[alexrule123]

My computer had been working great, then one morning i went to turn it on and it would power up for about 5 seconds and then it would power down. It goes through POST and then turns off and sometimes it even loads windows and works for a short time but it will eventually power down. i have tried switching the ram and only using one stick but that does not seem to be the problem, i am leaning towards a bad motherboard (even though the board is only a few months old) or power supply (maybe 1 year old). any help would be greatly appreciated

yep mostly like the board or power supply

[cheepjeep96]

Could be anything, really. Video card, NIC card, Or even the hard drive. or maybe just bad settings in the bios, try resetting it.

[alexrule123]

i will try resetting the bios

[kencaz]

I would say PS also.

Even it it was a bad card or memory the computer would only reset not shut down.

KC

[smoothrivers]

What kind of PC/Laptop is it? ACER machines will do this with memory errors, and will give no indication what so ever of what is wrong. Before you go to the expense of a motherboard and all the hassle it takes to make Winders work with one, try removing / replacing the memory. Do this one bank at a time if you have more than one memory bank populated.

[Kyoseki]

Is your speaker hooked up correctly? Most machines will give out beeps to indicate the problem.

1 long, 2 short = graphics card.

3 intermittent beeps = faulty memory

That kind of thing?

I think pepsi might be right though, probably a dodgy power supply.

[alexrule123]

resetting the bios had no effect

Originally Posted by smoothrivers

What kind of PC/Laptop is it? ACER machines will do this with memory errors, and will give no indication what so ever of what is wrong. Before you go to the expense of a motherboard and all the hassle it takes to make Winders work with one, try removing / replacing the memory. Do this one bank at a time if you have more than one memory bank populated.

it is a tower i built... 3.06ghz p4, 1gb ddr ram, 200gb hdd, radeon x800 pro video card, dvd burner, rosewill 450 watt power supply.

i have already tried removing and replacing the ram

Originally Posted by Kyoseki

Is your speaker hooked up correctly? Most machines will give out beeps to indicate the problem.

1 long, 2 short = graphics card.

3 intermittent beeps = faulty memory

That kind of thing?

I think pepsi might be right though, probably a dodgy power supply.

it only does 1 short beep, which means everything is ok

[alexrule123]

update: i tested all of the connections on the motherboard and upon moving the computer to an easier location to troubleshoot it, it works....crazy

[Kyoseki]

Originally Posted by alexrule123

update: i tested all of the connections on the motherboard and upon moving the computer to an easier location to troubleshoot it, it works....crazy

Aha! At least you have an idea what caused it, dodgy connection, what bugs me is stuff starts working fine again when you haven't found the problem.

[alexrule123]

Originally Posted by Kyoseki

Aha! At least you have an idea what caused it, dodgy connection, what bugs me is stuff starts working fine again when you haven't found the problem.

yeah it always makes me feel like it is going to break again

[BeachinXJ]

Most likely its that ****ty Power Supply you are running. Those things are horrible and don't filter out noise on your power lines. Although my first thought from your problem symptoms was something overheating or filled with dust.

Keep an eye on it for now. If you have a multimeter test the power supply rails (All of them).

Also - whoever posted the beep codes earlier - those varry by motherboard manufacturer.. so nice try, but always tell people to consult their manual for their specific trouble code sequences.

Originally Posted by BeachinXJ

Most likely its that ****ty Power Supply you are running. Those things are horrible and don't filter out noise on your power lines. Although my first thought from your problem symptoms was something overheating or filled with dust.

Keep an eye on it for now. If you have a multimeter test the power supply rails (All of them).

Also - whoever posted the beep codes earlier - those varry by motherboard manufacturer.. so nice try, but always tell people to consult their manual for their specific trouble code sequences.

x2

one thing not to go cheap on is psu

[CoriolisSTORM]

I once had a POS computer that Westwood's C&C Red Alert and Star Wars: Rebellion would corrupt the video card driver on it every time I played them. It had an onboard ATI VT3 (props to any of you that know or remember that POS or suffered its use.) And a computer depends upon a solid DC output, so your power supply could very well be a problem. Either its on or off, no inbetweens with computers voltage. Had any brownouts or anything like that lately either? That killed one of my power supplies.

[Kyoseki]

Originally Posted by CoriolisSTORM

It had an onboard ATI VT3 (props to any of you that know or remember that POS or suffered its use.)

Heh, I used to have a combined soundblaster 16/scsi 2 card, that thing was a right piece of crap and the first 15 minutes of any given call to Creative Tech Support were usually me trying to convince them that they actually made the thing...