Another PC problem - cutting out at Windows loading screen

[Rossco]

Hi again,

Feel like all I ever do is ask why my PC is broken!

Turn it on and as soon as the Windows loading screen comes up, the PC restarts. Done it a million times. I don't have anything saved on my PC now that I need as I use external drive and internet for storage so I just reinstalled Windows to see if it fixed it but it didn't. Still broke!

Is that a hard drive problem possibly? I've done all sorts of memory tests in the past and it never said there was a problem with it.

[Hohum]

Have you tried booting into safe mode? (pressing F8 during start-up). If you can't even do that then you may need to do a repair using the O/S disc.

[Rossco]

Yeh safe mode doesn't work either. Went into BIOS and reset everything to default just incase. Doesn't let you do a repair when you boot from CD. Says you need to start it from Windows, which I can't do!

[abigsmurf]

Tried a USB bootable version of linux? may at least be able to run disk checking tools on it (or confirm that it's a HW issue if that refuses to boot too)

[Rossco]

Well I took it all to pieces to clean it all out etc and now it wont go on at all. I made the bloody thing in the first place so I know where everything goes but it wont go on.

I've had problems with this build for years since I got it. Maybe I should just cut my losses and get a new one.

[Matt]

Probably HDD, though I'd try with the onboard GFX (unplug the card) and one stick of RAM (try both of course), just in case.

I'd stop booting it now, in case it gets worse. You could try booting from the Windows disc and reinstall, get it back working with a bit of luck.

Oh, any HDD test in the BIOS? Run that first. Any issues, stop using it, get a new HDD in, and hope you can use the original as a second HDD for a day to recover your work.

[Rossco]

Still nothing. Not even a blink from it after pressing the power button about 500 times! I think it's finally died somehow.

If I don't get this fixed and can't be bothered building another PC myself, wheres the best places to buy one?

[abigsmurf]

Hard to recommend any prebuilts in particular for gaming because almost without fail, they come with awful graphics cards unless you spend a lot of money.

Also need to know budget and what you want it to do

[Rossco]

Not really interested in gaming on PCs. Spend enough time working on them I try to get away to a console to play.

I'm a 3D modeler/animator, do alot of video editing with Premiere, After Effects etc too. So lots of rendering work where the PC will sit at 100% CPU load for hours on end non stop.

At the moment I have a Quad core 4GB machine with ATI x1950 card. Need the same but better now. Dont need a big hard drive as I use external storage for files. I also do have a good Antec case and power supply so that's not even a necessity to get a new case.

I'm gonna stretch to about £500 limit I think. Being a student, I don't have a lot of money, but need a good PC quickly as this is my honours year and I can't afford to lose time.

[mikewl]

Still nothing. Not even a blink from it after pressing the power button about 500 times! I think it's finally died somehow.

If I don't get this fixed and can't be bothered building another PC myself, wheres the best places to buy one?

Barebones bundles or Mobo bundles from Novatech are quite good, if you already have dvd drives etc it saves on those, they are quite good with returns and repairs.

The other thing is if something goes wrong they will figure out what went wrong for you, my pc stopped working on last Friday, I phoned up and they told me what the probable cause was, I then was able to stop by and swap the faulty psu for a new one same day.

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/bundles.html


http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/barebones.html

You could probably get this one and a new harddrive for about £480, just use your old graphics card if your not fussed about games, or get a cheap one for about 50 quid.

[abigsmurf]

I would say a core i5 or i7 is what you'd want if you're after a performance boost from a quad core

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0519662592.1265966971@@@@&BV_EngineID=cccjadejikkdlgkcflgceggdhhmdgml.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=107755&category_oid=

This is phenomenally good value (not a brilliant graphics card but better than you'd get in most pre-builts). Seems in store only though.

[Rossco]

I'm leaning more towards the Novatech one for £415.

The i5 750 destroys my old Q6600 apparently, 4GB DDR3 1333Mhz RAM will destroy my old DDR2 800Mhz or whatever it was.


Then I just need a cheap hard drive for abou 40 quid and a GPU. No point in using my old x1950. Jump up to something like this?

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/192856

Supposedly the HD5670 is good value for money right now?

And that takes me to about £550 thereabouts.

[Rossco]

So I'm gonna go for this barebones along with an HD5670 for about 90 quid unless anyone objects knowing a better deal?