YACompCrashT: Problems with an Athlon system

[Imaginer]

This is concerning my sister's computer.
Machine mainly used for Office apps, Matlab, video watching, and light gamming.

First off, the specs

Athlon 1.0Ghz T-bird chip
Iwill KK266-R (VIA KT133A based) motherboard
Corsair XMS 512MB SDR SDRAM PC133
WD1600 x 2 HD (160GB drives, I could have the model number wrong...)
Win XP Pro SP2
ATI Radeon VE 32mb (7500/7200?) AGP card (couldnt remember which one since I put it in)
LiteOn 40x12x40 burner
Pioneer DVD reader
Enermax 350W Power supply (recently ordered Dec 04)

Now I am not ther personally to troubleshoot the system, nor will I will be able to be there at all any time soon, near future, etc (unless you give me a teleporter or free plane ticket AND convince my superior commanders I have leave from base for such task).

At my disposal is one DIE HARD Mac friend of hers who I feel that is somewhat (and I take that term with a grain of salt) competent in troubleshooting.

Her computer runs fine and dandy and she leaves for a trip out of this country for say ~1 month-ish. She comes back to a computer who wont behave (crashes after some minutes she runs her game, or does anything). Tried to reboot but the monitor wont post or show anything on screen. (just the blinking orange standby light)

She did mention it did not do a post beep either. System components were cleaned and reseated courtesy of her Mac friend before I receive the call that her comp is dead.

Power supply had been replaced recently (if you call Dec 04 recent). Have not reseated memory stick yet. Not sure about the hard drive connections. Not sure if CMOS was resetted.

This had happen before with the crash and reboot before eventually replacing the power supply. Also, she had some hard disk failure at one point in time with one WD drive. Motherboard has not changed and it was bought new from Newegg June 2001. (yeah I know, its old)

So... It leaves me with these options.

1. Quit beating a dying mule - buy a prebuilt Dell
2. Beat that horse and try to fix this problem once and for all (yeah right)
3. She already has a $2300+ Powerbook... Tell her to live without a desktop.
4. Rinse and repeat. Build another machine for her again!

I for one would like to try and fix this machine to give it a bit more life. But I am open for some options. BTW, the light gamming part (Mac equivalent not available). If I were to get a prebuilt desktop, main requirements that it must be UNDER $400 Period. (She spent alot of money traveling out of the country and on her powerbook - her fault for that one; so she has not much to spend)

And I hope that General Hardware is not filled with members of lacking knowledge either, hopefully there are some gurus still around amongst posters who do not walk away from a POST/CRASH problem or those suggesting a REBUILD (I have tried countless times with rebuilds and not doing it again).

So sorry for the long yet somewhat descriptive post, please lend a hand.

 

[engineereeyore]

Has it completely stopped working, or will it boot later if you give it time? If so, you probably have an overheating problem. If not, it's either power supply, motherboard, processor, or ram. Everything else can pretty much be discarded because even if they were having problems, the computer would still post.

So, first step, if not overheating, would probably be to take out the ram and try to boot it. You won't get anything to the screen most likely, but you should hear some beeps. If so, it's the ram. If not, the ram is most likely ok. Next step would be to remove the processor to do the same thing. See if it will beep at you. The results would mean the same. Beep, bad processor. No beep, processor likely ok. The final step would be to unhook the power connection to the motherboard and leave everything else connected, turn on the power, and see if the other items (i.e. hard drive, cd drive) turn on. If so, it's likely the motherboad, though nothing is certain. If not, you definitely have at least a power supply problem.

Try those things out and let us know what happens.

 

[Imaginer]

Ok an update:

Managed to get into the Windows Login Screen ONCE but it froze there.
Tried to go into the BIOS but it also froze up in the BIOS screen as well.

 

[Fardringle]

Did she leave the computer plugged in to the power outlet for the whole month she was gone? Was it also turned on during that time?

If she left it plugged in, I would suspect a power surge some time during the month fried the PSU (and possibly other components in the system). Before replacing the entire system, I'd have your friend take the time to try a spare PSU (or spend a few dollars to get a new PSU to try if they don't have a spare).

 

[Cerb]

Freezing at the BIOS is NOT GOOD. Got any spare RAM, PSU, and video you can try?

Also, it's not running the RAM you list it running. The KK266-R is SDR, so you aren't going to get more than PC133 running stock.

 

[Biggerhammer]

I second Fardingle. R&R PSU and try again. If that cures the problem, you're set- if it does not, I still wonder if power popped through the PSU and toasted the MB.

 

[Imaginer]

Originally posted by: Cerb
Freezing at the BIOS is NOT GOOD. Got any spare RAM, PSU, and video you can try?

Also, it's not running the RAM you list it running. The KK266-R is SDR, so you aren't going to get more than PC133 running stock.

Sorry its a typo. ^^

No, dont have spare parts to try out...

 

[chrisrod01]

I say go for 3 let her live without desktop I had the same pro like you with my sis cause I got a virus and it also send it to her so she said dont talk to me so im like well live without a comp hahaha im mean