Desktop Troubleshooting help

[ClintT]

Hi guys. I searched and found various "once-off" threads for troubleshooting, but not a ongoing thread. If i missed it, i do apologise.

A family member runs a small company and brought me a desktop to troubleshoot.
It would not pick up the mouse, keyboard or monitor. My first thoughts were blown mobo. Anyway, i reseat the ram, individually testing them and the PC boots up with 1 ram stick. Then the other, also boots up. I try both, it boots now (???). I swap the ram sticks to the alternate slots and it still works.
So, without any changes other than reseating the ram, i give it back to him and they work on it for couple weeks.

Today he says it starting showing grey lines and blocks on the monitor, until it froze the screen. On restart, the PC was back where it was a couple weeks ago.

So.. would you say this is mobo issue, i just replace it completely or is more testing required as it could be something else (CPU, ram, etc..)?


By the way, i dont work in support or repairs, they simply bring all IT related issues to me cause i work in IT (Software, facepalm) and all IT is the same, apparently.

 

[CraigThePlague]

Hi guys. I searched and found various "once-off" threads for troubleshooting, but not a ongoing thread. If i missed it, i do apologise.

A family member runs a small company and brought me a desktop to troubleshoot.
It would not pick up the mouse, keyboard or monitor. My first thoughts were blown mobo. Anyway, i reseat the ram, individually testing them and the PC boots up with 1 ram stick. Then the other, also boots up. I try both, it boots now (???). I swap the ram sticks to the alternate slots and it still works.
So, without any changes other than reseating the ram, i give it back to him and they work on it for couple weeks.

Today he says it starting showing grey lines and blocks on the monitor, until it froze the screen. On restart, the PC was back where it was a couple weeks ago.

So.. would you say this is mobo issue, i just replace it completely or is more testing required as it could be something else (CPU, ram, etc..)?


By the way, i dont work in support or repairs, they simply bring all IT related issues to me cause i work in IT (Software, facepalm) and all IT is the same, apparently.

Personally I've had a computer with similar problems minus the graphical errors. Reseating RAM/ changing slots got the PC to work for periods of time but the length of time it would work gradually reduced until it would just boot and then crash.

Ended up being a faulty RAM stick which I assume was working until it received a certain load level hence causing the crash.

Obviously your issue could be different entirely but the way you described it reminded me of the similar situation. So it could potentially be something else other than a faulty mobo so I would say more testing is required

 

[ClintT]

Personally I've had a computer with similar problems minus the graphical errors. Reseating RAM/ changing slots got the PC to work for periods of time but the length of time it would work gradually reduced until it would just boot and then crash.

Ended up being a faulty RAM stick which I assume was working until it received a certain load level hence causing the crash.

Obviously your issue could be different entirely but the way you described it reminded me of the similar situation. So it could potentially be something else other than a faulty mobo so I would say more testing is required

Thanks for that. Since the ram worked after reseating, I eliminated that but what you mentioned around the load level makes sense.
I'll rather have it checked out before purchasing a mobo.

 

[CraigThePlague]

Thanks for that. Since the ram worked after reseating, I eliminated that but what you mentioned around the load level makes sense.
I'll rather have it checked out before purchasing a mobo.

How to Test RAM: Making Sure Bad Memory Isn't Crashing Your PC

If you've got a nasty case of blue screens of death, you should check if your RAM is working properly.

www.tomshardware.com

Here are a few software options that you can try before having to mess around with swapping hardware

 

[BearZA]

I'd check a few things:
- Cleanliness
- Heat
- Drivers/Software

 

[ClintT]

Update:

I started it up after removing cmos battery then replacing cmos and got no keyboard lights, no mouse power, no "beeps" and no monitor output with the following scenarios:

• Both ram sticks as they were
• Both ram sticks, swapped
• Single ram stick (#1) in original slot
• Single ram stick (#1) in alternate slot
• Single ram stick (#2) in original slot
• Single ram stick (#2) in alternate slot
• No ram sticks

Unfortunately i don't have another machine to test this ram (ddr3).. So, off to the test shop tomorrow.
But considering the above, seems like mobo, doesn't it???

 

[r3spawn3d]

It does seem like the motherboard. When it worked, did it beep during boot. And with no RAM it should beep every second after you turn it on. If you had no beeps during working boot, then you missing motherboard speaker attachment.

I don't know where you located but I know a place that does testing, I use them and they very good. Compucell in Bellville, Cape Town.

Good luck