Computer Advice

TannerMS

A couple of years ago I built my first computer and it's been great. The experience has been rewarding and smooth enough that I suggested my brother do the same with my help. Unfortunately, his experience has not been so smooth. After 30 minutes to two hours of use, he inevitably blue screens. The errors he get vary and googling them has not been helpful (people usually suggest that it's probably a driver issue but could be anything else). We tried bringing it into a computer repair shop and they couldn't diagnose the problem. We tried reinstalling windows, still a problem. Complete wipe, still a problem.

At this point, I feel like it has to be a problem with the hardware in the PC. We tried using my Hard Drive and Video Card, still blue screens. At this point, could it be anything other than a bad processor? I don't mind pulling mine out of my PC to test but it'd be nice if I could skip unhooking everything.

Thanks for reading!

SeñorAmor

Have you done a full memory test?

TannerMS

SeñorAmor wrote: »

Have you done a full memory test?

I'm not sure what this means but we've run the Memory Diagnostics Tool

Jasconius

blue screens on brand new computers is almost always one of three things

1) Bad RAM
2) Bad Motherboard
3) Improperly seated hardware that came loose when you moved it around


make sure everything is properly seated, if so, RMA one or both components, repeat until working

DisruptedCapitalist

Well, I'm assuming we're talking about the Windows Blue Screen right? So if that's the case then the computer successfully POST and boots Windows, so I doubt it could be a bad motherboard or improperly seated cpu.

How soon after you boot does it give the blue screen? Immediately? Probably a RAM issue. Try http://memtest86.com/.

Jasconius

i misread it at first. I thought he meant it was only on for 30 minutes and then failed completely

but he can turn it on over and over and get 30 minutes of use

that sounds like either RAM or a faulty cooling component somewhere.

Jebus314

DisruptedCapitalist wrote: »

Well, I'm assuming we're talking about the Windows Blue Screen right? So if that's the case then the computer successfully POST and boots Windows, so I doubt it could be a bad motherboard or improperly seated cpu.

How soon after you boot does it give the blue screen? Immediately? Probably a RAM issue. Try http://memtest86.com/.

In case it's not clear you want to download and run the memtest program linked here for several hours. Maybe 2-3 complete run throughs.

For cooling you want to download something like realtemp or gpu-z so that you can watch the temps of your gpu and cpu. Then you can download prime95 and furmark to stress test the cpu and gpu to see what happens to the temps and if you can instigate a failure sooner.

If you could quote the actually blue screen codes that would help narrow down the possible issues. But it sounds like you are doing the right thing which is to generally replace parts one at a time until it stops failing. You can also try things like swapping the GPU into a working computer and seeing if that fails.

TannerMS

Thanks guys, I'll run the memory test for as long as possible when I get home. The computer doesn't seem abnormally warm when it crashes but I'll give the GPU and CPU stress tests a shot as well.

Is there any merit to swapping his RAM out for RAM that I know works?

TannerMS

Update! Swapping the RAM seems to have fixed the problem.

Unfortunately, now my computer isn't working. The lights come on and the fans start up but nothing appears on the monitors. The monitors are getting something though because when I unplug them they switch to a no input screen.

DisruptedCapitalist

Might be a failure to POST. Some mobos have an LED display with a code so you can see why nothing is going to video. Either that or your vid card is borked.

TheCanMan

TannerMS wrote: »

Update! Swapping the RAM seems to have fixed the problem.

Unfortunately, now my computer isn't working. The lights come on and the fans start up but nothing appears on the monitors. The monitors are getting something though because when I unplug them they switch to a no input screen.

If your's was working fine and now that you've swapped a bunch of stuff between the two computers your's has stopped working, that's almost certainly due to something not being seated properly or maybe you've knocked a wire loose while poking around in your case.

TannerMS

I fiddled around with the two computers during my lunch break and I think that when we removed my graphics card we damaged the motherboard of my computer. I'm 99% sure everything is securely seated and plugged in and his computer operates perfectly with my video card in it.