Big problems. Not sure about cause.

[RJ77]

It started with my dad's computer not wanting to detect one or both boot devices on IDE channel 1 (HD and DVD). The first couple times I thought it might be a loose connection or bad data cable so I tried switching cables. It was fine for a while then it started doing it again.

Then my dad recieved a message from the board monitor (Intel 845DBVL board) stating the power supply voltage was out side the normal range. This led me to believe it might be a bad power supply (THe PS is generic. I know, big no no but I was on a tight budget).

However he has also been experiencing intermittenent crashes and lockups. In the last one Windows XP did a memory stack dump. Now I was starting to suspect the mobo as the culprit.

The kicker is, I took his harddrive and installed on my computer to back up his data (since I don't want to risk turning his comp on again) and it froze my computer on bootup! I took the drive out and my comp was fine.

So now I'm really stumped. Is it a bad ps? mobo? Is a bad ps frying the other hardware? The last possibilty I'm considering (given the hd's behavior on both comps) is a possible virus.

I need help with this one. I'm stumped and not sure where to go next.

 

[xXgambitXx]

normally i would of suggested that you try ripping everything out except the essentials and just added stuff on one by one until you find who the culprit is. but it looks like you found it. it sounds like the hard drive is screwed. there are a couple of ways to go about fixing it. what brand is it ? each manufacturer has a diagnostic program on their website that will fix or at least diagnose the problem. Western Digital's program saved me a couple times when i first started building and didn't know what i was doing. then there's the possiblities of a virus like you said. it's got to be the hard drive.

 

[RJ77]

The hd is a WD Caviar 40gig. But it's not the drive. I ran a diagnostic on it. Also not a virus. The leaves the mobo or the ps.

 

[RJ77]

Bump