PC Repair Question

[guyver01]

Not sure if this is the right forum.. feel free to move if ya need to.


I have an HP Media Center PC... its about 3 years old... and now the pc is 'locking up' ... it will boot... i can use it for a few minutes... the it freezes up. I cant move the mouse, can't use the keyboard... nothing works.

My mouse is USB and it loses power... if i unplug the mouse and plug it back in.. it gets power back, but i still cant use the mouse...

The keyboard also locks up. I cant press any of the keys.. even the num lock light wont change when i press.

I'm thinking the motherboard is going bad...

any ideas? am i looking in the right place?

[Peter]

I'd tend to think that rather than the mainboard, you either have a dying power supply there, or some heat problem. Open it up and check for any fans not spinning and dust clogged heatsinks and air vents.

[Ksyder]

I agree completely with Peter... also maybe take a look at the capacitors and see if any are bulging or leaking. 3 years ago??? Caps could maybe still be suspect.

[alocurto]

I would check for ait flow like Peter said. Heat makes stuff go crazy. I have also had caps blow but my results with that have been everything not working, not just acting flaky.

[corkyg]

Heat makes for flakiness. One thing to do is wipe off the DIMM sticks. When memory gets very dusty, the heat buildup can result in such flakiness.