Disaster!

[ER_Chaser]

My computer (pretty new ... only less than a year old I remember ..) suddenly died today. I spent 5 hours already trying to fix it ... in vain ....

I do not know how long I will be out of contact (even reading my home email will be a bit tough for now) ... This forum is the only means for me to communicate with you guys until my computer is fixed. Sigh... I do not know what is going on ...

(the whole story: when I came home early today, I thought I would have a nice gaming night... yet, when I turned my computer on, everything goes on fine, windows up. Yet, at the end, the keyboard and mouse are not responding. I tried to reconnect the mouse and keyboard, no response. Then I pushed the on/off button for 30 secs to shut down the windows and it goes on fine. Windows saved my settings and shut down itself. And then I waited a brief moment, like 10 sec or so, I pushed the on/off button again. This time, no response even from this on/off! I was shocked, but I kept on trying. I then removed the power line and reconnected it again and repeated the procedure, still no response. Now that I can hear a low but strange sound from the powerbox in the computer. I do not know whether that is normal or wrong. But I go on check every single part of the box related to power or whatever ... reconencted everything and dissemble the box into pieces to examine each connection. Still found nothing wrong. I put everything back, and try, no use. I called their customer service in CA< yet, it is alreayd too late, no answer. ) I just wanna cry, what can I do? You guys have any idea what can possibly be wrong with it? Any tips? :cry:

Thanks a lot!

And for all my opponents, please bear with me for a while, trust me, I am 1 million times more anxious to get back online with you guys!

[Full Monty]

It looks like your power supply has died. If that's all it is then it should be easily removed and replaced. Hopefully there wasn't an associated power spike that took various other items with it.

[7thcav]

No problem the games will keep till your back up

[Palantir]

Tough break ER,

I hope it's easy to fix, good luck.

[Nemesis Lead]

I am very sorry to hear this ER. Bad timing since we just had a ceasefire in one of our games and the other is almost done as well (I have all the files so....no worries).

In a last desperate attack....my men must have knocked out your power supply! It was an accident, I swear! :shock:

Who is the computer manufacturer? The quality of service you get varies widely. I have a Dell and had a problem and it took them 3 days to get a replacement. Not bad.

This may be obvious but....DON'T tell customer service that you took the computer apart--they will void your warranty.

Good luck!

Jay

[ER_Chaser]

Well, strange thing happens, I guess.

This morning, just before I came to office, I said, what the hell, let me try one more time ... and pushed the on/off button, you know what? Everything goes on well and normal! But there is no sound yet. I figure it must be that in my frenzy last night, I misconnected the sound line... hopefully it will not die again tonight when I go home... and everything will be fine back online ;)

Do not worry, buddies, you guys will get whatever your turns soon! (hopefully :D )

[ER_Chaser]

any computer gurus here? Could it be the room temperature that affects the power supply of my computer that caused this? All I can think about is that when I got home early yesterday, my wife wasn't at home and thus the AC was off. ANd it was cold inside.
The difference is that this morning, after a whole night of AC on, teh room becomes warm and normal and thus it is back? Does that make any sense to you?

[Palantir]

LOOK OUT JAY!! :eek:

It's just a massive trap by ER to lull you into a false sence of security. :bored:

First he throws out a "special" FOW across the entire map, then he eliminates all sounds so you can't hear his men & tanks approaching!! :hush:

The CM- :freak: , will he stop at nothing to win? :devil:

Watchout who knows what he'll do next! :devious:

But if you see this come marching over the hill- :hurray: :cow: :ar15: :banana: :bounce:

Its the cow you have to worry about!

:laugh:

[Full Monty]

any computer gurus here? Could it be the room temperature that affects the power supply of my computer that caused this? All I can think about is that when I got home early yesterday, my wife wasn't at home and thus the AC was off. ANd it was cold inside.
The difference is that this morning, after a whole night of AC on, teh room becomes warm and normal and thus it is back? Does that make any sense to you?

It could be condensation causing a short somewhere. However, it could be a sign that there's an intermittent fault or a component that's breaking down slowly. If I were you I'd have it checked over under warranty.

