Author Topic: PC crashes even after format/reinstall (Read 14333 times)

reisender · « **on:** July 19, 2011, 06:07:09 PM »

I had a username here a while ago, guess you guys cleaned house.

Windows 7
Acer Aspire M3203
AMD Athlon II X3 425 Processor 2.7 GHz
3GB RAM

PC keeps crashing. At first I was having issues with firefox and flash I think, whenever I played multiple youtube tabs, I would have problems with firefox crashing. Don't know if it's related, thought I'd mention it.

Kept crashing more frequently, so I decided to back everything up and format and reinstall windows. Managed to get all the way through the install and when it was all done, it crashed a few minutes later. I have a partitioned drive *split the original in half* and formatted it too. Everything is formatted and clean and I have no external drives intefering.

I felt like a fool because I opened up the PC, which I don't do unless it's a last resort because I hardly know what I'm doing with hardware, and found it was terribly dusty. The fan for the motherboard was caked. Cleaned it up really nice, the fans move smooth with no sound. But, it still crashes without warning.

The screen will turn black and it will read "no input' or something, but the speakers, pc lgihts, mouse, etc all have their lights on. I try to restart using c/alt/del and doesn't work. I try to hold down the power button, but it doesn't work. I have to unplug the machine. When I plug it back in, it starts up automatically without me pushing the button. It asks to start in safe mode, etc.

Any ideas? Fried video card? I can't even locate it I"m so helpless with hardware (software I;m not bad with)

Computer_Commando · « **Reply #1 on:** July 19, 2011, 06:34:59 PM »

Quote from: reisender on July 19, 2011, 06:07:09 PM

...and found it was terribly dusty. The fan for the motherboard was caked. Cleaned it up really nice, the fans move smooth with no sound. But, it still crashes without warning...

If it was that dirty inside, the psu will be the same; is his fan moving?. You can look inside, but they are not user serviceable, unless you know what you're doing.

Geek-9pm · « **Reply #2 on:** July 19, 2011, 06:42:11 PM »

You said it was dusty. There also may be a buildup of grime on contacts and plugs. How old is the PC? Have you ever replaced the CMOS battery?
Cmos battery replacement a simple how to and when to change them
In some cases the CMOS failure prevents the PC from starting properly.

reisender · « **Reply #3 on:** July 19, 2011, 08:14:18 PM »

I took a look at the psu, and it does lok a bit dusty, but not that much. I'll try to get an air-spray can to clean it out. The fan for it works fine and is running softly/smoothly, no noise and it doesn't feel hot at all. As for the CMOS which I know zero about, I'll go watch the video.

The PC is 1.5 years old bought, but it was a display PC which I got at a cheaper price so was likely running a lot beforehand.

jason2074 · « **Reply #4 on:** July 19, 2011, 11:51:25 PM »

Quote

The screen will turn black and it will read "no input' or something, but the speakers, pc lgihts, mouse, etc all have their lights on

About a couple of weeks ago, I have just encountered this type of problem from someone who gave up on replacing certain components so he asked me to look on to it. Before the problem occured, he told me it was running fine and it was after he upgraded his Videocard and PSU for better performance it became recurring. Obviously it was in those components they tried swapping old and new components and I suggested to clean out the CPU tower first with no luck. What they never tried as I look for other things to troubleshoot was to simply clean out the RAM modules gold contacts, slots making sure they are communicating well with the CPU/mobo. If all parts tested are in good running condition, the simple things are overlooked. Since you mentioned dust buildup when you first took out casing, look up to important but simple solutions such as these. It's been almost a month now and since then it never gave him those annoying problems.

quaxo · « **Reply #5 on:** July 20, 2011, 05:36:52 AM »

Speaking of memory, you might run a memory test for a number of hours.

I had someone bring me a computer last week with the exact same issue. She said she'd tried everything. Installation would freeze or when successful would freeze shortly after booting, tried a repair install, tried formatting then installing, tried a different hard drive.

The one thing she didn't try was changing memory or removing one of the chips. I ran memtest86 overnight and it came up with an error. Ran it again, same error. Replaced memory, no problems anymore.

You can download memtest86 here:
http://www.memtest86.com/

Click "Downloads". You'll want the first one, ISO image for creating bootable CD (Windows - zip). Use CD burning software to burn this ISO onto a CD. If you computer isn't working well enough to do this, you can download and make the CD from any computer with a CD burner.

