Allright. Hello folks! here's a tiny bit of a story.
About a year or so ago, perhaps a bit more, my PC started to randomly reboot. I hadn't installed any new parts at that point at all. Reboots would happen before BIOS shows it's face, while playing, watching films - absolutely random, never tied to any action I just did. It could go on for an hour before shutting off, but most times it would keep rebooting before Windows could even get started, several times in a row until it was time to sleep and I let it go.
Now, after a few days of that, for reasons unknown to me, it... stopped, almost. For the next several months, it did keep happening, but in intervals of hours, days, nothing like the frequency it had at first. So at least my machine was usable. I asked around a bit and the most repeated reason in the answers I got was the PSU. So I got a new one. My old one was a 600W Corsair, the new one was also a Corsair, but 550W (money's a problem). With the help of a friend I installed the new PSU and...
Well, the problem persisted. It would however continue to be just a minor annoyance every few days or even less frequently, so I let it slide. I also heard it might be the Motherboard, but I've failed to spy any of the damage signs I was pointed towards. My Motherboard is an ASUS P5Q SE Plus, by the way. GPU is a GF 250 GTS.
Coming to current times, I've been away from the machine for 3 months during which it was not used. No new parts have been installed. Yet ever since I got back (exactly one week now), it's been insufferable, shutting off after five minutes or so at first, then continuing to reboot itself in a cycle after time intervals between 3 seconds and 2 minutes each time, for as long as an hour of that before I resign and use the laptop instead. Turned on sometime later in the day it sometimes stays on for about 2-3 hours, but each day this is repeated. I tried removing RAM chips (2x Kingston 2028 DDR2) alternatively and trying all the slots for them, with no difference.
So, it's most likely not the PSU, and not the RAM. Is it the Motherboard? Why does the problem change over time like this? Why is it back now?
Is it even worth it to buy a new Motherboard at this point, or just go for a completely new rig (this one is 3 years old, barring the new PSU)?
About a year or so ago, perhaps a bit more, my PC started to randomly reboot. I hadn't installed any new parts at that point at all. Reboots would happen before BIOS shows it's face, while playing, watching films - absolutely random, never tied to any action I just did. It could go on for an hour before shutting off, but most times it would keep rebooting before Windows could even get started, several times in a row until it was time to sleep and I let it go.
Now, after a few days of that, for reasons unknown to me, it... stopped, almost. For the next several months, it did keep happening, but in intervals of hours, days, nothing like the frequency it had at first. So at least my machine was usable. I asked around a bit and the most repeated reason in the answers I got was the PSU. So I got a new one. My old one was a 600W Corsair, the new one was also a Corsair, but 550W (money's a problem). With the help of a friend I installed the new PSU and...
Well, the problem persisted. It would however continue to be just a minor annoyance every few days or even less frequently, so I let it slide. I also heard it might be the Motherboard, but I've failed to spy any of the damage signs I was pointed towards. My Motherboard is an ASUS P5Q SE Plus, by the way. GPU is a GF 250 GTS.
Coming to current times, I've been away from the machine for 3 months during which it was not used. No new parts have been installed. Yet ever since I got back (exactly one week now), it's been insufferable, shutting off after five minutes or so at first, then continuing to reboot itself in a cycle after time intervals between 3 seconds and 2 minutes each time, for as long as an hour of that before I resign and use the laptop instead. Turned on sometime later in the day it sometimes stays on for about 2-3 hours, but each day this is repeated. I tried removing RAM chips (2x Kingston 2028 DDR2) alternatively and trying all the slots for them, with no difference.
So, it's most likely not the PSU, and not the RAM. Is it the Motherboard? Why does the problem change over time like this? Why is it back now?
Is it even worth it to buy a new Motherboard at this point, or just go for a completely new rig (this one is 3 years old, barring the new PSU)?
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram