My Pc is driving me up the wall

quinnd6

I have a Medion desktop pc and I got it in 2002.
It won't boot up the majoriy of times I switch it on.
I had to turn it on and off 7 times today in order for to get it to boot into windows.
The other 6 times the power turned on but it crashed at one of the screens before windows.
The next time I turned it on it crashed at the windows boot up screen(you know the one that says windows xp with the blue line flickering across).
Another time I turned it on it crashed when I was just after getting into windows and on the desktop and the mouse arrow wouldn't move and all my icons and everything there ,just it wouldn't do anything.
Its not an issue with the power because the power always comes on when I switch the pc on and I can hear the fan working normally.
Its not the ram becuase I tried taking out a ram chip before and it made no difference.
I've basically had this problem for a year now and it never went away but it seems to be happening more often now.
I'm fed up of it does anyone have any idea what might be wrong with my pc?
I even brought it into a so called pc repair shop before when I mistakenly thought my pc was completely screwed when the pc was turning itself off and the problem was my keyboard and I had this problem at that point and the so called pc repair shop did nothing with it.
I figured out that the keyboard was the problem causing my pc to turn itself off myself.
Can someone please help me figure out whats wrong with it?

massy086

have you a xp install disk if so run the repair console it should help if not back up your data and do a fresh install. what are the spec,s by the way it may run win 7 a lot less problems in win 7

JDxtra

Random (but worsening) issues like this are pointing me to an imminent hard drive failure. Backup what you need the next time it starts up. There may be hard drive diagnostics within the BIOS menu at startup, not sure - depends on the PC.

BTW - an 8 year old PC will struggle with Windows 7.

FSL

Because the power comes on and the fan runs doesn't mean there isn't a problem with the PSU. The voltages could be fluctuating. The hard drive could be failing. the ram could be failing.

With the symptoms you describe it is most likely the PSU.

I had a PSU fail recently and before it gave up the ghost the machine was taking several attempts before finally booting.

Hank Scorpio

Sounds like a psu problem, i`d be pretty happy if i got 8 years out of a desktop pc though

massy086

JDxtra wrote: »

Random (but worsening) issues like this are pointing me to an imminent hard drive failure. Backup what you need the next time it starts up. There may be hard drive diagnostics within the BIOS menu at startup, not sure - depends on the PC.

BTW - an 8 year old PC will struggle with Windows 7.

hmmm i have win 7 running on a 2003 p4 1gb ram fly,s along its so good i wonder why i bought i7 tbh lol

Skerries

again my first thought would be the power supply and as others have said its time to replace a 8-9 year old machine

PapaQuebec

Hard drive would be my first bet - especially if it's the original drive the machine shipped with.

PSU would be next for the same reason.

quinnd6

My specs are 1.8ghz pentium 4 processor, it was 256 mb ram when I bought it but I added 512mb bringing it to 768mb ram
The harddrive is a 40gb drive and yes it is the same harddrive it came with.
I dont know what kind of harddrive it is but its inside it.
Those specs wouldn't be capable of running windows 7 anyway.
So you guys are saying it is likely the psu or the harddrive.
I'm not sure how I would determine which is causing the problem.
I have windows service pack 3 installed also.

sink

It's pushing 9 years old, 4 years beyond the average lifespan of a pc and it's time to replace it. No point in pumping money into it even if you find the problem because all the components are going to fail sooner or later. You can get very good value desktops these days keep an eye out in Lidl/Aldi or PC world for special offers and you can grab a bagain.

If you just want it for the basics internet etc,. stick to the sub €400 price range. If you are interested in using it for photos, video and games you could think about spending a little bit more depending on what you want to do with it.

Overheal

ignoring the dated specs, when was the last time you scrubbed the software? Operating Systems are imperfect, and benefit from a good reformat once in a while. If it hasn't been reformatted in the last 2 years - let alone anytime in the last 9 - it might be time to consider it.

quinnd6

I had to reinstall windows last summer probably around july when I got the blue screen of death when I was trying to get rid of a trojan and ad aware got rid of one of the system files needed for windows.
So about July I think.

Port Royale

to test your Hard Drive run checkdisk.
open a command prompt:

• go to Start -> Run
• type in cmd an click OK

at the prompt type in:

chkdsk /R

and then hit enter. Windows will need to restart to execute the command.



to test your RAM, check this MS site
http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp


however I agree with all the previous posters that an almost 10 year old PC has had its days.....


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