What is wrong with my PC, NEED HELP BADLY

hey everyone , i'm new here.. i just need some help here, i usually know the problems with my computer but this is very very strange -

I turn on my computer right.. the power will come on. BUT everything is is Stand-By mode. Bios doesnt start .. nothing happens..it stays like this for about 20 minutes or so - sometimes it just doesnt respond for a while, any random given time really, then out of nowhere, the screen wil make the noise like its turning on, then then the computer will start making the regular start up noises and everything is fine except my CPU Speed goes down, from 1900+ down to 1200 you know? my PC s only a couple of years old, and i have no idea how to fix it..

Please help me out - this thing really annoys me .. thanx..

Sounds like either the heat sink or power supply is dying. If you can get ahold of either one and test your pc, should give you a better idea of whats going on.

the first thing i would do would be to see if the heatsink and fan turn on on the processor. The next thing would be to test the powersupply. It could be either of these, or it could be that your BIOS is messed up.

oops, daremedy already beat me to it.

Im sorry but, what is a heat sink im sorry i have no idea what it is.... but i do know what a power supply is.. i changed it last year sometime when it burnt out before.. so im hoping its not that - but yeah how do i check my heat sink???

arite, open up your computer, and look on the motherboard. Its the big thing with a fan on top. It is usually made out of metal, and is a squarish shape. Once you find it, turn on your computer and then look back at the heatsink and fan and see if the fan is spinning. If it is, this shouldnt be the problem.

Actually, sometimes even if the heat sink fan isnt turning, the heat sink still functions. I have a spare heat sink that I use for mere test purposes and the fan is totally dead, but the system still powers up normally. As long as it absorbs the heat from the cpu, it works, the fan just cools the actual metal portion on the heat sink (from what I think at least! )

Anyway, if you can get a heat sink from a working computer, just borrow it from there and pop it into your computer and give it a shot. You basically have to unlatch it. On the heat sink there's 2 parts, a latch and securing clip, the securing clip has a little groove to it that you can use a flad head screw driver fit in there, push down and pull it outwards, then just remove the heat sink. Putting in a new heat sink, connect the latch first then reverse steps and push the screw driver into the secure clip groove and clip it. Here's a dell illustration of the heat sink...

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ws330/en/sm/prcsr.htm

what would be wrong with the heatsink other than the fan? The rest of it is just a chunk of Aluminum.

why would the heatsink have anything to do with it?

Because it seems like it is a heating related problem. The computer won't boot until the CPU is cool enough. It isn't the heatsink itsself, but the fan on it and/or the way it is sitting on the CPU. You may also need some thermal compound (I recommend Silver).


Actually, it isn't that easy. You have to get a heatsink that is compliant for lack of a better word. Ex: You can't take a P1 heatsink and pop it on a P4....it doesn't cool enough.


What happened the last time it booted correctly. Did the comp shutdown on its own? What were you doing on the computer? Anything stressing on it like new games, video editing, or encryption?

Well i must admit that i have been after this tekken movie, and every now and then i leave my p2p client running and i just leave the PC on over night.. i think that may have beenn the culprit for over heating.. but wouldnt it have cooled down already.. my tafe seems to think that it may be the reverse that i need to wait for something to warm up maybe.. but i highly doubt that... *btw thanks for all the help you guys this forum is very helpful*

Has anyone suggested to you to open the case and start it up? Is the fan on the PS working? do you have any additional cooling in the case? Is the case inards dirty?
Just some other ideas.

Lefty

Hey guys i went to turn on my PC and it wouldn't turn on for like.. ever, then suddenly it turned on after ages ( but when it loaded the bios showed that i had an 800Mhz as opposed to 1900+ Mhz then i had been prompted to load my default settings so i did, and then it loaded...
screen flickered a few times, then my windows Xp prompted me saying that i have new hardware that it detects such as my modem, and Multimedia devices etc. but yet my internet still works...

Something else that is quite odd, is that i had a trial version of Avast Antivirus, and it had expired, but when all this stuff happened, it was fine and it downloaded the updates for it and everything.. oh yeah and my time was out of whack too so i guess my bios chip has been reset...

What do you guys think has just been happening to my computer..

well my case is made for keeping cool, it has a fan on top and a fan onthe side, of the case built in, with a clear case on the side.. so i can se inside, i cleaned out the PC last time i formatted which was less then 3 months ago, so there really shouldn't be anything wrong in that department, and I`m not sure if taking off the side case of the tower will help much because the case has fans all over the damn thing lol... i bought that case after my first power supply overheated and blew up...

Do you have any additional parts around that you can trouble shoot with, or maybe a friend that has an extra PS? It may not be the problem, but at this point to troubleshoot it you have to switch out parts and see what is and is not working. Remove or disconnect everything that is extra, ie scanner, printer, additional USB cables or devices that are not needed. Then start it up and see what kind of symptoms you have, changing out the PS may at least let you know that the PS you DO have is good, then we can look to something else as the culprit.