Cpu crashing with the Likes of Crash Dump and such

[ZombieUK]

Hi yall, just unsure (again) on what to do with me Cpu as It crashed again for the 5th time this year. I already took it in to get fixed from the people who installed Windows 7 on it but its a buggy copy me thinks.

 

I refrained from updating it by keeping it at its same state when I got it, all was well untill yesterday when It Did a Crash Dump wit I had before. I tried to let it sort it self out like automatic fixing but so far no luck. I took it into a cpu shop down the road to fix it, they did but not without completely wiping out my Cpu Data and Programs.

 

Is there anychance to save all my programs and such? I mainly use the Cpu for Gaming. (Well Fallout 3) but I just got Dragon Age Origins on Fri cos Curiousity and whas at a Bargain Price too (£14.98 from £34.99 :D) Game play was smooth and perfect till just when I was inside Recliff Castle just before the Doggie Kennels the stupid cpu crashed and an all too familiar screen popped up. It did work afterwards (3 step automatic fix screen) but its being a female dog again.

 

The cpu has no other programs really other than Fallout 3 + DLCs and Mods ands a Fresh install of Dragon Age the base Game. Just hate to lose my Stuff for the 3rd time since me cpu crashes. Shouldnt of done it this time tho I did spend an un-natural amount of hours yesterday on the cpu playing Dragon age, could it be Overclocking, Graphics Card + RAM heating up or a related problem? Just do not wish to fork out even more Money on the cpu and start AGAIN all over again with a fresh cpu?

 

Help?

 

Hope I get an answer Asap.

 

Cheers and Answer back now Please (:

[bben46]

I think when you say CPU, you mean hard drive. A cpu is a processor chip and does not hold any programs.

 

3 failures in a year sounds like you are paying the rent for your computer shop. There are data recovery programs that can get the data off of a hard drive. But my guess is the shop is replacing the bad hard drive. If it is actually bad. Some shops make it a habit to reformat any hard drive that has a problem and only replace the default programs that the manufacturer puts on the drive. In that case you are SOL.

 

If you can post a list of what the shop does when they repair your computer, maybe some of us can help.

[ZombieUK]

Yeah a pattern has developed since I keep going back there each time it crashes. Well I do know the Place (Cefni Computers: http://www.cefnicomputers.com/ ) has a reputation of being abit of a Pirate when it comes to computers but since its just 500 metres from where I live and cheap as Chips and thier prices and damn better than most local cpu shops .I just tend to let them sort things out as its the

 

The prob what I been thinking is most likely is : when it starts up it comes onto and stays on the Welcome Screen and the Windows 7 logo pulseates... I restart, black screen for 4 mins or so then loads to the desktop but no task bar nor icons to fiddle with. keyboard works but unresponsive except caps lock work. Crl+Alt+Del no workie either.

 

Tomorrow Im getting an answer, they just look at the thing for no charge to me and tell me what exactly the prob is and Ill decide what to do. Ill tell what exactly the problem is then and see what you have to say about it.

 

Thanks and I hope I said this all correctly :/ still gasping the basics of cpu programms and things like this. Usally I pick up things with ease as they go.... And I wanna Get back to me Dragon Age! Nice distraction from Fallout 3 I have to admit.

[DarkWarrior45]

Ben, ZombieUK could also be refering to the actual tower; experience has taught me that people get their terminology mixed up. I've heard towers called hard drives and cpus. It could be the hard drive, but it could also be another hardware problem, or a mixture of problems.

 

I'm assuming by crash dump you mean the blue screen of death. That is not usually an indicating of a hard drive failure, but rather a problem either with drivers (corrupted drivers or corrupted install of Windows) or with a problem with memory, and by memory I'm referring to not only RAM, but also any device that has memory, more specifically in the case of a gaming rig the graphics card. Overclocking will cause all sorts of problems.

 

Now, lets ask ourselves some questions.

 

Is the system Overclocked?

What brand? What model? Is it a custom built? Do you know your hardware specs?

How is it crashing? Error messages? Blue screen of death? Does it reboot on its own?

