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NEED HELP diagnosing whats wrong with my computer.!!

inf1nity

inf1nity

Golden Member
Hi guys i need some help to figure out whats wrong with my computer. I am short on money which means i can't just throw everything away and buy a new one, that's why i asking for help. Also, this might get long, so please have patience.

Here is a summary of my PC specs-
RHduhHw8LVIP.png




This is my motherboard.

My PSU is a local no name brand, the kind which people always advise against. However it came free with the case and it has served me well for 8 years.

I overclocked this PC in August 2012. I got upto 2.4 GHz stable. I stress tested it using Prime95 and LinX for long periods of time. However i soon started getting BSODs during normal usage, after which i turned down the clocks to their default 2.2 GHz. I created a thread about this earlier.

Ever since then i started developing these problems.

The main problem is that my computer gets random BSODs, specially under heavy load. And by heavy load i mean when i have many tabs(15-20) open in my browser with image and script heavy pages open in them. Most of the time the BSODs have error code, but sometimes they show a file, which is usually a driver like tcpip.sys or my intel graphics driver. Sometimes BSODs happen even if the PC is idle.

The second problem is that i do not get video signal during bootup. This problem has started happening rather recently. The monitor gets the signal for a split second but before it can display anything, the signal goes off. This happens repeatedly(I can tell by looking at the way the power LED blinks). This goes on till the login screen appears, or in somecases, the signal doesn't appear at all.

The third problem is that i get grains and hazy lines on the monitor, as if it was getting static electricity disturbance in the VGA signal.( This is not a problem with the monitor! It runs fine when connected to another computer.)

The fourth problem that i have been ignoring for sometime but has been happening for a long time, erratic behaviour of the computer that i can find no explanantion for. Like-

1. Lets say I have a folder which contains some files. I open that folder and its empty. I refresh, nothing happens. I press the back button and open the folder again. All files are there as they were.
2. Mouse pointer jumps to random spots. If the pointer is brought to a point and the mouse is left idle for sometime; the pointer suddenly appears at another random point in the screen when the mouse is moved again.
3. Mouseover text sometimes remains on screen even when mouse is moved away, even when another application is opened on top of it.


I have a limited knowledge of computers, but my first guess is that the motherboard is dying. The reason could be my overclocking and stress testing it on a crappy PSU, or the fact that it is 8 years old and it has completed its natural life. Also AFAIK the 945G chipset isn't great overclocker.age.

Another thing could be that the PSU has caused these problems. If so i will merely replace the PSU.

What is your opinion? I am leaning towards replacing my mobo. It will also allow me to upgrade to DDR3 RAM and i will get sound on my PC too(current onboard sound card blew up due to my stupidity).

However if the PSU is faulty, then it will cause the new MB to start malfunctiong too, won't it?
So should i get a new PSU or replace my motherboard?

I asked around local shops and a motherboard with G41 chipset is available for 5000 rupees. Add the price of 4 GB DDR3 RAM and it will go upto 8-9K rupees. This is a considerable amount(for me), but i'll manage. However if the PSU is faulty, these things will be bricked and my money would be wasted.

What should i do? Is there a fix for these problems? Any help would be appreciated.
 
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Well first of all, you definitely need more than 1 gb of ram for you use case. DDR 2 is expensive and hard to find now though. As for the bsods it could be ram, motherboard, or psu. First thing I would do is run memtest and check for errors.
 
Thanks. I have been wanting to get more RAM for a long time but i didn't have money. Now that i do, i am not sure whether upgrading to 2GB would actually make a difference. That's the max my motherboard supports.

I downloaded Memtest. I'll run it and report back with results.
 
E4500 isnt a conroe its an allendale or some such. Anyway, you should pull your RAM and reseat it. Maybe blow the dust out of the sockets before putting it back in.
 
That system is pretty old and I suspect the Caps on the motherboard may be the problem. Open up the case and check to see if your Caps(look like Pop cans) are bulging or even leaking brown goop.
 
sandorski said:
That system is pretty old and I suspect the Caps on the motherboard may be the problem. Open up the case and check to see if your Caps(look like Pop cans) are bulging or even leaking brown goop.
Click to expand...

