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Computer not staying on at one house and working perfectly at another


buckdog05

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I have been working on an HP desktop computer with Windows XP that was shutting down on it's on during use and had gotten to the point where it wouldn't even boot into Windows because it was stuck in an infinate loop of choosing "last known good configuration" or "normal startup."

I took the computer to my house and fixed the endless loop with a chkdsk /r and the computer seemed to be working perfectly. I left it on for a long time, played a video on Hulu, upgraded the antivirus program, and noticed no problems on the computer.

I returned the computer to it's owner and she called me saying that the computer was turning off again after getting very loud. This sounds like a heatsink or fan problem to me, but I do not understand why the computer would work perfectly at my house and then stop working at hers. Also, before she was complaining of a clicking noise and said that she could only get the computer to work when it was on its side which does not seem as much like a heatsink problem.

I'm trying to determine if replacing the heatsink is worth it or if I should recommend a new computer. The computer has a dual-core processor and a gig of ram.

Thank you for your help!

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Sound like a harddisk or a cable in that hit's the CPU cooler-fan.

So, turning off looks like the CPU overheating (P4 dual core?).

It's hard to say from a distance, but you better ask her to bring in that PC again.

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Sound like a harddisk or a cable in that hit's the CPU cooler-fan.

So, turning off looks like the CPU overheating (P4 dual core?).

It's hard to say from a distance, but you better ask her to bring in that PC again.

I opened up the computer at her house and looked for a cable in the fan and didn't see one, but I guess the cables could have transported in transportation. It's an AMD Dual Core CPU. Can you think of any reason besides bad luck that it would have worked perfectly here and not at her house?

I was thinking dust, but that seems far-fetched.

Thank you!

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If it's a nVidia 6100/6150 chipset, it could be the northbridge that is going down, but that would not explain the noise...

So, when you are at her house, does it happen too? Or is it just when she is (ab)using the PC?

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If it's a nVidia 6100/6150 chipset, it could be the northbridge that is going down, but that would not explain the noise...

So, when you are at her house, does it happen too? Or is it just when she is (ab)using the PC?

When I was there last week I did not see the problem, although Windows would not even boot then. After turning the computer and having it turn itself off four times, she is back to the endless loop of windows startup error screens, I assume because of damage done by inproper shutdowns.

It's a different issue for me because I don't think I'll be able to see symptoms without getting Windows working, which will take too long for me to do at her house.

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Hi I have had that problem once . The pc would work fine here but not at the customers house older home bad wireing. As a last try i changed the psu and that did it. I have no idea why except the psu maybe was not getting enough power to it from there house and it was a old psu.

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Hi I have had that problem once . The pc would work fine here but not at the customers house older home bad wireing. As a last try i changed the psu and that did it. I have no idea why except the psu maybe was not getting enough power to it from there house and it was a old psu.

Thank you very much for the suggestion, her computer actually is in an older house. I might have a power supply lying around that I can try, thanks again!

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