desktop computer hard locks
Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2018 3:45 pm
i have a PC at my parents' house that is experiencing frequent hard locks - the video goes out, the HDD light goes solid red, and even the hardware POWER and RESET switches fail to respond - the machine needs to be switched off via the PSU or unplugged to power the machine off. this problem started manifesting last summer (causing me to lose my save game in My Summer Car, boooo - and only while playing that game) to happening with more frequency at random times.
this does occur with any single stick of RAM in any of the memory banks. when i reinstalled all 4x2GB of RAM and reset the BIOS to 'fail-safe' settings, it took some hours before the problem reappeared.
opportunity for troubleshooting here is limited, as i don't have extra parts to swap out (my brother is bringing an older PSU and graphics card tomorrow).
i'm suspecting issue is motherboard (didn't see any swollen caps) and all of the internals are going to have to be replaced, due to the machine's age.
AMD Phenom II X4 925 Deneb 2.8GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Processor
GIGABYTE GA-770TA-UD3 AMD 770 AM3 Phenom II/Athlon X4/Athlon X3/Athlon X2 Socket AM3 PC3-10600 (DDR3-1333) ATX Motherboard Retail
SAPPHIRE RADEON HD 7800
8GB (4x2GB) A-DATA Gaming Series 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM 1600 (running at 1333 speed)
SilverStone ST50F 500W PSU
may have to do an emergency 'acquire parts at MicroCenter' situation. i think i'll aim for something like the mobo, CPU and RAM from https://pcpartpicker.com/guide/vpYcCJ/m ... ming-build
this does occur with any single stick of RAM in any of the memory banks. when i reinstalled all 4x2GB of RAM and reset the BIOS to 'fail-safe' settings, it took some hours before the problem reappeared.
opportunity for troubleshooting here is limited, as i don't have extra parts to swap out (my brother is bringing an older PSU and graphics card tomorrow).
i'm suspecting issue is motherboard (didn't see any swollen caps) and all of the internals are going to have to be replaced, due to the machine's age.
AMD Phenom II X4 925 Deneb 2.8GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Processor
GIGABYTE GA-770TA-UD3 AMD 770 AM3 Phenom II/Athlon X4/Athlon X3/Athlon X2 Socket AM3 PC3-10600 (DDR3-1333) ATX Motherboard Retail
SAPPHIRE RADEON HD 7800
8GB (4x2GB) A-DATA Gaming Series 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM 1600 (running at 1333 speed)
SilverStone ST50F 500W PSU
may have to do an emergency 'acquire parts at MicroCenter' situation. i think i'll aim for something like the mobo, CPU and RAM from https://pcpartpicker.com/guide/vpYcCJ/m ... ming-build