My computer took a massive dump
nooshinjohn
Posts: 25,396
It.does not boot up at all, even in safe mode. All was working well until it did the usual restart after getting weekly updates from Microsoft. It is not even sending a video signal out, so literally there.is nothing I can. See to even begin to troubleshoot with.
The computer is a 5 year old Gateway FX7026 with 64 bit windows vista, intel quad q9300 and nvidia 8800 over locked graphics card. My first impulse is that the card is dead, but the computer fans run full speed and do not slow down as they usually did. Any advice on getting it fixed or recovering the data from it and transferring it to a better machine?
The computer is a 5 year old Gateway FX7026 with 64 bit windows vista, intel quad q9300 and nvidia 8800 over locked graphics card. My first impulse is that the card is dead, but the computer fans run full speed and do not slow down as they usually did. Any advice on getting it fixed or recovering the data from it and transferring it to a better machine?
The Gear... Carver "Statement" Mono-blocks, Mcintosh C2300 Arcam AVR20, Oppo UDP-203 4K Blu-ray player, Sony XBR70x850B 4k, Polk Audio Legend L800 with height modules, L400 Center Channel Polk audio AB800 "in-wall" surrounds. Marantz MM7025 stereo amp. Simaudio Moon 680d DSD
“When once a Republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil.”— Thomas Jefferson
“When once a Republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil.”— Thomas Jefferson
Post edited by nooshinjohn on
Comments
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Recovering data is easy, if you're going to get a new computer you can pull the hdd out of that system and get a usb adapter/enclosure and still access your data with a few setting changes on your new machine.
If you're looking to try to save this machine there's a few things to look at.
Does it power up? You say your fans turn on so I do not think your PSU is the issue.
Do you have an onboard video port? If so try pulling the video card and seeing if you can get a signal from that.
If you do not you can try buying a cheap 20 dollar PCI-E card to see if your old card is the culprit.
If you still can not get a video signal even with a new card (not even post) I think it might be the motherboard.
With that being a possible issue I'd just scrap it for new tech. Parts are very cheap now if you go mid grade or last gen tech.
To transfer/recover data just get an exclosure and stuff your old hdd in it. Hook it up to your new computer and give yourself administrative rights over that drive. Once so you should be able to access it like a normal hdd and pull your data out.HT: M5510-Prox2/PN51E550/NR708/M282(3)/RTi A7/CSi A6/FXi A6/DSWPro660x2/PS3/HTPC
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or the old HDD can just be hooked up internally to a second computer's SATA port on the mobo. as long as there is a primary boot drive/windows install, the old install of Vista will just show up as a data drive and you would have full access to all of the files. no need for an enclosure.
does the stand-by light on the monitor stay in the stand-by color? have you completely powered down and then tried rebooting?
i assume you have opened the case and reseated the GFX card, RAM sticks and such?.... seems an odd coincidence it happened right after updates. i was wondering if there might have been MS graphics drivers in the updates you installed (they are usually crap) but you should at least at a BIOS/splash screen.
any USB devices plugged in?Polk Lsi9
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First thing to ask is, does it beep? If it beeps but no video, most likely the vid card. If it does not beep, something else may be wrong. Pull the card, see if it beeps. If that doesn't work, pull the memory, then any other cards until you get it to beep. If it never beeps, either a bad PSU or bad mobo.
If it beeps more than once, need to know the beep pattern to diagnose the error.
RT-12, CS350-LS, PSW-300, Infinity Overture 1, Monoprice RC-65i
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Monster AVL-300, HTS-2500 MKII -
no beeps,clicking, hard-drive spool-up... nothing but the fans and a flashing internal green on a board inside and the orange powerup light that shines through the power switch. I am leaning towards CPU failure as of this moment...The Gear... Carver "Statement" Mono-blocks, Mcintosh C2300 Arcam AVR20, Oppo UDP-203 4K Blu-ray player, Sony XBR70x850B 4k, Polk Audio Legend L800 with height modules, L400 Center Channel Polk audio AB800 "in-wall" surrounds. Marantz MM7025 stereo amp. Simaudio Moon 680d DSD
“When once a Republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil.”— Thomas Jefferson -
Theoretically, if the CPU is bad, the mobo will have a beep code for it. But sometimes if a component goes bad it will prevent the mobo from beeping at all. At this point it's going to have to be a process of elimination.