[ER_Chaser]

Thanks, Monty. I think I should still call them today then. :) At least I should seek for useful information, esp. in case other customers may have this similar problem with the system if it is really a design flaw.

Palantir: Nemesis is a very strong player. :) He might easily win both games against me :) Never assume anything on the opponents! Esp. new ones :)

[Nemesis Lead]

ER,


Sssssshhhhh....!

You will scare everyone away! I can't get games as it is! Combined with the fact that my men took out your computer, I might get banned from the ladder!

Palantir--ER did field cows against me (JS-2 type). Some tough fights, let me tell you!

Best Regards,

Jay

[ER_Chaser]

ER,


Sssssshhhhh....!

You will scare everyone away! I can't get games as it is! Combined with the fact that men my took out your computer, I might get banned from the ladder!

Palantir--ER did field cows against me (JS-2 type). Some tough fights, let me tell you!

Best Regards,

Jay
LOL .... ban you out of the ladder? That is exactly what I want :D ...

[Nemesis Lead]

You want me banned from the ladder? :eek:

My men shall redouble their attacks against your personal property! :ar15: Next we will target your car.

[Malm]

Hi ER_Chaser,


Happy to learn that you and your baby came out alright ;)

That only your inputs halted seems strange - what about your graphic card & monitor?

Anyway - as difficult as it seems, to give any good advices based on your kind of a short ER critical note, it may be a dirty PS fan ;)

In case of more throubles - run a memory/ram check using a 3rd party software and check your fans and heatsinks :cool:


-

[ER_Chaser]

You want me banned from the ladder? :eek:

My men shall redouble their attacks against your personal property! :ar15: Next we will target your car.
fortunately, I do not even have a car (I used to ... but gave it away to some charity years ago after I moved to NYC ... haha ..if that counts, I do not know which old mama would be the victim :D ).

[ER_Chaser]

Hi ER_Chaser,


Happy to learn that you and your baby came out alright ;)

That only your inputs halted seems strange - what about your graphic card & monitor?

Anyway - as difficult as it seems, to give any good advices based on your kind of a short ER critical note, it may be a dirty PS fan ;)

In case of more throubles - run a memory/ram check using a 3rd party software and check your fans and heatsinks :cool:


-

Still too early to call it is "fine" .. buddy :D .. I merely turned it on this morning and seemed ok. Who knows what is going to happen tonight??!! ... well.. we will see soon.

But it is not fan/sink thing... because, my room is ice cold these days during this depressing NYC winter.
It does not seem like a RAM or graphic card problem. Since it doe snot even start ... the power supply was not doing anything except making that disgusting little noise. I do not know... I called their customer service ... they do not know any incidences like this and told me that, "how can your room be so cold? We never had such things in California" ... (should I conclude that they are mean enough to laugh at their customer's misfortune? :devious: )

Anyway, many things are like this in life anyways... only God knows..

[Lurker]

There can be many reasons for your PC problems. As suggested by Monty, the power supply could be at issue. How many watts is it and what kind of stuff do you have attached? If you need another I'd recommend between 500 and 600 watts.

Fried components due to a spike is another possibility. If you don't have a UPS I'd invest in one. I once lost my son's machine (mobo and cpu) to a spike.

If it fails to boot up again then try booting from a floppy to a command prompt and see if it gets that far. If it doesn't then unplug it and disconnect all the devices: printer, hard drives, CD Rom and DVD drives, etc, and keep just the video card connected and try the floppy boot again. If it works then, reconnect the devices one at a time and boot, beginning with the HD you boot from. The idea is to determine if one of the devices is bad through elimination. I had a CD drive shorting out in one machine that caused some strange behavior and was a bugger to track down. If that fails try replacing your power supply - or you could do that as the first step if you have access to a spare, or feel like springing for a new one. :)

I hope that helps.