 

The prob what I been thinking is most likely is : when it starts up it comes onto and stays on the Welcome Screen and the Windows 7 logo pulseates... I restart, black screen for 4 mins or so then loads to the desktop but no task bar nor icons to fiddle with. keyboard works but unresponsive except caps lock work. Crl+Alt+Del no workie either.

 

Interesting. First thing you need to do, back up your data. Second thing, stop going to that place. If they can't fix it the first time, then they are not going to fix it. Why I say that? Because taking it back to them 5 times is just plain ridiculous. Third thing, reinstall windows (format your drive) and see if the problems persist. If they persist, then you most likely have a hardware problem.

 

Now if it is a hardware problem, the first thing to suspect, as Ben has already pointed out, is the hard drive. If so, then a live cd of Ubuntu or Fedora will detect most hard drive problems. If it is not the hard drive, then the next two suspects are RAM and graphics card, in which case you need to reseat both (in fact, that's something you could try right now). The live Ubuntu cd has a memory test, memtest86, built into it, and will detect any kind of problems with the RAM. Graphics card can be tested by swapping it with another card or by putting it into another system.

[bben46]

The start up screen pulsing makes me think it is either a Video card or Power supply. I have seen a lot of power supply problems on big name (Dell, HP Gateway etc) systems. It seems that they put in a power supply that can barely run the stock system. Then when you upgrade the Video card it can no longer supply enough power.

[Illiad86]

Oh ya...any of those pre-built systems...Dell or from a computer shop, tend to put the lowest cheapest most generic power supplies I've ever seen in their towers. My friend's "gaming" Dell came with a 300W power supply....

 

I think your HDD is kicking the bucket... Is it making any strange ticking or grinding noises as it's booting or reading something? No icons and no taskbar really sounds like it's going. When mine died, a bunch of my files went missing, and then it made that horrendous "TICK TICK GRRRRRRRRR" and that was the end of it...:sad:

[johnjohnston]

First off all these questions and answers are great but the real problem is that you really have not learnt (yes I said Learnt) how to do your own work there zombie. First off most Computer repairs are a shame because they usually wont tell you that one thing or the other should go and that you should maybe invest in something new. You CPU or in your case either the HDD is dieing or your power supply is not powerful enough to hold your charge or you damn windows 7 which is I may add buggier than a donkey on stilts.

 

Now there are alot of things it could be:

 

First rule of thumb is that the nexus community is a pretty good brain pick and well it wont cost you about $46.54 U.S. which is about 34.99 at 1.33 exchange but in pounds well then I would say about 50 bucks.

 

For fifty bucks you should have invested in a HD but first check your Operating system and processor and HDD manually. HDD for CLICKing sounds, OS on Microsoft windows 7 issues and then on processor incompatibility issues with Windows 7, sometimes windows and AMD don't like each other which includes the MOBO. The power supply should always be more powerful than necessary, for instance if you are using SLI with a 400 max watt power-supply you might want to pull a card until you can beef up you power supply because that max is more like 320 to 350 with a flux at a possible peak of 400 once in a while and hugely unsustainable.

 

But last and not least

 

GET A BOOK on windows 7 and peripherals; you already spent the cost of a book and there is no time like the present to learn a new skill, you do it in school hell all the teacher does is talk and everything they say and do is already out there free.

[bben46]

The power rating shown on most cheap power supplies is a peak value and is only good for a very short time. So, as JohnJohnson brought out, if the BIG numbers on the power supply say 400 Watts! that is for a few minutes max. Continuous power will be more in the 350 Watts or less range.

 

A really good power supply will show both peak and continuous power, with the actual rating as the continuous. What that means is you should be able to run the power supply continuously (all day long) at the continuous rating. and the peak for only very short periods - no more than a minute or so at a time. The beat up old Antec power supply in my aging gaming rig shows it is a 600 Watt supply. On the smaller print it says 600 Watts continuous power, 675 Watts peak.

 

One of the geek sites that tests computer parts did a comparison of various inexpensive power supplies. Their findings were that many of the cheaper supplies would not even supply what they were promising at all. A 300 Watt supply (From a well known American retailer) failed at 245W. Their recommendation was to buy a good name supply from a reputable distributor who will replace it if it fails. There are several sites that evaluate parts for computers - check some of their ratings before buying.