I have a persistent problem on my old computer, which has prompted me to buy another computer, but I still want to fix my old computer.
My computer will occasionally fail to boot up properly. The symptoms that I see when this happens are as follows:
-Text on bootup has some random letter replacements (ex. "I hate my computer", would show up as "I hgte mh cvhmuter").
-The Windows boot screen image is corrupted with what appears to be static.
-Windows will not boot up successfully under these conditions, and the computer will hang.
What I have done to resolve this:
-Put the old graphics card back in with no change (this started maybe a week after I installed a new graphics card)
-New Motherboard (actually, the old one blew up shortly after this problem started happening - smoke and everything, so I was just hoping this would kill two birds with one stone)
-Fresh install of Windows on a new hard drive (This had to do with cleaning up drivers related to the old motherboard, without erasing the old hard drive, and I had a spare hard drive kicking around)
-Removing and swapping RAM (I noticed it would happen less often if I had less RAM, but I was not able to isolate any bad RAM chips, and they all passed a memory check)
What is still the same in the computer since this started happening:
-CPU
-RAM sticks
-Power Supply and Case
(I cannibalized everything else for my new computer, and threw all my old CD-drives and peripherals back into this computer to try and get it running again)
Basically, I am upset that I am throwing money at this computer, but at this point, if I can fix it for a couple hundred $, it is still worth it. That, and if I can isolate a bad component, I might be able to warranty it!
My computer will occasionally fail to boot up properly. The symptoms that I see when this happens are as follows:
-Text on bootup has some random letter replacements (ex. "I hate my computer", would show up as "I hgte mh cvhmuter").
-The Windows boot screen image is corrupted with what appears to be static.
-Windows will not boot up successfully under these conditions, and the computer will hang.
What I have done to resolve this:
-Put the old graphics card back in with no change (this started maybe a week after I installed a new graphics card)
-New Motherboard (actually, the old one blew up shortly after this problem started happening - smoke and everything, so I was just hoping this would kill two birds with one stone)
-Fresh install of Windows on a new hard drive (This had to do with cleaning up drivers related to the old motherboard, without erasing the old hard drive, and I had a spare hard drive kicking around)
-Removing and swapping RAM (I noticed it would happen less often if I had less RAM, but I was not able to isolate any bad RAM chips, and they all passed a memory check)
What is still the same in the computer since this started happening:
-CPU
-RAM sticks
-Power Supply and Case
(I cannibalized everything else for my new computer, and threw all my old CD-drives and peripherals back into this computer to try and get it running again)
Basically, I am upset that I am throwing money at this computer, but at this point, if I can fix it for a couple hundred $, it is still worth it. That, and if I can isolate a bad component, I might be able to warranty it!