Boot your computer from this CD, choose option 1 (run version 4) from the menu and let it run (overnight if you can). It will run a number of scans, and do the batch repeatedly. It may not find and error on the first pass, it may not find one for a few passes.

Anyway, it's a free diagnostic and worth a try. Just need to spend a little of your time (and money for the CD-R).

reisender · « **Reply #6 on:** July 20, 2011, 06:00:52 PM »

I&ve come to realise that my PC has an integrated videocard, which is why I couldn&t find it. Went to the store to get a cmos battery and they were $7 and the spray can was $10....for air. Gotta find a cheaper place.

Anyway, yesterday it didn't crash at all after crashing 10 or more times the previous couple of days. So the cleaning may have done the trick, though it was cleaned when it crashed a few times, but getting better.

I've downloaded the memtest and will do it tonight and report back.
Thank you very much guys!
I can always count on computerhope and swi forums!

quaxo · « **Reply #7 on:** July 20, 2011, 10:02:35 PM »

Quote from: reisender on July 20, 2011, 06:00:52 PM

I&ve come to realise that my PC has an integrated videocard, which is why I couldn&t find it. Went to the store to get a cmos battery and they were $7 and the spray can was $10....for air. Gotta find a cheaper place.

Anyway, yesterday it didn't crash at all after crashing 10 or more times the previous couple of days. So the cleaning may have done the trick, though it was cleaned when it crashed a few times, but getting better.

I've downloaded the memtest and will do it tonight and report back.
Thank you very much guys!
I can always count on computerhope and swi forums!

If you did a cleaning and have no issues, that's probably what it was. Go ahead with the memory test though, just to be sure. Won't harm anything.

reisender · « **Reply #8 on:** July 21, 2011, 09:07:10 AM »

i can't figure out that link for the memtest. I downloaded it as a zip file, unzipped it into another zip file (or iso file?) and then unzipped the zipped and so on. Couldn't figure it out exactly, but managed to burn the iso/zip.
Put it into the machine twice, it said 'ready' and since none of the keys on the keyboard responded, I figured it was doing its job. Left it overnight, same thing reading in the morning. So, no memcheck.

Allan · « **Reply #9 on:** July 21, 2011, 09:14:36 AM »

Did you burn the image correctly? Here are complete instructions: download memtest (http://memtest.org/). Burn it to a cd using a dedicated .iso burning utility (http://www.petri.co.il/how_to_write_iso_files_to_cd.htm), make sure the cd drive is at the top of the boot order in bios, then boot to the newly created cd and run the utility.

patio · « **Reply #10 on:** July 21, 2011, 09:16:31 AM »

You don't want the zip...you want the .ISO...follow the info on MemTest on creating a bootable CD...

ImgBurn is an excellent Free app for this task...

patio · « **Reply #11 on:** July 21, 2011, 09:17:34 AM »

1 minute...56 seconds....

I'm losin my touch...

Allan 17
Patio 13

Allan · « **Reply #12 on:** July 21, 2011, 09:23:50 AM »

reisender · « **Reply #13 on:** July 21, 2011, 04:47:26 PM »

The memtest really threw me because when I unzip the original download, it unzips to a new zip file *at least the icon of the file has a winrar icon, and then more zipped files within that one. Anyway, it seems I did burn the correct file, but it didn't work. Will burn a new one and try again tonight.

Thanks again

patio · « **Reply #14 on:** July 21, 2011, 04:50:51 PM »

NP...

quaxo · « **Reply #15 on:** July 22, 2011, 03:09:39 AM »

That "WinRAR" file is an ISO (WinRAR can open ISO files), so pulling that out of the downloaded zip was the correct move.

Now you need to use a CD burning program to use the ISO to create a CD.

reisender · « **Reply #16 on:** July 26, 2011, 09:07:47 PM »

I burnt a second disk last weekend (imgbrn) and it did the same thing. It booted at startup and the prog came up asking for a choice of 1 or 2,, but none of the keys on my keyboard respond to the program (or viceversa I guess) so nothing happens. I had a couple of days where there were none or just 1-2 crashes, and then suddenly they came back full force again. So I bought a new laptop and will bring the PC into the shop this coming weekend.

