Computer does not boot

[Spinne]

Hi,
I'll start with a short description of the problem. After months of smooth running, my PC started giving me issues. Occasionally, the system would just freeze and I'd be unable to do anything at all, not even move the mouse. At other times, it would give weird grahical corruption while freezing at the same time. This would occur in Windows (XP Pro), duruing startup, and occasionally even during POST and in the BIOS. When i would manage to get to the BIOS, I'd find that the 3.3V line was undergoing an undervolt, showing between 2.7V and 2.8 V. Sometimes, the PC would refuse to POST. The fans would start turning and then just go out after an instant. After trying to find the source of the problem, I gave up and took the PC down to the helpdesk at my school. The tech and I sat down and removed verious cards and drives until magically the problem fixed itself. After putting everything back inside, I set the PC back up in my room and it worked fine for another two weeks. Today the exact same thing started happening again.
Does anyone have any idea as to what the problem could be?

Specs
AMD Athlon 3500+ (skt 939)
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum
2 * Corsair PC3200 DDR400 CLPT 512Mb Sticks
Radeon 9700Pro
Creative Audigy2 ZS
Thermaltake Purepower Butterfly 480W PSU
36Gb SATA Raptor HDD
200GB WD Caviar SE HDD
DVD-ROM
CD-RW
Floppy

 

[engineereeyore]

The problem reeks of a power supply issue, though another possibility is ram. I used to work at my colleges computer help desk and we'd often find that dusk or something else got into a ram slot. You'd never imagine the problems that can cause. Since the ram in easier to do than the power supply, I would try removing the ram, blow out the slots to make sure they're clean of anything, and then reseat you ram. If that doesn't work, you may want to have your power supply tested. Your help desk should have a tester.

Good luck

 

[Spinne]

Thanks for the advice. I'll try cleaning the RAM slots and post back.

 

[stevty2889]

Yeah, thermaltakes are ok, but definatly not the best, so I would also supsect a PSU issue. As for your 3.3v rail reading low in bios, I wouldn't really trust software monitoring. Strange thing is that my 3.3v rail on my 420w thermaltake does the same thing, shows the rail low at around 1.5v, but at a steady 3.29 with a multimeter.

 

[Spinne]

Just tried cleaning the RAM slots out. Unfortunately, I ran out of air (low cannister). The slot close to the CPU was very dusty and I'm not sure I managed to get all the dust out before I ran out of air (I could still see some). It did seem to help as the PC booted into the BIOS just fine. I'm going to go get another can of air tomorrow and try again before going to the helpdesk on Monday.
In case it is the power supply, how do you test it? The people at the helpdesk don't really have the equipment to test the powersupply, or so they say. Thanks again.

 

[Spinne]

Originally posted by: stevty2889
Yeah, thermaltakes are ok, but definatly not the best, so I would also supsect a PSU issue. As for your 3.3v rail reading low in bios, I wouldn't really trust software monitoring. Strange thing is that my 3.3v rail on my 420w thermaltake does the same thing, shows the rail low at around 1.5v, but at a steady 3.29 with a multimeter.

Hmm, I had read some reviews before buying the Thermaltake, and all the reviews had assured me that it's a solid PSU.

 

[stevty2889]

The Thermaltake is a decent bargain PSU, but I would never trust one with my main rig, while my replacement has been running ok for about a year now, the first one died for no apperant reason after 3 days. They are pretty light weight, and have a weak 12v rail for being 420w. My 350w enermax weighs more and has 26a on the 12v rail, compared to 18a on the thermaltake. Even the 300w Antec in my Aria has 18a on the 12v rail..

 

[Spinne]

Ok, cleaned the RAM slots out, but still no luck. Any suggestions?