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Parents desktop died


Borgi

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Seeing as the most of you are computer gurus, what desktop do you reccomend they buy? The main things they care about is low cost, quick internet, a cd burner, and secretly they do not know, but I want them to get one that will run MVP effectively (my laptop is a little laggy) So what do you recommend? Do all new computers have vista? We have never used it. Thanks

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What happened to the current one? It's more likely to be less expensive to fix the current one than buy a new one. Post some details and we can probably advise a part that would resolve your problems.

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What happened to the current one? It's more likely to be less expensive to fix the current one than buy a new one. Post some details and we can probably advise a part that would resolve your problems.

Mark, not to sure, the techie at my moms work said that it cannot be repaired. It's old and fairly junky anyways, definantly time to get bigger and better. The problem was it would turn on and after about half an hour turn it self off. It was an HP about 5 years old.

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In that case, that "techie" should be ashamed to hold the title. That's not a serious problem. Anything could be causing that - memory, motherboard, PSU, hard drive, software, fans...literally, any or those components could be causing that issue.

If it just restarts and starts up normally after the restart, I'd start to doubt overheating, as most PCs built later than '97 or '98 have temperature sensors that will actually shut the system down, or will stop the system from starting up again (or just getting past a certain checkpoint during the POST process) until the system temperature is below a certain level again.

If you want, I can give you some things to try to isolate the fault to a particular part. Let me know.

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In that case, that "techie" should be ashamed to hold the title. That's not a serious problem. Anything could be causing that - memory, motherboard, PSU, hard drive, software, fans...literally, any or those components could be causing that issue.

If it just restarts and starts up normally after the restart, I'd start to doubt overheating, as most PCs built later than '97 or '98 have temperature sensors that will actually shut the system down, or will stop the system from starting up again (or just getting past a certain checkpoint during the POST process) until the system temperature is below a certain level again.

If you want, I can give you some things to try to isolate the fault to a particular part. Let me know.

Sure I'll give it a whirl. Thanks Mark

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No problem. :)

Firstly, when is it restarting? Exactly half an hour after being started? Around half an hour? What's thw quickest time, and the longest time, it's taken to restart? Any strange activity on the system just before the restart? Any messages appearing when Windows restarts again? After the first restart, does it happen again on consecutive restarts?

Is the PSU fan spinning? Any unusual noise or behaviour? Any clicking, abnormal whirring, or grinding noises? (Are you comfortable opening the system? If so, you can check the CPU fan as well and make sure that's spinning at a normal speed. Clean the inside of the system out with some compressed air as well, if you have it. Make sure there is no dust or debris in the PSU or CPU fan.)

What, if any, hardware has been added to the system?

What peripherals (USB devices, printers, network cables etc.) are on the system? Does the restart happen with them removed?

Disable Automatic Restart (start the PC, hit F8 at the BIOS splash screen - probably has a HP logo or something on it - then choose Safe Mode from the Windows Advanced Options menu). Does the system still restart, or does it show any BSODs (blue screens with error messages)?

What programs do you have running? If you just start the system and log on to the desktop and don't use the PC, does it restart then?

Does it do the same in Windows Safe Mode? (Can be accessed from Windows Advanced Options menu, as above.)

Does it do the same on all user accounts?

What hardware diagnostics do HP have? Whatever they have, run them. If they don't have any, run memtest86.

Do you have any boot CD's for Linux or something? If you do, boot to them and see if the system restarts while using the CD.

Try these, and report your findings. It looks like a lot, but knowing what the system does in reference to these questions will greatly help in isolating the fault.

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Well Mark, my parents just decided to get a new one, and it runs MVP wonderfully. The graphics are amazing and I haven't experienced any lag! Usually from third to first I get some, but none. It looks so good, I was thinking about selling it, but no way now!

Gawd.jpg

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haha i jsut bought a 24' 1920x1200 widescreen monitor. WOW makes MVP look twice as good. The 4x unis i made for myself look SOOOOOOO GOOOOD. you can see the details from far away because they are still big from far away at 24'.

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