.

[Giant]

Its wierd that you are having that problem, that system was my server for almost a year before I sold it to you and it had no problems.

I rekon a new VGA card would be in order, since that is the oldest thing on that system I think.

Are you overclocking it at all?

Let me know how it goes.

[Swiss James]

When I got the system the fan at the top of the case wasn't hooked up to the power, don't know if this happened when you were setting it up for me, or I accidentally unhooked it when adding another CD drive or soundcard (?)

After I connected it back up again the system ran fine for a while, but now I'm back to the overheating stuff- when I checked, the fan at the top seems to be running really slowly.

I'm not overclocking it- maybe it's a change in OS- were you running Win2K? Not sure why changing the video card would stop these kinds of shutdowns, I watch a fair number of TV shows from .AVI files, could this cause a problem on an old video card?

[Giant]

I also can't remember if I disconnected it. But in anycase, make sure that the main CPU fan is working well. What I would do is buy a new fan for it and get a good one with a high RPM. It might be a little noiser, but worth it in the end. Also, check the powersupply fan, make sure thats working.

As for the VGA card, I would only change it if you get more post beeps on startup. Otherwise the VGA card is adaquete for watching movies.

I was running Windows 2003 server on that system before I gave it to you.

[Gollum]

You scanned for viruses? There was that weird virus that would cause shutdowns a few months back.

[the_beaver]

[SuperFly]

http://www.microsoft.com/security/incident/sasser.mspx#steps



http://housecall.trendmicro.com/housecall/start_corp.asp

[Swiss James]

I seem to remember Sasser would give you a warning and a countdown of when the computer was going to die though no?

I'm pretty sure this is an overheating thing because
a) it will happen after about 30-40 mins use if I haven't used the PC for a while, but if I then restart directly after a crash it'll die again within a few minutes
b) if I've been restarting a lot, it won't even get to the stage of loading Windows, or can crash whilst I'm trying to choose Safe Mode from the F4 (?) menu.

No worries, I'll get the fans sorted out after my summer break and see how things are from there.

[Bulsajo]

[Swiss James]

[Giant]

Did you make sure the CPU fan is spinning fast enough? I would suspect that that would be all thats wrong with the system. Of course something else could be wrong, but thats where I would start looking.