RT-12, CS350-LS, PSW-300, Infinity Overture 1, Monoprice RC-65i
Adcom GFA-545II, GFA-6000, Outlaw Audio 990, Netgear NeoTV
Denon DCM-460, DMD-1000, Sony BDP-360, Bravia KDL-40Z4100/S
Monster AVL-300, HTS-2500 MKII -
HDD fail all the time, MOBO's less than but PSU's can also drop like a rock. You're in for some reality based troubleshooting. Start with the PSU, get the adapter and see if your HDD works on another computer. You need to know those two things now.CTC BBQ Amplifier, Sonic Frontiers Line3 Pre-Amplifier and Wadia 581 SACD player. Speakers? Always changing but for now, Mission Argonauts I picked up for $50 bucks, mint.
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My hard-drives are configured in RAID, so I don't know how I could test them, as it is my understanding that they need to work together. Is it possible that the power supply is just not able to provide enough juice to turn everything on, but still work enough to give me a good power light?
I am such a newb when it comes to this crap?The Gear... Carver "Statement" Mono-blocks, Mcintosh C2300 Arcam AVR20, Oppo UDP-203 4K Blu-ray player, Sony XBR70x850B 4k, Polk Audio Legend L800 with height modules, L400 Center Channel Polk audio AB800 "in-wall" surrounds. Marantz MM7025 stereo amp. Simaudio Moon 680d DSD
“When once a Republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil.”— Thomas Jefferson -
Theoretically, if the CPU is bad, the mobo will have a beep code for it. But sometimes if a component goes bad it will prevent the mobo from beeping at all. At this point it's going to have to be a process of elimination.
Agreed, and its a PAIN to play what I call "Component Roulette"HDD fail all the time, MOBO's less than but PSU's can also drop like a rock. You're in for some reality based troubleshooting. Start with the PSU, get the adapter and see if your HDD works on another computer. You need to know those two things now.
Well according to him (just talked to him on the phone) the computer power light comes on and the fans all spin up to 100% rpm and then never slow down. Given that I would assume the PSU is good but that the computer simply will not POST (he used to get beep codes but no longer does)nooshinjohn wrote: »My hard-drives are configured in RAID, so I don't know how I could test them, as it is my understanding that they need to work together. Is it possible that the power supply is just not able to provide enough juice to turn everything on, but still work enough to give me a good power light?
I am such a newb when it comes to this crap?
John, normally if the PSU has worked for a long time and you still get power and fans turning on, your PSU is good, its something else. That said computers are quite complicated so its possible, but to me unlikely.
Also in discussing things with him the entire interior was entirely covered in dust and I assume cat hair from their cat. Dust/hair + computers = trouble.
He also mentioned that in the past few days he was getting errors while watching video's/using the display that were of video card failure upon which the computer would then restart to the splash screen."....not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." William Bruce Cameron, Informal Sociology: A Casual Introduction to Sociological Thinking (1963) -
****, the answer is always ****.CTC BBQ Amplifier, Sonic Frontiers Line3 Pre-Amplifier and Wadia 581 SACD player. Speakers? Always changing but for now, Mission Argonauts I picked up for $50 bucks, mint.
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****, the answer is always ****.
Nah, he was watching Glenn Beck TV. His computer just COULDNT HANDLE THE TRUTH!!!!! :biggrin:"....not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." William Bruce Cameron, Informal Sociology: A Casual Introduction to Sociological Thinking (1963) -
My audio server just started acting up. power supply? No, becasuse I have a spare and that
would be too easy. I was thinking about an upgrade anyway. About $80 for better mb/cpu at Fry's, plus
about $26 for 8 g of ram."The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." --Thomas Jefferson -
odd, my desktop crapped out the other day. Immenent HD failure. Now I'm trying to load windows in a HD I had used for backups but no luck what so ever.
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I would just take the hard drive out and not stick anything into a 5 year old machine. Get an enclosure as stated above and use it for a back-up after you get your files off from it. http://www.newegg.com/External-Enclosures/SubCategory/ID-92?Tpk=hard%20drive%20enclosure|drive%20enclosure
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****, the answer is always ****.
