- Aug 25, 2022
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About 2 months ago while I was using the computer, I turned off the monitor and went to do something else...
When I came back, the GPU fans were on full speed and there was no output to the monitor.
I then force rebooted the PC using the reset switch on the case... the computer came back but somehow the BIOS settings got reset and the RAM frequency dropped from 2666MHz to just 2133MHz.
I entered the UEFI/BIOS settings and tried to enable XMP again, the motherboard complained and reset its settings twice. This was a warning symptom I shouldn't have ignored. Apparently the 2666MHz XMP profile had gotten unstable after several months of use.
Attempted to enable XMP again and then it worked fine, without any instability or crashes... until yesterday.
The computer had been on and working fine the entire day... then last night I was watching a YT video, the Firefox tab playing the video crashed.
"Gah. Your tab just crashed."
I reloaded the page and shrugged the above error message as a bug.
Everything worked normally for about 5 minutes... when Ubuntu froze completely, a loud screeching or static sound appeared, and the YT video's audio started looping over and over like a broken record.
As the computer was unresponsive I just pressed the reset switch... the computer refused to POST.
Further attempts at rebooting resulted in the red CPU and orange DRAM EZ Debug LEDs flashing continuously -- as if the mobo was trying to POST but was unable to, until it just gives up.
There is no USB initialization, nothing.
Things I tried:
1. Clear CMOS = No change;
2. Switching RAM sticks around and clearing CMOS = No change;
3. Using just one stick and clearing CMOS = With one of the sticks, the DRAM LED goes solid orange straight away, with the other one it flashes between CPU and DRAM LEDs repeatedly trying to POST but doesn't succeed, mobo then gives up and the DRAM LED turns solid orange.
4. Took the entire computer apart, reseated everything and even checked the CPU socket for bent pins, there were none, also, the processor itself is absolutely intact, cleared the CMOS a 3rd time = No change.
5. Tried booting with no GPU or SSD = No change.
Unfortunately I am currently unemployed and won't be able to build a new PC so soon nor do I have spare parts with which I can test if the mobo POSTs.
Luckily I have this secondary Dell laptop.
Does anyone know what happened here? Why did the PC crashed after all this time?
When I came back, the GPU fans were on full speed and there was no output to the monitor.
I then force rebooted the PC using the reset switch on the case... the computer came back but somehow the BIOS settings got reset and the RAM frequency dropped from 2666MHz to just 2133MHz.
I entered the UEFI/BIOS settings and tried to enable XMP again, the motherboard complained and reset its settings twice. This was a warning symptom I shouldn't have ignored. Apparently the 2666MHz XMP profile had gotten unstable after several months of use.
Attempted to enable XMP again and then it worked fine, without any instability or crashes... until yesterday.
The computer had been on and working fine the entire day... then last night I was watching a YT video, the Firefox tab playing the video crashed.
"Gah. Your tab just crashed."
I reloaded the page and shrugged the above error message as a bug.
Everything worked normally for about 5 minutes... when Ubuntu froze completely, a loud screeching or static sound appeared, and the YT video's audio started looping over and over like a broken record.
As the computer was unresponsive I just pressed the reset switch... the computer refused to POST.
Further attempts at rebooting resulted in the red CPU and orange DRAM EZ Debug LEDs flashing continuously -- as if the mobo was trying to POST but was unable to, until it just gives up.
There is no USB initialization, nothing.
Things I tried:
1. Clear CMOS = No change;
2. Switching RAM sticks around and clearing CMOS = No change;
3. Using just one stick and clearing CMOS = With one of the sticks, the DRAM LED goes solid orange straight away, with the other one it flashes between CPU and DRAM LEDs repeatedly trying to POST but doesn't succeed, mobo then gives up and the DRAM LED turns solid orange.
4. Took the entire computer apart, reseated everything and even checked the CPU socket for bent pins, there were none, also, the processor itself is absolutely intact, cleared the CMOS a 3rd time = No change.
5. Tried booting with no GPU or SSD = No change.
Unfortunately I am currently unemployed and won't be able to build a new PC so soon nor do I have spare parts with which I can test if the mobo POSTs.
Luckily I have this secondary Dell laptop.
Does anyone know what happened here? Why did the PC crashed after all this time?
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