List of reasons for failure is quite long. No responsible
reply can be posted without you first listing basic
information. For starters, what do system (event) logs report
- a historical log of unsavory events? What did Device
Manager report? These are described in the Windows Help
should you not know what or where they are.
Responsible computer manufacturers provide, for free,
comprehensive hardware diagnostics. Either on the hard drive
or provided free on the web site. These execute without
Windows to verify hardware integrity - which is necessary to
break a problem down into parts. If the manufacturer is not
responsible, then download diagnostics from each component
manufacturer (disk drive, sound card, etc), or from third
party diagnostics (ie Memtst86 or Docmem).
Then there is the foundation of a computer - its power
supply. Strange events occur when a power supply 'system' is
marginal. Some replace only one component of that 'system' -
the power supply - as if that will magically solve
everything. But the educated person gets a 3.5 digit
multimeter to verify power supply 'system' integrity in but
two minutes.
In your case, voltages on the green, purple, red, orange,
and yellow wires (power supply to motherboard) are essential
both with system at idle AND when system is simultaneously
accessing all peripherals - disk drive, floppy drive, modem,
network card, and sound card. Table for these voltage
measurement in this previous post: "I think my power supply
is dead" in alt.comp.hardware on 5 Feb 2004 at
http://www.tinyurl.com/2musa
Some pictures that demonstrate the tools and what to
measure:
http://techrepublic.com.com/5102-10586-5566528.html
www.ochardware.com/articles/psuvolt/psuvolt.html
When numbers are provided, then the knowledgeable will
come. If you post without specific facts, then wild
speculators will post. Provided above is how one obtains the
useful responses while spending both less time and less money.
Do not waste time reseating ram, swapping power supplies, or
installing more fans. If the battery is problematic, then use
meter to measure battery voltage. Meter reading will give a
number that says either, "Battery is the problem", or "Battery
is not the problem". Notice the definitive answer is the
useful one. A 3 year old battery should be just fine.
Tom wrote:
> When operating my computer it suddenly crashes for no apparent
> reason, the screen just goes black and the orange light which
> shows the hard drive activity stops on constantly and to shut
> the computer down I have to hold the button in on the computer.
> I just came to start the PC up this morning and it wouldn't
> start, again the orange light was constantly on. I pulled the
> power cord out of the back of the computer and re-inserted it
> and it started ok but I know it wilol crash again soon. I have
> re-seated the RAM and checked all the other cards in the
> computer and everything seems fine. Does anyone have any ideas
> what could be causing this? I was wondering if a low battery
> on the motherboard could cause it? The computer is about 3
> years old, 1Mhz processor, 80gig HD 256Mb SD RAM running XP
> Pro.
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