[Palantir]

Steve just jump in your car and drive up there for first hand "look-see." :love:

Can't be that long of a drive can it? :whist:

:laugh:

[Lurker]

Better if he drove down here. :p

As much as I miss NYC (use to live there) I'll pass on the repair call! :laugh:

[ER_Chaser]

Com'on, Steve, it is only about 20 hours driving :D ...

But thank you very much, Steve, I shall be careful about those things. The power box is not that good I guess. It is only something like 300W. I will search for a better one at my local stores when I have time.

[Full Monty]

Com'on, Steve, it is only about 20 hours driving :D ...

But thank you very much, Steve, I shall be careful about those things. The power box is not that good I guess. It is only something like 300W. I will search for a better one at my local stores when I have time.

My power supply is only 300W but that really is the lower limit for a modern system. If I wasn't getting myself a new system I'd probably replace it with something close to a 450w.

[ER_Chaser]

Monty, what does the power supply make a difference? Thanks.

[ER_Chaser]

Sigh, my machine dies again. This time, temperature seems surely to be the trigger, but however, it is not the reason. I think the real reason is that my power supply is dying.

Now, question ... maybe a silly one ... friends: where can I buy new power boxes? What should I look for? (I mean how to make sure they are compatible with my computer?) and finally, how can I mechanically replace the old one with the new one?

Many thanks!

[Full Monty]

Swapping over a PSU shouldn't be too much trouble, case design permitting of course. As to the details I can't help you too much, but if you go to http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=161496 you should find at least some of the help you require. :)

Good luck!

[ER_Chaser]

thanks a lot man! :kneel:

[Lurker]

Good article on Monty's link. The bottom line: buy a good psu and not a cheap one! :) Try newegg.com or pricewatch.com to name a few. I've had great service with newegg.

[ER_Chaser]

I already bought one and apparently it is up and running :)

Thanks a lot buddies!

The old one was a 420W (not 300 .. sorry) with 17A at 12V rail. The new one is 400W with 21A at 12V rail. I hope Monty's link is correct and I belive it is right :D ... Anyway, the computer was from CyberPower, Inc... in CA. Do NOT buy from them any more. Their tech. support is really rude and refuses to help. :(

[Full Monty]

Glad you're up and running again. Always pleased to be of any assistance. :)

[Tripps]

If i had this earlier I could have been of assistance - i do deal with this crap on a daily basis! :)

[ER_Chaser]

you can still be, my friend :)

Did I buy the right thing? And should I call for the customer service to refund my old psu they sold me?

[British Tommy]

ER, I think I found an answer to your problem!
Your computer is missing several important files and folders. This is easily fixed by installing CMAK onto your computer :)
Your computer will then be complete and will not trouble you again ;)
Just to make sure, it's recommended that you have several CMAK PBEM files as well :p
:smoke:

[Lurker]

It's also missing CMBO! :laugh:

[Tripps]

FM did post a very good article - specs aside, and its touched on in the link, is weight is a good indicator to go by.
Grab a top end PS unit (like in a server) and compare the weight in the cheap system PSU - server one is heavier, because they use heavy duty capacitors and the like.

People go out and buy these top end systems, and plug them into dirty power areas and use $2 power boards - its nuts, would you buy a M5 BMW and use the cheapest oil and lowest grade petrol?

Anyways, yeah what you got sounds fine.

In regards to your old one, is it under warranty? How old is it? Components that come with a one year warranty always make me cautious, why one year? Is that how long you think it will last? If its under warranty i'd kick up a stink.

[ER_Chaser]

LOL ... see how things get out of track ---- I was complaining about CyberPower, and somehow I got blamed as for not having AK and BO !! :p :D

Thanks Tripps. I have 3 year warranty, it is relatively new, less than 1 year if I am right. I called their customer service today again and they finally agreed to replace one for me. The point is that I want to keep the one I just bought (from Bestbuy.com), which I believe possibly a better one ---- and the replacement they will send me as well, as a backup. Does that make sense? (I can also return the one I just bought for $100 ... but not sure that is wise. .. of course, I can always pick up another one at my local store if things go wrong with this incoming replacement again.)

[Lurker]

Wait and see what they send. :) Not a bad idea to have a backup.