Unequivocally so. Except this is John, so...EndersShadow wrote: »Nah, he was watching Glenn Beck TV. His computer just COULDNT HANDLE THE TRUTH!!!!! :biggrin:
most likely-Kevin
HT: Philips 52PFL7432D 52" LCD 1080p / Onkyo TX-SR 606 / Oppo BDP-83 SE / Comcast cable. (all HDMI)B&W 801 - Front, Polk CS350 LS - Center, Polk LS90 - Rear
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Transparent IC's -
Sounds like it got too hot and or fried something due to the dirty mess.
You could take it down to bare bones, clean it good, remove/reinstall CPU, re-seat the heatsink and reinstall 1 stick of memory and a random HDD other then your array. See if it posts. -
Sounds like it's time for an upgrade anyway.nooshinjohn wrote: »The computer is a 5 year old Gateway FX7026 with 64 bit windows vista, intel quad q9300 and nvidia 8800 over locked graphics card."He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you." Friedrich Nietzsche -
posting from best buy on my new Apple iMac...
Seriously though, I am getting a new dell XPS with 32G ram and 2TB hard drive space... should be good enough for running the new house.The Gear... Carver "Statement" Mono-blocks, Mcintosh C2300 Arcam AVR20, Oppo UDP-203 4K Blu-ray player, Sony XBR70x850B 4k, Polk Audio Legend L800 with height modules, L400 Center Channel Polk audio AB800 "in-wall" surrounds. Marantz MM7025 stereo amp. Simaudio Moon 680d DSD
“When once a Republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil.”— Thomas Jefferson -
16 gigs of ram still has plenty of headroom with Adobe PS, Firefox, and Battlefield 3 running at once, why would you need 32 gigs?"He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you." Friedrich Nietzsche
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my comp did the same thing, try clearing the cmos and see if you can get a video signal, unplug the computer and remove the battery, wait for a minute and install the battery and plug it in and see if it will work. fixed mine right up. it will reset your bios settings. good luck.
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Sounds like it got too hot and or fried something due to the dirty mess.
You could take it down to bare bones, clean it good, remove/reinstall CPU, re-seat the heatsink and reinstall 1 stick of memory and a random HDD other then your array. See if it posts.
The 2nd 3rd and 4th RAM slots are bad and the 1st is iffy. We got it to post with 1 stick of RAM (then tried 2 and no POST) and he is having the data dumped off it now onto a new computer as we speak (It was still having issues with just 1 stick which realistically Vista doesnt run well on 1-2 gig of RAM anyway. Then he's going to backup all that data to an external HDD for safekeeping.Sounds like it's time for an upgrade anyway.
Agreed."....not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." William Bruce Cameron, Informal Sociology: A Casual Introduction to Sociological Thinking (1963) -
EndersShadow wrote: »The 2nd 3rd and 4th RAM slots are bad and the 1st is iffy. We got it to post with 1 stick of RAM (then tried 2 and no POST) and he is having the data dumped off it now onto a new computer as we speak (It was still having issues with just 1 stick which realistically Vista doesnt run well on 1-2 gig of RAM anyway. Then he's going to backup all that data to an external HDD for safekeeping.
I knew something got hot; RAM.
Yes... I know all to well of Vista's issues with the low memory. -
I went through all available solutions, and it was just cheaper to upgrade. The MB and CPU would have been 325.00 by itself...sucks2beme wrote: »My audio server just started acting up. power supply? No, becasuse I have a spare and that
would be too easy. I was thinking about an upgrade anyway. About $80 for better mb/cpu at Fry's, plus
about $26 for 8 g of ram.
The reason I am so very reluctant to put media on a computer is for this very reason. I will never loose my data that is stored on vinyl.:cheesygrin:The Gear... Carver "Statement" Mono-blocks, Mcintosh C2300 Arcam AVR20, Oppo UDP-203 4K Blu-ray player, Sony XBR70x850B 4k, Polk Audio Legend L800 with height modules, L400 Center Channel Polk audio AB800 "in-wall" surrounds. Marantz MM7025 stereo amp. Simaudio Moon 680d DSD
“When once a Republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil.”— Thomas Jefferson -
I do plan on using this computer as a central component and an extension of my Pioneer SC-37. I want the speed and the 2TB of hard drive to give me the memory space to be able to store a few things and not be concerned about running out of room. I am also going to forego DTV or cable for a bit and see if Netflix/Hulu can work for us instead. This computer should have the power and the speed needed to deliver. I am going to upgrade the audio card however...16 gigs of ram still has plenty of headroom with Adobe PS, Firefox, and Battlefield 3 running at once, why would you need 32 gigs?The Gear... Carver "Statement" Mono-blocks, Mcintosh C2300 Arcam AVR20, Oppo UDP-203 4K Blu-ray player, Sony XBR70x850B 4k, Polk Audio Legend L800 with height modules, L400 Center Channel Polk audio AB800 "in-wall" surrounds. Marantz MM7025 stereo amp. Simaudio Moon 680d DSD
“When once a Republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil.”— Thomas Jefferson -
The suggestions so far are not able to be argued...solid. I'm am audio guy not a computer guy and some might argue the other.