I'll report back with the results when I get them.
Thanks very much everyone in the meantime.
I always (and only really) learn more about PCs when they crash on me.

mylogon · « **Reply #17 on:** July 27, 2011, 06:21:14 AM »

just curious. did you try to use a PS/2, USB or RF keyboard why doing these mem tests?
thanks

reisender · « **Reply #18 on:** July 31, 2011, 06:25:12 PM »

Future Shop, where I bought the PC and still have it under warranty has called and told me that they ran a diagnostics test and it passed. Didn't crash once on them either. They did say they cleaned it out (dust) so that might help. See what happens when I get it back home.

About the keyboard, I use a ps/2 Japanese one with Japanese settings, though windows is English. I wondered if that might have been an issue.
I'm guessing however that check they do at futureshop woud be better? I'm trying to get them to give me the name of the test.

Computer_Commando · « **Reply #19 on:** July 31, 2011, 06:38:27 PM »

Just let us know, it's probably fixed now.

reisender · « **Reply #20 on:** August 02, 2011, 10:31:38 PM »

Just got back from future shop. They said they did diagnostic tests - PC TEST and BURN IN. Came out clean, never crashed on them.
They said that this test all the hardware and if it doesn't find anything, it isn't the hardware, but the software - which they supplies (windows 7).
So I took it back home, plugged it in and in about 20 minutes, same thing happened.

the PC is effectively useless.
They didn't clean out the PC like they said, but did a half-assed job when I got there and mentioned it, didn't think it was an issue.

After crashing just now, I unplugged it as usual and plugged it back in to get it to restart, but this time the screen didn't come on, the PC didn't beep when it does when it boots, and the power button was dim when it's usually bright. Happened twice, and now it's back up and running - finally got it happening on video so I can show them.

Frustrating.

Geek-9pm · « **Reply #21 on:** August 02, 2011, 11:19:44 PM »

reisender,
Few here remember what PC you have. It would help if you would include more information. Is this a laptop?

reisender · « **Reply #22 on:** August 03, 2011, 12:31:45 AM »

sorry, I thought everything was clear in the OP.
It's a desktop.

Brokel · « **Reply #23 on:** August 03, 2011, 01:04:43 AM »

It is possible you have a MBR virus there is one floating around on the net , only way yto fix it is to do a compleat disk wipe not the one that comes with windows somthing like cfdisk in Linux ..

reisender · « **Reply #24 on:** August 04, 2011, 10:36:40 PM »

FFS,
so they tell me according to them, everything is fine and they are convinced it is not the hardware, so must be software.
Funny thing is it's wiped clean except for the windows software they gave it to me with. but they say this isn't covered under warranty and it will cost me (at a generous discount

) $40 for them to do what they think is the last thing, to format and reinstall windows themselves and see what issues might come up. seems like bs to me.

So I asked them to give me new windows cds and right now I tried to install it. It loaded the windows files, started the setup and while 'loading image files' at 0% the CD ejects and it says "there is insufficient space on the disk for the temporary files required for this operation." and it happens everytime I try to reinstall. I've used the former setup disks and the same thing happens. If I try to boot normally, I get "BOOTMGR is missing, press ctrl+alt+del to restart" on a loop.

Then the kicker, the PC crashes while on the "insufficent space" message in setup as well as the BOOTMGR message. Still a problem with software??

my PC is now unusable.
i don't know what to do.

Geek-9pm · « **Reply #25 on:** August 04, 2011, 11:00:35 PM »

What happens if you...
Unplug the Hard drive...
Boot from a floppy..
Run a simple little something from the floppy. Like an old DOS arcade game, set in demo mode...

Leave it for an hour. Does it crash?

The reason I ask is that some strange issues are from unknown Hard drive failure modes. Dives ya' crazy.
Windows will be crashing if the HDD becomes un-reliable.
MS-DOS keeps running even if the floppy shreds itself!

Brokel · « **Reply #26 on:** August 05, 2011, 03:16:22 AM »

get mbrcheck.exe and scan for a mbr virus if you have one it will cause the issues you describe and will not be detected by a normal virus scans and most pc repair shops will not check the mbr ( master boot record ) I hope this helps ..

http://windows7themes.net/how-to-check-mbr-for-virus-infection-via-mbrcheck.html

reisender · « **Reply #27 on:** August 05, 2011, 09:38:01 PM »

@geek-9pm
I am really clueless when it comes to hardware, so I'm hesitant to unplug the hard drive, but I did try this.
I have an old floppy drive and from right clicking and formating, I made a dos boot disk and tried it with an old dos game.
I booted dos from startup with F12 and choosing the usb floppy drive.
The game worked but the PC crashed after about ... 5-10 minutes.

