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Built Computer help needed

Started by fopah, 2006-05-02T16:01:26-05:00 (Tuesday)

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fopah

I built my own computer about 2 years ago and ive had the following problems with it(most because of the motherboard).
2 broken video cards.
1 broken power supply
2 broken cd/dvd drives.
1 broken floppy drive a busted motherboard. ram compatability issues(motherboard).
7 computer ending viruses(thats my own fault)

its a 2800+ amd athalon processor and 512mb of ddr 400 ram. which at the moment is "underclocked" (for saftey and because if i put it on normal settings it says "over clock failed") to 1200mhz and i dont even know the speed of the ram its like 333 probably.

so im thinking it must be the stupid motherboard. could it be others?

the only thing that hasnt broken on the dang thing is the processor so thats next.

anyways my computer just turns off now if i play starcraft or have more than 4 certain windows open it however does not turn off while playing cs or some other things. it also does not turn off while at my friends house it worked for 6 or 7 hours not once did it turn off. so now im like wtf?

i was wondering if there is any free way i can fix it also what is the problem and why does it choose lame times to turn off.

also i have no money so im stuck with it so its necessary for it to be fixed

the only difference between it working at my friends house and it turning off at mine is that i use dial up and he uses the cable. and maybe some of the extra things like ipods and speakers and printers werent plugged in.

The thing has never worked correctly. maybe for about a week dunno

any help would be appreciated.


EvilAndrew

I assume that by â€Ã...“turn offâ€Ã, you mean that it blue-screens only with the â€Ã...“restart on system haltâ€Ã, feature turned on so that the blue screen does not show up the system just reboots.   If the computer is really turning off (= powering down) then it is almost surly your power supply.  If my first assumption is correct then your best course of action is to reactivate the blue-screen so that you can get an idea what is failing.  (If you don’t know how to do this then just ask).

If a different module fails every time then your problem is probably that the CPU is overheating.  This would explain why the computer works some places but not others. (Some places have better ventilation).  

If the same module fails each time then you should look up that module so see if it is related to one of you cards or to the PCI bus or something.  A lot of people forget to install the correct chipset drivers on a freshly installed system.  When you run the default windows chipset drivers things are often slow and buggy.
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fopah

it does not blue screen at the moment.  it does just turn off and if it is my power supply would it matter where it is used?
also why would it tell me that im trying to overclock when im actually underclocked margin.

EvilAndrew

I am not sure about the Over-clocking message.  Can you tell if it is the OS that is producing this message or the BIOS?  If it is the BIOS that generates this message, then what version/manufacture is you’re BIOS?

P.S. If you have the â€Ã...“On System Failure Automatically Rebootâ€Ã, option turned on (= the default in XP SP2) then you would not see a blue screen.  However, the computer would reboot and not power off.  Just so we can eliminate that.
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fopah

yeah, no rebooting it just turns off.  it tells me in the bios that "over-clocking has failed" i dont know the version/manufacture of the bios, how can i look for this.