I JUST rebuilt my own so I cannot offer much more than YES, its time for change and YES go SSD. You should always backup your crap but I've had so many standard HDD fail me over the years that I wanted something different. I backup, no big tragedy but it freeaking sucks, period.
I'm also not in love with this INTEL Board since I've been an ASUS dovotee for more than a decade. That being said....WTF can I say? Everything works, I'm happy. My speeds are high, my temps are almost non-exisistent and its quiet. I'm the lamest game player so I'm tickeld but when it comes down to brass tacks....I'm heavy and ready.
My only regret is not sticking with ASUS but since I'm running dual ASUS monitors....I'm sure they're ok.
For those not used to or think dual monitors is weird....once you go there, you'll never go back. It's really helpful for multi-tasking and not just being nerdy. You can do a lot more business with two and not lose focus....hard to explain.CTC BBQ Amplifier, Sonic Frontiers Line3 Pre-Amplifier and Wadia 581 SACD player. Speakers? Always changing but for now, Mission Argonauts I picked up for $50 bucks, mint. -
It's still overkill, but it's your money. If you want speed, go with Mark's suggestion of a SSD for the OS, browser, etc..nooshinjohn wrote: »I do plan on using this computer as a central component and an extension of my Pioneer SC-37. I want the speed and the 2TB of hard drive to give me the memory space to be able to store a few things and not be concerned about running out of room. I am also going to forego DTV or cable for a bit and see if Netflix/Hulu can work for us instead. This computer should have the power and the speed needed to deliver. I am going to upgrade the audio card however..."He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you." Friedrich Nietzsche -
2 monitors= carpal tunnel AND tennis elbow. No thanks
I refuse to argue with idiots, because people can't tell the DIFFERENCE! -
2 monitors= carpal tunnel AND tennis elbow. No thanks
I don't know about you but my arm movement in hardcore mouse mode is tame at best. You might need professional help if Carpal Tunnel is a factor, LOL. Now your eyeballs? Well, that's a different issue since I've started having seizures but I think they're neat.CTC BBQ Amplifier, Sonic Frontiers Line3 Pre-Amplifier and Wadia 581 SACD player. Speakers? Always changing but for now, Mission Argonauts I picked up for $50 bucks, mint. -
I wouldnt jump on SSD yet problems installing OS on SSD drives. Drives degrade over time. Lots of reviews of SSD drives failing.TV: Philips 42" LCD 1080p
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This is 2012, not 2008.I wouldnt jump on SSD yet problems installing OS on SSD drives. Drives degrade over time. Lots of reviews of SSD drives failing.
You have to do your research obviously, but SSD is a mature technology and is plenty safe to use in a PC -
I disagree.nooshinjohn wrote: »The reason I am so very reluctant to put media on a computer is for this very reason. I will never loose my data that is stored on vinyl.:cheesygrin:
I have lots of stuff on vinyl and on CD and if our place burns to the ground or gets robbed I'm screwed, I can't 'copy' stuff that I have on vinyl.
For all the media I have stored digitally, I have a redundant backup system:
- I'm all Apple at this point, and I'm using Time Machine so if my computer fails I can just restore my backup to a new machine. I'm sure there's a version of this that works just as well on Windows, so there's no reason not to backup.
- I also have all my media on an external drive, and that's the primary drive I use for playback in iTunes and streaming to boxes around the house.
- I have a second external drive that I back up to weekly or so, and I bring that drive into the office and keep it here. So if our place burns to the ground I'm covered. Technically I have two of these that I rotate, so one is always at the office.
- For my media (so no personal information) I also use an online storage solution. It's cheap and works well, so if my office and house BOTH burn to the ground I'm covered.
That may sound like overkill, but it's really very simple and inexpensive.