By caps do you mean capacitors? They look fine.

sm625 said:
E4500 isnt a conroe its an allendale or some such. Anyway, you should pull your RAM and reseat it. Maybe blow the dust out of the sockets before putting it back in.
Click to expand...

But CPU-Z says its a Conroe.
 
do you guys think overclocking damaged my motherboard? I increased the FSB from 200 to 220, since my CPU has a locked multiplier.
 
Sounds like PSU to me, especially the "grainy" noise in VGA signal. I don't think a bad mobo would cause that.

I mean, especially if it was a PSU bundled with a case. Those are cheap crap. I had a new one of those burn a mobo and kill an SSD on me in a new build recently.

And you've been using one for 8 years? Dear Lord!
 
The only wise thing to upgrade in your current system is adding another GB of RAM (and an SSD which is expensive). Upgrading to a new motherboard means adding new RAM and new CPU. And you might need more PSU power.

MemTest86. http://www.memtest86.com/
 
So what is the total budget you can devote to repair/upgrade/replacement? Even the lowliest haswell celeron or Pentium system would be much faster than what you have. I think you could get one in the 300.00 range. Maybe on sale/closeout from a local store or Dell/Lenovo outlets.

I understand you are short of funds, but buying replacement parts one at a time could get expensive as well, unless you get it right the first time. And you have a 32bit os which will limit your ram.

I suppose the easiest, cheapest thing to do would be to replace the power supply and hope that solves the problem. And test the memory as I mentioned earlier. Someone else could advise you exactly how to do this, but if you have 2 x 512 mb you need to test each one individually to see if one stitck is bad.

My guess is motherboard though, especially since as best I can tell you are using the motherboard graphics and are getting artifacts.
 
frozentundra123456 said:
So what is the total budget you can devote to repair/upgrade/replacement? Even the lowliest haswell celeron or Pentium system would be much faster than what you have. I think you could get one in the 300.00 range. Maybe on sale/closeout from a local store or Dell/Lenovo outlets.

I understand you are short of funds, but buying replacement parts one at a time could get expensive as well, unless you get it right the first time. And you have a 32bit os which will limit your ram.

I suppose the easiest, cheapest thing to do would be to replace the power supply and hope that solves the problem. And test the memory as I mentioned earlier. Someone else could advise you exactly how to do this, but if you have 2 x 512 mb you need to test each one individually to see if one stitck is bad.

My guess is motherboard though, especially since as best I can tell you are using the motherboard graphics and are getting artifacts.
Click to expand...


I can spend no more than 8,000 INR. Thats why i was thinking of replacing the motherboard and getting 2 GB of DDR3 RAM. See the link in post 2. There is a combo deal of the mobo and 2 GB RAM for 7K approx.

What do you think?
 
ArisVer said:
The only wise thing to upgrade in your current system is adding another GB of RAM (and an SSD which is expensive). Upgrading to a new motherboard means adding new RAM and new CPU. And you might need more PSU power.

MemTest86. http://www.memtest86.com/
Click to expand...

Yes another GB of RAM has been on my mind for a long time. SSD is too expensive and i don't think my motherboard supports it as well. IF i don't replace the mobo, i'll definitely get another 1GB RAM
 
VirtualLarry said:
Sounds like PSU to me, especially the "grainy" noise in VGA signal. I don't think a bad mobo would cause that.

I mean, especially if it was a PSU bundled with a case. Those are cheap crap. I had a new one of those burn a mobo and kill an SSD on me in a new build recently.

And you've been using one for 8 years? Dear Lord!
Click to expand...

This computer was gifted to me by my parents when i was 12 years old. I didn't know anything about computer back then. Just took what the shopkeeper gave me in the specified budget.

What makes you think that the mobo isn't faulty? The second problem specially suggests thats the case.

I can replace the PSU as well but that'll break the budget.
 
If you want to be as economical as possible. This is what you do...

Test Your Ram as others have already stated. Remove one, So you only test one at a time... If you have 2 sticks of ram you have to run the test 3 maybe 4 Times. Once for each stick of ram, then a 3rd time with a Ram stick that you previously tested and passed the test as good, inserted into the secondary Ram slot. To rule out the Slot as being bad. Then IF your motherboard is Dual-channel, Run the test again with Both inserted in Dual-channel mode.

