argh big trouble for me

Well I have done something to my beautiful machine I am always bragging about; this morning I opened the case and vacuumed out any dust and cleaned the fans like I have done many times before; but this time the thing won't run correctly. I reconnected this old computer and am running scan disk on the nice machine in safe mode; can't get it to start Windows normally... it either goes to a blank screen or the machine actually shuts down like someone had pulled the plug :-/ Really hope to have this figured out soon without having to spend too much $$

 

Ouch, firstly I'd check the memory cards are seated correctly, obviously you've checked all the other cards are seated properly, are you getting any post beeps? if so are they different? and how many?

Not much help I know but we need to help you out quick.

 

OMG.
If only I knew this I would have posted this before......Do not ever never use vacuum cleaner for cleaning computer inside [ be careful cleaning outside ]
This is very important because of static electricity caused by your vacuum cleaner.

Use compressed air instead of vacuum cleaner

regards ^Ari^

 

Detox,
check and make sure IDE cable is firmly plugged into HD and MB. Than check all other plugs and connections you can see.
I vacuum my PC with a brush attachment and never had any probs.
What OS are you using?

If you have one, did you try to boot from your "emergency" boot disk ?

hope this helps,
bill

 

Detox,

I truly wish nuttin bad has happened ....yet, but for future I found this how to clean puter; I am not saying it is the only way to do it correct; I haven´t done it to my "Frank" yet.

http://www.howtocleananything.com/hca_article_computer.htm

Ari

 

Maybe if you set the vacuum to 'blow' it might right itself sorry, I couldn't resist

 

Kr@s+y,
I was doing a similar clean up job on one of mine and had similar problems, I found I had inadvertantly knocked the CPU Heat Sink just enought to break the arctic silver contact and the CPU temp was getting hot quick - My BIOS has a temp monitoring utility which showed me the problem - Maybe worth a look

 

Nice utility for that: Speedfan.
It works on most motherboards.

But that is of not much help to Detox right now.
Just check everything to see if it is still properly connected. All the slots, cables and connections.

Regards,

Pieter

 

Yes indeed, and fan speed as well.

Ari

 

Might also check the heatsink on the chipset. Hopefully a loosened heatsink is all it is!

Good luck!

 

Well everything looks connected properly; and I've had it running in safe mode for hours now with scandisk doing a "thorough" run. This leads me to believe that it's not hardware; although I may be incorrect. I am going to shut down scandisk because I think it will take days to do the thorough scan on those 2 120 gig drives.

I don't really see how the plastic hose on my vacuum would cause static electricity; at least not enough to effect anything although this perfectly well may be me being naive in this field.

I've used this method of cleaning several times; and I remove the processor fan and get all the built-up dust out from behind it. This may be difficult to understand for some; but I live in Texas. Dust is VERY plentiful no matter what around these parts...

OK all that but I've said little; I was very careful not to touch anything with the end of the vacuum and I really feel sure nothing got moved although obviously I can't guarantee anything right now. I am hoping to try my windows disk and do some sort of recovery (hopefully without losing any data since I'm VERY bad about backing things up) but first I will check my hardware profile.

 

Bill - I'm running a tweaked version of Win98SE

I'm trying the Win98SE CD now and if it's to no avail I'll crack the thing open again.

 

Detox !!

Nice to hear it´s alright ?

But it is not the vacuum cleaner itself, it´s the air whirl making static electricity. You live in Texas , wow, ok, then you might know there are always thunder storms where are tornados. So be careful out there

Ari

 

not alright yet still working trying the troublehshooting stuff in WIN98 from safemode b/c it doesnt recognize my cd drives in safe mode; in the meantime also looking for my 3 1/2 win98se boot disk I know the general location anyway....

 

bah to be honest cant make heads or tails of how to use that bootdisk other then to run a scandisk or format the hd

 

hm what about little blue manual switches on the motherboard? i figured perhaps i inadvertantly moved some of those; tried changeing a few and start the machine and it acted like it the monitor was not connected... switched them back and the monitor works again...

argh now its taken to beeping repeatly and hanging at startup if I try to normal startup.

 

Detox,

Have a look: http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/sys/beep/awardContinuous-c.html

Regards,

Pieter

 

hm thnx Peter great link; I'm actually starting to think it might be my Geforce 4400; I started to take it out b/c it has those 2 fans on the bottom that are filled with sponge-like material and those fill up with lots of dust until air hardly moves there anymore. ANyway it didn't want to go even though I had the screw out and the little white release lowered... I didn't pull hard when I felt it wasn't going but just pushed it back to be on the safe side. I'll hafta look into that tomorrow as it's about dinner time now and I don't want to touch the thing anymore tonight; hafta sit down and count to 5,000,000 or something hehe

 

Detox, go into your BIOS settings and enable boot from CD, A:, then C: drives. Put your Windows Install CD in the coffee-cup holder, and reboot. Get as far into install as you can and choose Advanced -> Repair.

If the worst happens, you can reinstall the OS while keeping your data intact. Yes, lots of grief and hassle, but your data is more valuable than program files.

You...er...you've got backups, right?

 

Hi Detox,
i reread the thread about what was done already, as i am in a process of working on a donated old computer and i noticed i better stop before there comes more damage.
(creating bad blocks in the HD so either old disc or electricity problem, so i need to be clear and think before continuing).
I looked a few times in the bios and put settings on and back which helped. Might help?

 

well, cant be graphoics card; I checked to be sure it was in well but then realized in the startup every time ive watched the screen where the graphics card checks/counts its RAM so...


the BIOS thing sounds likee xactly what I want to do; but I can't figure out where I can make those settings at...

 

oh and my regular cd drive is F, my cd writer is D and my hard drives are C&D but are striped right now... A is my 3 1/2 inch disk; so if i find this, I want to boot from F then C?

 

Detox,

I would suggest that you un-install your Ram and only install the least amount if things are ok then install more of your ram if you have it. Next take out each card one by one to see if that helps. Also unplug your CD drives one by one. Remember to check the system battery.

Loki

 

after I changed my BIOS settings (figured out how to get there) the thing was turning itseld off int he middle of reboot, and if i tried to turn it right back on it would only whir the fans and make a pathetic attempt... hadt o shut power tothe power supply for a bit then it would turn on but shut off during reboot again. Can't figure if its the BIOS settings (CDROM,floppy,raid/ata) in that order or if the power supply fan is just not going properly and thats getting too hot; I know i have the processor fan the right way because it is foolproof won't attach the wrong direction... But confuses me as to how it stayed on so long yesterday while running scandisk. Anyway I'm getting afraid of damaging more and thinking I may just take it to the builders this week and lose a little $

 

Detox....
If a fan was not working properly, the OS should still boot. Only after it got HOT would it shut down.
You said you were running Win98 ? I don't believe you can boot from a 98cd. You have to boot from the floppy and than run your setup from there.
I doubt that your Bios is/was the problem. Maybe you can put it back to the way it was previously. It never hurts to copy or print the "bios settings" for future reference.
As for that "tight" vid card....it will go in...just ever so gently wiggle and push.
If you can boot into "safe mode" go to "system tools", "system information", "tools" than "system file checker". Run that and see what comes up. Than a scandisk to follow.
If still nothing...boot from floppy. Put Win98 cd into tray. At DOS prompt type d: or e: or whatever drive Win98 CD is in.
Usually when booting from a boot floppy, it will assign your CD rom as d drive.
When you get to proper CD drive, type in setup.exe and this should launch Windows. But I can't remember if booting this way will allow you to repair the OS. But it will launch the Win98 installer !!
Eagerly awaiting the outcome !!

hope this helps !!
bill