Desktop Computer

My desktop computer quit working last week. It was working alright. Sometimes it lost time, and that was annoying, but reset it and it kept going fine on that front. BSOD was common. That was due to, I was sure, the memory, a cheap stick. So finally we got new memory, it installed flawlessly, two sticks in dual channel mode. I resat the heatsink on the processor later and that made it more stable. The house isn’t A/C’d and it’s hot. So a reapplication of Artic Ice made the processor happier.

Then within a few days, the computer started to freeze suddenly. No BSOD. Just a frozen mouse pointer, had to turn off via power button. That happened a few times and my concern grew, then the USB port fritzed out and didn’t power the USB mouse.

That continued. I didn’t have any other mice that weren’t USB connected. I did have a USB hub wireless keyboard mouse set. I plugged that into the same port, nothing. I deleted that port in Device Manager, then reinstalled it. It worked for a short bit, then fritzed out … something like that scenario.

In any case, I just quit using the onboard USB ports and connected an additional module that would plug into the boards additional USB capability. That worked. It kept working all afternoon and all evening. I was going to leave it on all night. DH turned it off without telling me he did or was going to do so. I went down the next morning and it was off. So I asked him, and so it wasn’t a crash or anything … but worse. It wouldn’t start. No beeps. Lights on the board were on, but the beep for POST never came. Fans came on. No video. Just fans and lights on the board running. Turning the power on you can hear the crew-crun ish sound of the differnt things like CD and Hard drive powering up, but then nothing else.

I tried to restart using every available method for clearing CMOS. Nothing. So I ordered a new BIOS chip. That came yesterday. It changed nothing. We got a new battery today. That did nothing. But at least I have updated BIOS if the board ever works again. 😉 A new CMOS battery can’t hurt, it’s cheap.

Guessing it’s the old processor at this point. It’s just this, I don’t know diddly squat if it is, but it’s not new, it’s from an old board. It’s an Athlon XP 2100+ and may have just died after a good fight in the jungle heat of GA July. I had considered processor replacement before, and it was next in line to a new video card. The only reason it’d bump ahead was if the Athlon XP 2100+ died. So maybe it overheard me and DH talking the other week. Hmmm.

I don’t know though. I don’t have anything available to me to check and see if it’s the processor, and I don’t have other computers lying around to check this one out on them. Well, maybe I can find the old board and see what’s what with that. I don’t know though. I know I had some trouble at first getting the new board to work with a few things (old PSU) and when I did try to rehook up the old board, it wouldn’t work, but then again I wasn’t really into getting it running again. I could try just for the heck of being more desperate, as I am now.

I have no laptop anymore, as I once did. Mine died a four-year-old-child of mine killed it with juice. So I’m working on DH’s laptop the last week or so when he has the time to allow me to use it.

The laptop of mine that died worked fine beforehand. I miss it. But I had the desktop at least. Last time I saw it alive it was rather alive and doing great. So can it be the processor? Or a different mb problem. It’s in warranty, but who knows where the reciept is. Not me! 🙁