any electronic computer geniuses in the house?

This is on the test list.

I had one die slowly many years ago. Took a "wait and see" approach. Indeed, saw something I'd never seen before -- totally smoked the hard disc electronics with sparks, fire, the works. Seems they overheat when they're trying to run on too little power.

I've never since said, well, it's practically unheard of t actually blow up your computer.

Admittedly, that was back when the latest greatest hard drive was 850 MB, but something like that will stay with you, LOL.

Check the wiring and replace the freaking power supply. They're NOT that expensive.

WOW!!!


Fast 'puter advice.

Thanks all again.


Would have taken weeks on a tech geek site!

Two things come to mind. The first is hard drive failure. Did you get a blue screen at any time? The other is the graphics card. When a graphics card starts to fail, it WILL change your display settings and give you funky screen colors or characters. Leaving it OFF for extended periods DOES sometimes allow it to boot clean again, but usually not for long. It may even be a combination of both.

I have a similar problem with one of my computers (I have 5). To me, it is a fairly simple problem, but it may be expensive.

Oh man, you just made my day! That is a 5 Star reply!

Been wanting to get a more stable higher wattage power supply for a while just because I'm running a dual video card and two sound cards, on is a 24 channel ADAT card.


Probably do this is I have capacitor plague.

Whats happening is the Power Supply is OverHeating and shutting down. Sometimes it will lock out until it gets back to a certain temp. Sometimes you need to move it around for the fan to start spinning again.

Once the fan spins and the bearings heat up it will run again until the fan stops because is probably caked with dust and debris.

Take it into a shop and have them swap out your PS and at this point you might need a new MB because of the hits from the power supply going down.

Sounds like Memory and Processor are still ok.

But because its an HP you might want to

Go to Tiger Direct and get yourself a Bare Bones kit and put your system together then if something breaks you just get online and replace that one part and your up and running.

Fixed over 25k computers easy so rest assured this is your problem.

Also change your Power Cord and your Surge protector.

You should be all set after doing these things.

No blue screen, but the display setting fit.

Will look into this as well.

electronic computer?

Just call it computer man

:-)

Wanted hardware advice, not just computer advice, and I got excellent replies and no spam from software softheads!

If the power supply tests bad, It would not hurt to increase the wattage. I think the stock PS for that model is 300W. If you purchased a 500W or 600W power supply it would not cost much more.

I agree with the other posters. Inspect your motherboard for blown capacitors. Sometimes you can see that they're blown. If they are blown you're going to need a new computer (realistically) because the model you have is very old and obsolete.

then the next problem is finding a new computer that's compatible with your card and software.

Clean it. Have also seen the battery on the mother board go dead. Should be like a watch battery about $3.00 to replace. My money is on battery and the heat.

BTW, I wasn't calling it an "electronic computer", electronic and computer were both adjectives describing genius, but thanks for noticing.

ahh ok got it

OK, well then maybe a new computer, if it is more than just the power supply. I have had several units fail over the years, probably just overloading them with accessories.

np, i think it should be worded like this "any electronics and computer geniuses.."

I have had two computers that had bad power supplies. That would take 15 minutes of pushing power button on off to get started. Replaced power supply all good.

OK thanks.

You are probably correct.

Thank you Argentina. Y'all gettin' along with the German immigrants from the 40's down there?

Definitely a power supply issue, but maybe connections, motherboard, caps etc.

Lots of stuff to check!

^^^^^
THIS, with 90% likelihood.
Replace the power supply.

I have that same system. I need to replace the power supplly when I added a video card. Factory one didn't have enough power. That computers about ten years old . I'd replace the power supply

Last Edited by Force King on 02/01/2017 05:07 PM

+1

Most probable:
-Power supply

Other possibilities:
-Power cord - check for frays or cracks or just use another cord to rule out possibility
-Bad electric - fuse/breaker(what happens when other devices are plugged into the same outlet or on the same circuit)
-Using a power/surge strip? Bypass it, for testing purposes plug computer directly into the wall or use another known good strip. Sometimes they will have a fault indicator light that could be lit.

Last Edited by BrokenTech on 02/01/2017 05:08 PM

This I'm thinking.

Thanks.

I will check this, but it was happening when connected to a fully regulated conditioner Furman AC 1215.

With this being an older model, I'd suggest seeing if you can swap out the onboard lithium batter as it helps your laptop to remember whats what. I'd also suggest removing the gfx card part and reflowing that. It's a common problem across all laptops prior to a certain age.

Hope you get it sorted.

Forgot to mention maybe replace the battery at some point soon.

Take it off the conditioner to see what happens.