computer doom

[kettunainen]

today started out grand

Comments

[mightydoll]

The battery equivalent would be your power source. Which could be shorting in and out on you and causing a cycling of the start-up process.

A new power source runs between $20 and $60 depending on quality/number of fans/whatever. Before purchasing a new one, I would blow out all the dust and make sure that your problem isn't on the other end (the plug/power bar/fuse that it's on)

[kettunainen]

I know the equivalent would typically be the power source, but I wasn't sure it would be the power source that was causing it to cycle through the startup process.

And I found out when N got home that he was messing with the power cables last night, so any or all of the connections could be torked. Will have to check that later when I'm not baby-bound. I'll let you know if that helps or not.

[mightydoll]

wait...it's not spontaneously restarting after you press F8?

What OS do you use?

[misslynx]

She's on Windows 2000 I think.

[kettunainen]

yeah, Win2k and no, it's fine once I get to the F8 menu. But once I exit that, it goes screwy again.

[mightydoll]

It's still possible that it's the power supply - that some part of the start-up process is putting a strain on a faulty power supply...

I might reinstall windows before replacing hardware though. Just put the disk in and install it on top of the old install. If it's a problem of a corrupt file, this should fix it.

It's possible you may lose some data, and you will lose your preferences, but for the most part, your saved files and programs should remain intact.

[secretsoflife]

i highly recommend cracking open the case and making sure you don't have the capacitor plague

[kettunainen]

oh balls. that sounds like a distinct possibility. I had a couple of 'low virtual memory' notices pop up in the past few days, on top of this.

plus, N just checked all the cord connections and still no dice.

will have to check the circuit board (whenever I have time to do so... it's too late tonight).

thanks for the heads-up on that.

[secretsoflife]

you can get capacitors replace the busted ones, but it's a pain. if you know how, sweet, if not, ask around if you know any hardware nerds who might want to do it. you can probably find a replacement mobo on ebay, or alternately, just buy an off-lease machine for about $100 and pop your hard drive into it. you can even take the ram from your current machien, in all likelyhood, and put it in the off-lease box

[kettunainen]

oh, and if that is what's wrong, does that mean new motherboard? if the motherboard is replaced, my info is still ok, since hard drive issues are separate from the motherboard, right? Right? please tell me my data is safe.