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My computer is fucked!
Thor1590
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Ok, got a weird one here. Normally I have a relatively easy time figuring these things out myself, but on this one, I'm at a loss.
While playing Fallout 3, right before I click "save," my screen turns puke-colored, my keyboard lights/mouse power indicator start flickering on and off, and my speakers start letting out the kind of noise that occurs when you plug them in, over and over again. It sounded like the crackling flames of my computer's defeat.
So, my first idea is "Power supply!" I look at it, and see that it's not screwed in. I switched it in before I moved up here; I must've forgotten. I should stress, however, that it isn't lying on anything important (the plastic cover around my heatsink/processor), and seems to be fine apart from that. I set it back up, put the computer on its side so that it doesn't fall until I get more screws, check all the other connections inside, and power it on again.
It gets to the windows loading bar, runs for a half a second, changes to a black screen and just sits there.
I run it in safe mode, it gets to a certain file, I'm guessing is unable to load it, and shuts the machine off completely.
Basically, a reformat is in order. My question is: how did this happen? Some wicked virus? Was it really that power supply? Can whatever it was be prevented? Like I said, I'm at a loss.
While playing Fallout 3, right before I click "save," my screen turns puke-colored, my keyboard lights/mouse power indicator start flickering on and off, and my speakers start letting out the kind of noise that occurs when you plug them in, over and over again. It sounded like the crackling flames of my computer's defeat.
So, my first idea is "Power supply!" I look at it, and see that it's not screwed in. I switched it in before I moved up here; I must've forgotten. I should stress, however, that it isn't lying on anything important (the plastic cover around my heatsink/processor), and seems to be fine apart from that. I set it back up, put the computer on its side so that it doesn't fall until I get more screws, check all the other connections inside, and power it on again.
It gets to the windows loading bar, runs for a half a second, changes to a black screen and just sits there.
I run it in safe mode, it gets to a certain file, I'm guessing is unable to load it, and shuts the machine off completely.
Basically, a reformat is in order. My question is: how did this happen? Some wicked virus? Was it really that power supply? Can whatever it was be prevented? Like I said, I'm at a loss.
Thor1590 on
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What you describe definitely sounds like a faulty power supply that is fluctuating or a motherboard that is screwing up the power it passes along. The speaker and keyboard/mouse part is what clues one into it being power related.
A power related problem is purely hardware. Your best bet will be a new power supply. This can be swapped in without needing any form of reformatting or the like. If it doesn't help, then you may be looking at replacing the motherboard, which can be a bit more expensive.
My wife's system had the same kind of problem with crashing when windows was loading (though it also had the motherboard ignoring PCI slots and the onboard LAN failing) and we replaced the MB.
Edit: Did you add new hardware lately? Do you know if the PS is of adequate wattage for your hardware? There are plenty of websites that can tell you recommended levels (via a slew of dropdown boxes indicating all the various pieces of HW you may have)?
Murphy's Paradox: The more you plan, the more that can go wrong. The less you plan, the less likely your plan will succeed.