22 replies to this topic

[bben46]

Anything that pulls the +5 volt supply down can cause a shut down. And as every active component uses the +5 volts it can be literally any component in the computer. 585 watts is a fairly substantial power supply and should be able to handle almost anything.

As the hard drive uses the +5 volts, and has been giving a warning for some time. You need to back up anything you don't want to lose as soon as possible - It is going to fail, and it may be the cause of shutting down.

Based on your last post it may already be too late. Looks like a good time to start over.

Pull the power cord
Open up the case
unplug the cables going to the Hard drive.
Now try to power up. If the computer shows the bios start message. Then the Hard drive is most likely the problem.

Maybe - no guarantees, a geek can get some of the data off of your old hard drive. But as you have been ignoring the warning for so long It's probably gone forever.

[Dan3345]

What is the message you got when the computer started up again? If it shut down due to thermal reasons it probably overheated. Check to make sure your fan(s) are working and use a program to monitor what your temperatures hover around while playing games.

Core temps were hovering around mid 20C while gaming.

I don't believe this. 20 degrees Celsius is 68 degrees Fahrenheit. Either its really cold in your room and you have the best liquid cooling available or your coretemp is not reading the CPU accurately. My room is 72.5 and coretemp reads for my CPU on idle at 27 degrees. Thats on idle and full power to the heatsink.

I would blame overheating because of this. But try putting in another HDD and seeing if that fixes it.

Edited by Dan3345, 14 April 2012 - 03:46 PM.

[darkdill]

Anything that pulls the +5 volt supply down can cause a shut down. And as every active component uses the +5 volts it can be literally any component in the computer. 585 watts is a fairly substantial power supply and should be able to handle almost anything.

As the hard drive uses the +5 volts, and has been giving a warning for some time. You need to back up anything you don't want to lose as soon as possible - It is going to fail, and it may be the cause of shutting down.

Based on your last post it may already be too late. Looks like a good time to start over.

Pull the power cord
Open up the case
unplug the cables going to the Hard drive.
Now try to power up. If the computer shows the bios start message. Then the Hard drive is most likely the problem.

Maybe - no guarantees, a geek can get some of the data off of your old hard drive. But as you have been ignoring the warning for so long It's probably gone forever.

So would backing up my hard drive at this point be fruitless?

[Dan3345]

Anything that pulls the +5 volt supply down can cause a shut down. And as every active component uses the +5 volts it can be literally any component in the computer. 585 watts is a fairly substantial power supply and should be able to handle almost anything.

As the hard drive uses the +5 volts, and has been giving a warning for some time. You need to back up anything you don't want to lose as soon as possible - It is going to fail, and it may be the cause of shutting down.

Based on your last post it may already be too late. Looks like a good time to start over.

Pull the power cord
Open up the case
unplug the cables going to the Hard drive.
Now try to power up. If the computer shows the bios start message. Then the Hard drive is most likely the problem.

Maybe - no guarantees, a geek can get some of the data off of your old hard drive. But as you have been ignoring the warning for so long It's probably gone forever.

So would backing up my hard drive at this point be fruitless?

More like impossible. If you can't turn on the computer and get the HDD to even respond then no.

[darkdill]

Anything that pulls the +5 volt supply down can cause a shut down. And as every active component uses the +5 volts it can be literally any component in the computer. 585 watts is a fairly substantial power supply and should be able to handle almost anything.

As the hard drive uses the +5 volts, and has been giving a warning for some time. You need to back up anything you don't want to lose as soon as possible - It is going to fail, and it may be the cause of shutting down.

Based on your last post it may already be too late. Looks like a good time to start over.

Pull the power cord
Open up the case
unplug the cables going to the Hard drive.
Now try to power up. If the computer shows the bios start message. Then the Hard drive is most likely the problem.

Maybe - no guarantees, a geek can get some of the data off of your old hard drive. But as you have been ignoring the warning for so long It's probably gone forever.

So would backing up my hard drive at this point be fruitless?

More like impossible. If you can't turn on the computer and get the HDD to even respond then no.

Actually, I've been able to get a back-up onto an external hard drive. Hopefully it's one that will actually WORK.

My comp is able to turn back on; it's just finicky about letting me into Windows.

[Fonger]

back up the HD if you can

just don't rely upon its contents

because the presumption is that the HD is bad --- implies some of the data is already corrupted

[Sarissi]

I have had 2 hard drives go bad on me and both were in the same computer. I replaced them and the video card that also died. Then some time later, the motherboard died.

[dazzerfong]

If there's something wrong with your harddrive, and you have another spare one, use the other one as the primary, and once you get into Windows and all, reconnect your old one as an additional drive so you can copy everything you need to your now-primary drive.

[darkdill]

If there's something wrong with your harddrive, and you have another spare one, use the other one as the primary, and once you get into Windows and all, reconnect your old one as an additional drive so you can copy everything you need to your now-primary drive.

Sounds like that'd work to an extent, but I actually have to get the hard drive first...

[Dan3345]

If there's something wrong with your harddrive, and you have another spare one, use the other one as the primary, and once you get into Windows and all, reconnect your old one as an additional drive so you can copy everything you need to your now-primary drive.

Sounds like that'd work to an extent, but I actually have to get the hard drive first...

ya know you could attach a flash drive and have the computer boot from that, and then just use the bios of your motherboard to find and transfer whatever salvageable files you can.

I have not dealt much with a failed HDD as I usually just toss them and buy a new one, but I would expect your most saveable files would be pictures and documents.

If you don't mind me asking, what did you have saved onto your HDD that is the most important to you? Work files, family photos, music?