If you had not already before posting, reset your BIOS to fail safe defaults. before testing. unplug your computer from the power outlet, and switch the Jumper pins on the board for at least ~15sec, or if your board doesnt have cmos jumpers, just remove the cmos Battery for ~15sec.

If one of your Ram Sticks or Slots tests Bad, you found your prob... and perhaps Fixed it by simply avoid using that Stick or Slot... IF they test good, and you previously had not simply forgotten to reset cmos. But problem persists, theres an unlikely but slim chance you could fix it by simply downclocking your fsb. If you have (T1/T2) timing options, switch it to T2.

for future reference, 200 to 220 is actually a significant jump for cheap hardware. especially if your using onboard gfx and IF it's locked to the same 220 fsb.

EDIT: also note, IF removing a stick of ram or downclocking fixes/helps... theres also a chance inserting any cheap GFX card and disabling your Onboard GPU could fix it.
 
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inf1nity said:
This computer was gifted to me by my parents when i was 12 years old. I didn't know anything about computer back then. Just took what the shopkeeper gave me in the specified budget.

What makes you think that the mobo isn't faulty? The second problem specially suggests thats the case.

I can replace the PSU as well but that'll break the budget.
Click to expand...

So you're 20 now? Do you have a job?

My advice: save up for a whole new budget system.
 
I don't what the bloody hell is going on. My computer isn't booting from the Memtest86 disc. I don't know what the problem is, since i tried a xubuntu disc and it booted from it and i was able to run a live session.

But the memtest86 disc isn't booting. I checked it in my brother's laptop and it boots just fine.

Nothing on my computer works..!! 😡
 
VirtualLarry said:
So you're 20 now? Do you have a job?

My advice: save up for a whole new budget system.
Click to expand...

Yup. And no I don't have a job as i'm still in college. However i expect to get a decent paying job withing the next 2-3 years.

Do you think this computer will last for me till ~September 2016? After that i'll probably move to a different city, and buy a laptop or a tablet.
 
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inf1nity said:
Yup. And no I don't have a job as i'm still in college. However i expect to get a decent paying job withing the next 2-3 years.

Do you think this computer will last for me till ~September 2016? After that i'll probably move to a different city, and buy a laptop or a tablet.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, you are to the point where you will need to start swapping things out to find the problem. Do you have a friend at school who can loan you a power supply for testing purposes? I think at this point the power supply is the most likely culprit and the obvious place to start.
 
I wouldn't make assumptions. The PSU is most likely not stopping him from consitantly not booting from one CD.

If linux boots for you. You could use a linux diag disk such as PartedMagic or SystemRescueCD. Even just the GParted Live iso i think might also have memtest built in.

If you mean you were using a 'Floppy' Disk to boot memtest.. That may simply just be you don't have the Floppy drive set in BIOS as a boot device.

If you haven't reset CMOS. try it. If floppy isn't set as primary boot device, you can set it. Or boot from linux. If still encountering issues remove all but 1 stick of Ram. One way or another it will boot. the PSU is not stopping you from running memtest, If it was it would stop you from booting everything else.
 
user1193526 said:
I wouldn't make assumptions. The PSU is most likely not stopping him from consitantly not booting from one CD.
Click to expand...

Exactly. That's why i think its the motherboard that is the problem.

And no i don't even have a floppy drive. I was booting from a CD. My DVD drive is acting all weird. It isn't reading most of the discs. I inserted a DVD that had call of duty on it, and it read it as blank. The xubuntu DVD wasn't reqad by it either, however weirdly enough when i booted from it botted it up just fine.

WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING??? 😡

BTW, I have one 1 stick of RAM.

One way or another it will boot. the PSU is not stopping you from running memtest, If it was it would stop you from booting everything else.
Click to expand...

I can't figure why this is happening. If my laptop boots from the memtest86 disc, why doesn't the desktop do the same?

Also why are all the discs containing data being read as blank by the DVD drive?
 
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