Question Unresponsive PC problem

[Changelover470]

So I've had this problem for a while now where my monitor will turn off and on again randomly, it could be while watching a video or playing a game, and then after it does that a few times it then doesn't turn on again. At first I thought it was a gpu/monitor/cable problem but I tested every one of those and it was not. Then after it happened again at some point I tried pausing the video that was playing and I couldn't, neither by hitting space bar/k nor a macro for pausing media audio. The only thing that still works when that happens is audio coming through and when I hit the reset button to restart my computer it does a weird little screetch. Long story short, my suspicion is that it's the CPU but what exactly is going wrong here does anyone know?

 

[punkncat]

What are the specs of this system, including power supply?

 

[Changelover470]

It's and old family system for browsing and light indie gaming. If I'm not mistaken it has an fx 4100 4 gigs of ram and an hd 6670. I don't live with my parents anymore but I'd like them to be able to do at least some things on it without it being unusable every few days.

 

[punkncat]

A few thoughts.

Does this PC get cleaned out of dust on a regular basis?
Are you monitoring temperatures?

I had to look up that 4100 as I recalled something about FX not having onboard graphics, which it doesn't. My initial thought is that there is something wrong with the power supply (and was going to suggest trying to remove the graphics card as a test). With that said, I wouldn't spend any money towards trying to chase this issue on a platform that old.

Making assumptions that you are in the US, look for a refurbished office type PC. There are models from Dell and HP that are commonly available between the $80-120 range. Make sure the seller is including Windows license, as some of them don't. Purchase a budget SSD for it, do a clean install, and use the HDD it comes with as storage.

Alternately, consider a new budget build. I think it would be possible to squeak out a system for $3-400 that should perform quite well for the above tasks.

 

[Changelover470]

I try to go back and clean it at least once every 3 months or so and it's a deep clean every time so yeah I'd say that it's quite clean at the moment. I don't really care about finding a fix for it like I could just buy them another one. I'm just very interested as to why it's doing it from a curiosity standpoint. It's quite the intriguing issue and I've never come across it in the past!