PC just died without warning - why?

[Deleted]

So roughly an hour ago I left my PC, which was working fine at that point and set it t sleep mode in Windows 7.

Now I use sleep mode quite frequently so this time I could tell something went wrong. Somehow the screen turned off and the whole PC shut down rather than just going to sleep mode.

I shut down the PC manually by holding down the power button for 8 seconds and left.

I just came back and wanted to reboot the PC but rather than working as intended it doesn't boot at all. Instead it rears up to full power with both CPU and GPU fans going at full-throttle but it doesn't actually boot. Instead is seems to attempt a reboot about 10 seconds into the initial boot only to remain idle with fans going at 100%.

I have no idea what caused this issue and I have no idea how to fix it. I tried turning the power supply on and off again to no avail.

I'm really quite clueless as to why my PC should suddenly decide to die out of nowhere with no previous indication of malfunctioning.

I have a vague hope this problem will somehow fix itself but I'm not confident it will. Hence any ideas or feedback would be appreciated.

[haxartus]

Does it beep ?
And try to reset the CMOS.

[Djinni]

Is your power button stuck?

Usually if you hold the power button the fans etc.. all go up to 100%.

[NomadicGod]

This exact situation has happened to me before. I'm not sure what happened but it fixed itself after a few reboots.

[KingHorse]

HD crapped out? That has caused the symptoms you describe in an old PC I had.

[Djinni]

HD crapped out? That has caused the symptoms you describe in an old PC I had.

It would still POST

[blastoma]

Do you get any video at all appearing on your monitor? Report back with this if you do.

If you have no video:

As previously suggested, consider resetting your BIOS. The easiest way to do this is to unplug the power cord from the power supply. Open your case. Locate the battery on the board (It looks like a larger version of a watch-battery.) Using your fingernail, or perhaps with a small flathead screwdriver, pop this battery out with the lever provided. Leave the battery out for a minute, put the battery back in, plug your power cord back in, and turn the computer on. Let us know.

Best of luck.

[Misen]

CMOS reset

[CW]

Turn the power supply switch to off, unplug the power supply from the wall, pop the side off the case and pop the circular CMOS battery out of it's holder and leave it for a minute or two, then pop the battery back in and reconnect everything.

That should reset the CMOS totally, see if that fixes the issue. If not, there's a bunch of possibilities such as a borked motherboard or RAM, but if it fixes it then it could simply have been a corruption of the CMOS.

[Deleted]

Power cycle it.

Do this by removing the mains cable and then holding the power button in for around 30 secs to a min. Failing this and the unit does not post or give any beeps you're looking at a serious hardware failure.

Hope this helps and sorry if it doesn't : (

[Joyride]

I am not a computer tech guy, so don't rely on this, but when I had an old computer on it's last legs similar to what is happening with your computer. I would unplug it, open up the computer, and wiggle things around inside, and make sure everything was plugged in, and that worked for me.

[Deleted]

Yeah, the screen doesn't get any input from the PC and it doesn't POST or beep at all. I'll look into some of those reset suggestions you guys posted.

I hope it's just a trivial issue.

[k0smo]

Symptom-wise I had the exact same issue when my RAM wasn't seated correctly. Might be worth making sure everything is seated correctly.

[Sephiracle]

I am not a computer tech guy, so don't rely on this, but when I had an old computer on it's last legs similar to what is happening with your computer. I would unplug it, open up the computer, and wiggle things around inside, and make sure everything was plugged in, and that worked for me.

Did you put some water on it too?

Mod Warning: Post more constructively!

[haxartus]

Watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pdp_L5IxaNI

[Dedweight]

Did you put some water on it too?

Not sure why you posted that as his suggestion is a completely valid one as chip creep isn't exactly uncommon.

[Sephiracle]

Not sure why you posted that as his suggestion is a completely valid one as chip creep isn't exactly uncommon.

There's a large difference between 'wiggling things around' and reseating cables and cards.

[Deleted]

Well to be fair I did move flats recently so it might be imaginable that the PC got bashed around a little but nothing extraordinary.

I just removed the GPU and refitted the RAM to no effect. The issue defiantly seems to be MB or CPU related. But the MB is only a year old and so is the CPU as they broke before so I find it hard to imagine they'd be the cause again.

Really annoying especially since my Laptop will have to be sent in for repair as well.

[haxartus]

Well to be fair I did move flats recently so it might be imaginable that the PC got bashed around a little but nothing extraordinary.

I just removed the GPU and refitted the RAM to no effect. The issue defiantly seems to be MB or CPU related. But the MB is only a year old and so is the CPU as they broke before so I find it hard to imagine they'd be the cause again.

Really annoying especially since my Laptop will have to be sent in for repair as well.

Did you clear the CMOS ?

[Deleted]

Well I checked the video but couldn't find that CMOS jumper. I'll get round to removing the battery now that the house-party next door has died down.....brb.

Fuck me it actually worked!

PC did actually boot and is attempting to load Windows as I speak.

It seems a lot slower but it's working at least. I wonder what caused the fault. Brb...checking BIOS settings.

Can't see any obvious flaw. But nevermind, it's working again thanks to you guys. Ironically the first comment already gave me the right advice.