@brokel
I downloaded the program, and tried to run it from a floppy at startup the same way as above, and an error message came up saying it wouldn't run from dos. I can't seem to get into windows safe mode. On windows 7, safe mode is supposed to be F8, but there is no F8 option and it simply doesn't work - I guess that's because there's no windows to get into its safe mode. Is there another way I can run this scan?

Futureshop tells me to just bring it in and they'll take it to their depot to run more extensive hardware tests. guess I'll do that this weekend (and no doubt it'll take weeks to get back) but before I do, I want to know if there's anything else I should try.

Brokel · « **Reply #28 on:** August 06, 2011, 08:53:21 AM »

From the sounds of it I really do not think it is a hardware issue , your bios could be trashed which will cause it to shutdown like you describe ir the cpu may be over heating try and remove the heat-sink from the processor and cleaning the thermal past and putting new thermal past on .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kg4t2kkXrkM&feature=related
try thias video it will show you how to clean the cpu and heat-sink ..

Hope thsi helps ..

reisender · « **Reply #29 on:** August 06, 2011, 08:46:18 PM »

Ok, I went and bought thermal paste, took off my heatsink, cleaned it and the cpu with rubbing alcohol and added new paste. Never knew about any of this stuff before. This may or may not stop my PC from overheating and crashing, but how do I get my windows back

patio · « **Reply #30 on:** August 06, 2011, 08:49:41 PM »

Quote from: Brokel on August 05, 2011, 03:16:22 AM

get mbrcheck.exe and scan for a mbr virus if you have one it will cause the issues you describe and will not be detected by a normal virus scans and most pc repair shops will not check the mbr ( master boot record ) I hope this helps ..

http://windows7themes.net/how-to-check-mbr-for-virus-infection-via-mbrcheck.html

It's not an MBR infection...

Brokel · « **Reply #31 on:** August 07, 2011, 02:05:57 AM »

So windows is gone ? does not boot in to windows ?

reisender · « **Reply #32 on:** August 07, 2011, 01:39:30 PM »

When I boot the PC it says "BOOTMGR is Missing. press ctrl+alt+del to restart"

And if I try to reinstall windows, I get the error message saying not enough space on the disk.
So I'm stuck. I can still use the F2 and F12 functions however when it boots.

Computer_Commando · « **Reply #33 on:** August 07, 2011, 02:04:36 PM »

Quote from: reisender on August 05, 2011, 09:38:01 PM

...but I did try this.
I have an old floppy drive and from right clicking and formating, I made a dos boot disk and tried it with an old dos game.
I booted dos from startup with F12 and choosing the usb floppy drive.
The game worked but the PC crashed after about ... 5-10 minutes.

If it crashed while running a DOS booted disk, it's a hardware problem. You never did run the MemTest?

reisender · « **Reply #34 on:** August 07, 2011, 04:52:02 PM »

When windows was still running, I posted that I tried the memcheck test, but it wouldn't work.
I just tried it again now. Same as before.

------------
Memtest86 Version 4.8 CD

Select Version:
1) Boot V4.0 (Default)
2) Boot V3.5b (Previous Version)

boot: 1

Loading memtest.........ready.
----------------

And that's it. It's unresponsive to any keys I press after that.

reisender · « **Reply #35 on:** August 07, 2011, 08:04:51 PM »

I left the memtest the way it was ("ready") and the PC crashed after about 3 hours.

quaxo · « **Reply #36 on:** August 08, 2011, 12:16:30 AM »

A shot in the dark, but try downloading a new ISO and burning it again. If there was an error in the first download, it may have burnt incorrectly causing it not to load. Alternatively, you could test your current disk on another computer and see if it loads correctly, ruling out a problem with the disk.

reisender · « **Reply #37 on:** August 08, 2011, 01:12:22 AM »

I had already made and tried another disk and got the same problem.
Haven't tried a third, or an alternative program??

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Author Topic: PC crashes even after format/reinstall (Read 14333 times)

reisender

Computer_Commando

Geek-9pm

reisender

jason2074

quaxo

reisender

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Allan

patio

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mylogon

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Computer_Commando

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Geek-9pm

reisender

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Geek-9pm

Brokel

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Brokel

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patio

Brokel

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Computer_Commando

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